"Room for Christ"

One of my favorite passages from our Dorothy Day readings was on pg. 94. Dorothy Day writes: "It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts."

I enjoyed this passage, because I felt that it reflected a lot of my feelings that I had throughout my service learning project. I saw Christ in those who were sick, those who were in despair, and those who had lost the desire to continue living. Even though I wasn't able to do much to help physically heal the patients, I do believe that I played a role in helping them heal emotionally. I was able to be there for the patients who reached out to me. By simply talking to them, listening to them talk about their worries and fears, and comforting them, I was able to be the extra friend that brought them a little bit of happiness through our interactions. These patients have taught me so much about love, hope, and optimism, and how to be genuinely content with life, despite the "not-so-great" things that might happen in our lives. Each and every one of the patients have truly touched my life, and I hope that I have been able to do the same for them.

Empathy

Today, I learned a valuable lesson of empathy. The patient that I spent time with was a 10 year old cancer patient who had been in the hospital for 6 months. After talking to her, I found out that she was the second child in the family who had been diagnosed with this form of cancer. Her older sister was not as lucky, and had passed away a year after she was diagnosed. I couldn’t believe the story that she was telling me. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what her parents must be going through. To lose a child is horrific. To have another child be diagnosed with the same form of cancer is every parent’s worse nightmare. This patient’s mom was in the room while I was visiting with her daughter, and as soon as her daughter fell asleep, I could see tears beginning to stream down her face. I sat down with the patient’s mom, and tried to comfort her. I told her that this past summer, I nearly lost my father because he needed a liver transplant, but had to wait for an organ to become available. I cried every day for almost 2 weeks, fearing that I would lose my dad. From my experience, I felt that I needed to share my story with this patient’s mother, because I knew exactly how she felt – to be afraid of losing someone that I love. I could empathize with her, because I had been in a similar situation. After we finished talking, she thanked me, telling me how grateful she was to have had our conversation. I felt like I hadn’t been able to help much, but she reassured me that I did.

The Good Life

In our readings of After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre, we discussed the idea of virtues and how it relates to what we call "the good life."

I liked the heroic society's idea of virtues, which states that a virtuous person is a person who upholds his role well. I felt that this greatly related to my service learning project. As a pre-med student and an aspiring physician, I hope to, one day, be able to use the knowledge and training that I have gained in medical school, in order to alleviate suffering and save human lives. Thus, my role as a pre-med student right now, is to expose myself to the medical world, and do what I can in order to help those who are suffering from physical injuries. By choosing to volunteer at the hospital to work with very sick pediatric and cancer patients, I felt that I was able to uphold my role.

By volunteering, I was also seeking a specific good, "the good life." We discussed in chapters 14 and 15 that what is good for me, and what is good for man, is the good that we should all be aiming for in life. I do believe that two universal goods in this world are health and happiness. By volunteering my time in the hospital, I felt that I was contributing to helping these patients regain both of these goods.

"Beauty is more than skin deep."

I watched TV and played monopoly with a 13 year old cancer patient today. She had been in the hospital for 3 months. She initially seemed very tired, but didn’t want for me to leave. Most of these patients are confined to a hospital room for most of the day. Consequently, most patients, especially extended stay patients, are very happy to have visitors. I had a really good conversation with her and talked about many things, including her family, school, and life at the hospital. She said her treatment was painful physically, but even moreso emotionally, because she was having a hard time accepting her changing appearance. It was a difficult subject for our conversation, because I didn’t know exactly what I could say to comfort her. I have to admit, one of the toughest aspects about working with cancer patients is to see them go through chemotherapy, lose all of their hair, lose all of the color in their face, and become completely weak and fragile. On the table next to her hospital bed, she had pictures of her family, including herself, before she became sick. She was a beautiful girl then, and I made sure to remind her that she is still a beautiful girl now. Talking with her made me so happy. She was such a sweet and funny girl, and at the end of the day, I felt so incredibly lucky to have had the chance to become friends with such a beautiful person, inside and out.

The Gift of Life

Today, I helped make little goodie bags that are going to be stocking stuffers for the little kids. I can’t believe Christmas is right around the corner! It is an exciting time of the year, and the kids seem very excited about the upcoming holiday events that the hospital has planned for them. Many of these kids will be spending Christmas at the hospital, so we are trying to bring the Christmas spirit to them.

As I was carrying the goodie bags around to distribute at the different departments, I happened to walk past the hospital blood bank. It just made me really happy to see so many wonderful people in the waiting room, willing to give their time and effort in order to give the gift of life. I, myself, am a regular blood donor, and I believe it is a great cause. Moreover, the unfortunate, and yet, fortunate, experiences that my family and I have encountered during this past year concerning my dad’s health, has only reaffirmed for me how important it is to be involved in these donation programs.

About 6 months ago, my father experienced liver failure, and was hospitalized in the intensive care unit. Exactly a week later, the doctors told my family and me to “prepare ourselves,” for the worse to happen. They didn’t think that he was going to make it past the weekend. In the end, when doctors had exhausted all means possible in order to save my dad’s life, it was the kindness of a complete stranger that enabled my dad to have a second chance at life, and blessed me with the opportunity to spend more years with him. My dad’s new liver was came from a car accident patient who had passed away. We have yet to find out more about my dad’s donor, but I thank him/her every single day for their gift, which has brought an indescribable amount of joy to my family.

Happiness

I talked with an 8-yr old cancer patient today. It was amazing how much energy he had. We went to the playroom and spent the entire afternoon putting together Lego pieces to build our own racecars. He was quite the engineer! I asked him how things were going and how long he had been in the hospital. He replied that it was his second month, and that his treatment was going well. His parents were very happy, and that made him happy. To hear those words uttered by him made my heart melt. Throughout the entire afternoon, we joked, laughed, and just talked. I couldn’t believe how much life this little patient had in him! He was a little ball of energy! When I left, he gave me the longest hug, and asked about when he would see me next. He said I was the “best Lego builder ever,” which surprised me, considering my racecar was not built anywhere near as elaborately as his was. Today, I learned something valuable from my little friend. He taught me that it was possible to still be optimistic and happy, even when life doesn’t turn out quite as you planned it. Times can get tough, and life can be difficult, but as the saying goes, “When life hands you lemons, squeeze some lemonade.” He taught me that happiness can be found anywhere, even in places that you would least expect to find it, such as the cancer center.

Hope

For the first half of the day today, I folded bed sheets, pillow cases, and blankets to stock into the closets of each hospital room on the children’s floor. It was a good and relaxing time, and I was able to talk with the nurses and get to know some of them better. For the second half of the day, I walked around to the different patient rooms to see if anyone wanted company. I had the chance to talk with a 12 years old patient, who was in the hospital with a rare condition that was affecting her eyesight. Doctors were trying out various treatment plans for her, but thus far, there has not been any luck. However, after talking to her mom and her, I realized they both had something in them that, in my opinion, is as important as finding a successful treatment; they both still had great hope.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.” Indeed, I have seen many heartbreaking stories during my volunteering experience, but in every successful case, I believe that having hope was key to a patient’s recovery. Granted, not every day is a good day in the hospital, and not every patient will receive good news. A patient may even receive weeks after weeks of bad news. However, having hope keeps a patient from giving up, which leads to better psychological health, and eventually better physical health.