Eavesdropping

Hospital eavesdropping in transfusions (wait, you didn’t hear me say that!) tend to veer in a few directions: 

1. Sad-hearing doctor/patient conversations that make you realize the fragility of some and the fears that they may be facing, makes me realize how fortunate my situation is and to be grateful for all of my support.
2. Funny/humorous-patients but usually nurses can lighten the mood and make you smile or laugh with the stories they tell.
3. Serious or angering...and then sometimes you overhear stuff that you just want to block out, to tell them to shut up or to set them straight...or maybe that’s just me. Typically I feel this way when some patient is swearing up a storm or being particularly lewd and I simply can’t control the situation or my location. 

At the time of this revelation of conversational categories a couple weeks ago, I was feeling in category #1 because of a patient located two stalls beside me. It seemed like the medical staff and the patient’s family were trying to keep his spirits up and dissuade his fears on getting platelets...Apparently it was supposed to be his last day of chemotherapy but because of his levels he needed blood product and was going to have to finish his chemo the following week. He sounded so bummed and his platelets were low but quite a bit higher than mine, so it was as a precaution and out of safety-totally as a protection, not at a dangerous level...It had me wishing I could go over and talk to him, let him know that he was going to be okay and not to let the thought of a one week delay push him into despair. Getting platelets isn’t so bad...and trust me, I should know.