I haven't really interacted you on this board. I'm pretty much a lurker who has recently started to participate, so I hope you don't think it overly forward to say something. I know absolutely nothing about your experience, and I won't pretend that I do.
I felt a spasm when I read your first post, though. I worked as a volunteer in the AIDS/HIV ward of Cook County Hospital a few years ago. I went in with all kinds of goodie-two-shoes expectations of doing tremendous amounts of good for people. I think I'd been watching too many Robin Williams movies, or something. I had the best of intentions.
It broke me. It's very, very hard to retain anything even remotely resembling a positive attitude. It's hard to watch your friends waste away. It's hard to come one week, and ask about a friend you just saw a few days ago, and have the nurse tell you, "He expired." They would never say died.
The advice I read about nurses and the rest of that post contained some of the best advice I've read. Probably better than anything I've said here.
The best nurses often have a well of interior strength they've developed that is astounding. I've seen it in doctors, occasionally, but more often in nurses. If friends quietly drift away, it's hard not to blame them, but understand that most people have no experience dealing this close to the ultimate reality we all ignore: our own mortality.
If you haven't started, then begin researching herbal remedies and natural aids to bolster any medical treatment you are already receiving. I'm not going to disparage or discourage medical treatment, please don't misunderstand, but some of the drug cocktails and experimental drugs they were still using in the mid-90s were hideous. There is something life-giving and life-building for taking control of your own treatment. The smart people take the best of all possible options and blend them wisely.
I'm a few years out of the loop, but the internet resources - when you find the good ones - are top notch, and can give you an outlet to talk to people who've been where you are, and be there along the way.
I felt a spasm when I read your first post, though. I worked as a volunteer in the AIDS/HIV ward of Cook County Hospital a few years ago. I went in with all kinds of goodie-two-shoes expectations of doing tremendous amounts of good for people. I think I'd been watching too many Robin Williams movies, or something. I had the best of intentions.
It broke me. It's very, very hard to retain anything even remotely resembling a positive attitude. It's hard to watch your friends waste away. It's hard to come one week, and ask about a friend you just saw a few days ago, and have the nurse tell you, "He expired." They would never say died.
The advice I read about nurses and the rest of that post contained some of the best advice I've read. Probably better than anything I've said here.
The best nurses often have a well of interior strength they've developed that is astounding. I've seen it in doctors, occasionally, but more often in nurses. If friends quietly drift away, it's hard not to blame them, but understand that most people have no experience dealing this close to the ultimate reality we all ignore: our own mortality.
If you haven't started, then begin researching herbal remedies and natural aids to bolster any medical treatment you are already receiving. I'm not going to disparage or discourage medical treatment, please don't misunderstand, but some of the drug cocktails and experimental drugs they were still using in the mid-90s were hideous. There is something life-giving and life-building for taking control of your own treatment. The smart people take the best of all possible options and blend them wisely.
I'm a few years out of the loop, but the internet resources - when you find the good ones - are top notch, and can give you an outlet to talk to people who've been where you are, and be there along the way.
