To the young patient that had been shot in the leg. While we did everything we could to help your pain you took a second to tell us you understood how the rapper 50 cent felt and that you should probably go into making music after all that was over. Thank you for making me laugh as I cleaned your wounds. You proved to me me that some of the best humor and can be found at very unexpected and inappropriate times. To the intoxicated patient who kicked me straight in the chest and against a wall, while you were still laying on the gurny. Thank you for teaching me about situation awareness. I wish there was a different way to of learned that, but sometimes important lessons are painful to learn. To the patient that came in screaming of labor pains. It's not often we deliver a baby in an emergency room and that was the first time for me. Thank you, I never realized the honor of holding someone in your hands for their first breath. To my patient who came in vomiting blood, you took a second to whisper to me inbetween heaves that you were going to die. You then proceeded to do your best attempt at just that. Thank you for teaching me to pay attention to what my patients say, but more importantly thank you for reminding me that the patient is not always right. To the patient shot in the chest, the last think you said to me as I held your hand before you went to sleep and we opened your chest to manually pump your heart. Was that you were going to die. Thank you for for showing me that the human body is an endlessly complex and beautiful thing, and with heartache you made me realize that sometimes the patient is right. No matter what we try. I've hand the honor of holding my patients for the first and last breath. Of seeing them walk away healed, or taken away with fingers crossed that someday they may be. Everyone of them has taught me a lesson and rarely have I had the chance to thank them. So to each and every patient I've had or will have, I want to say thank you. I continue to learn from you. Because of these lessons I am a better nurse for you, but more importantly I am a better nurse because of you.
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