The Nativity ( alternative use of)


I have a friend called Ruth who I know regards nursing practice through very individualised eyes.
I havent spoken to her in an age but I am sure she will forgive me for sharing this nativity based post which underlines her humour and slight lack of professionalism.

Just before Christmas 1991 we nursed a new patient on our spinal injury ward. The patient was a young nurse from a busy inner city intensive care unit, I shall called her Siohban .A fitness fanatic, she had worked hard in the gym, and at work and typically had not eaten properly. In the middle of the night she had got up for a wee and had become dizzy due to low blood sugers. Unfortunately she had fallen down the stairs paralyzing herself from the chest down.
Siohban came from a large Irish catholic family who visited daily, and they were a family heavily dependent on the hope things would improve for their daughter, a daughter who allowed them to rub her with holywater that would never heal
Faced with her family's blind faith and the reality drummed into her by her career. Siohban finally shut down psychologically and more or less went into a coma or fugue state.
Sometimes this mental 'downtime' lasts mere hours but in Siohban's case hours turned into days and so a concerned Ruth took it unto herself to move things on a bit with the help of several wise men, a couple of wooden donkeys,6  sheep, a cow or two and Mary, Joseph and a fat baby jesus in a manger

" I found these in the store room" Ruth told me breathlessly unpacking a robust looking shepherd
...she was always breathless because she was overweight and always rushing, but she was also excited with an idea to gently bring Siohban back to the world of the living.
" Help me arrange these around her bed" Ruth gasped and like two giggling children we grouped the figures on and around Siohban's prostate figure, so still in her bed.
In sone strange way we found a devout catholic paralyzed patient being surrounded by nativity characters insanely funny.

In retrospect, the whole thing looked totally mad bordering on dreadful bad taste of the biggest order .... but it kind of worked snapping her out of her mental isolation .
Whether it was the giggling that made Siohban open her eyes or the fact a passing staff nurse asked us what the fuck were we up to, but open them she did and after she focused immediately upon the virgin mary looking at her with a benign smile and outstretched arms she swore at Ruth with the practiced ease only the Irish could muster.
The figures were left around Siohban's bed until well after Christmas and Ruth and I became firm friends with Siohban even after her discharge home nearly a year later.



34 comments:

  1. Enough to shock anyone back into good health!

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  2. Forgive the granmar...i wrote this at 4.30 am at work xx

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  3. Just curious, were these the large, outdoor sized figures? If so I can imagine the shock of waking up to that surrounding your bed! I would have had a few choice words as well!

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  4. I like to think it was your giggling that brought her back.

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  5. Another great human story but if Siobhan was "prostrate" on her bed she would be lying face down on her belly. You probably meant "supine" - on her back. I am happy for you to make the correction and delete this comment John.

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  6. I wasn’t expecting THAT result! Irreverence... and humor.. are very good things.

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  7. I think I will be smiling all day after reading that!

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  8. Whether you believe in Him or not - "God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform." Looks like He worked through you, Ruth and the Nativity figurines on that occasion, John.

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  9. Every time you tell one of these wonderful stories, your timing is coincidentally perfect. Thank you in ways that you aren't even aware of. xo -Jenn

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  10. Reach them anyway you can. I miss polite swearing.

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  11. Christy Brown the Irish poet who famously wrote with his left foot went to Lourdes in a plane full of people whose last chance it was for a miraculous cure.

    None of them were cured at Lourdes but three of them died on the journey.

    Nevertheless wonderful things do happen and now and then. It's all a mystery.

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  12. I worked with an Irish nurse in the late eighties and was impressed with her swearing.

    Good on you and Ruth for your irreverent help. I find irreverence to be a wonderful tonic.

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  13. Whatever works - it's all good!

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  14. The strangest things can have healing powers, can't they?

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    Replies
    1. (Or the strangest people, maybe...LOL!)

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  15. Humour always helps. I was just thinking what good people you have worked with. All the best,John.

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  16. Excellent use of religious icons.

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  17. I suspect it was the positive/good energy in that room at that time all directed towards this unfortunate young woman. WOnderful story, John.

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  18. A Christmas miracle, LOL!

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  19. Do I need to repeat again John - your wonderful stories need putting into a book - get writing.

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  20. Great story, enjoyed it very much.

    cheers, parsnip and badger

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  21. The good old days. Years ago a No 7 (remember them) came flying on the ward to complain about our laughter which people could hear in the next unit? Shocking! I remember we were stood around the bed of a multi injury overweight woman where all the staff met regularly to turn her. The patient herself was terrific fun and possibly spent her quiet hours planning how to get us going on the next visit.

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  22. I told a friend that I believe I died while sleeping. We were on a trip to Vancouver Island, BC in fall. My soul or my consciousness left my body. It's the weirdest feeling in a fraction of a second to go from one place to a place totally unfamiliar. I knew something odd had happened in a split second and I angrily asked the first person I saw, a woman who didn't talk, 'Am I dead!?' She smiled that Mona Lisa sort of smile and didn't say a word. So, I continued 'I'm suppose to be on a trip with my friend!' Bam! in a split second I was back in my room, snapping to a sitting position still angry. I thought 'Whoa that was totally weird!!!' I actually pressed my arms to see if I could feel the touch/pressure. I couldn't sleep so stayed awake to day break. I honestly believe you brought your patient back with your giggling and placing those nativity figurines around her...strange things happen.

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. What a clever idea for jolting your patient out of her fugue state. Dreadful bad taste maybe but it did the trick.

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  25. What a perfect story .. I loved this, really.

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  26. JG, when ny youngest was about 3, I bought 2 nativity sets (from the pound shop in Birkenhead !) one for home one for work. When I opened the first one I was shocked to see Mary and Joseph had been stolen, but the baby Jesus had been spared (to this day I do not know why !)!!! So I gave Kate both sets, so she now had 1 Mary, 1 Joseph and 2 baby Jesuses !!! Well she played for hours, I asked her what her game was about, she said she was playing with Mary, Joseph and the twins !!!! Who knew hey, the joys of the Birkenhead Pound Shop xxx

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  27. That is a terrific story.

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  28. I loved reading this story. I can see myself doing something like that with my co-worker and giggling the whole time myself. Thanks for sharing it.

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  29. Lovely story one for the memory book for sure.

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