Mac Lesnick - 5

Not Your Average Person

     Blood and guts have never bothered me, and today I found out that this is still true. The Hanna House is a skilled nursing facility, which provides care for patients who do not need to be hospitalized, but are not yet ready to return home. Much of this day was spent checking in on the various patients on the floor. Many of the patients were staying at this hospital because they were still recovering from surgery. One man stuck out to me. He not only had cancer, but he also had another illness that required him to need reconstructive neck surgery. In order to rebuild the skin and muscle in his neck/jaw area, he needed a graft to be taken from his thigh. The way the body works is mind-blowing to me. Certain muscles from different parts of the body are able to be cut out, moved to another part, and work effectively. After some time, these muscles will train themselves to work as if they were the old ones. In order for his thigh to heal quicker, he also had another skin graft taken from his lower calf and used for his thigh. The nurse explained all of this to me while she was changing the dressing on his calf. She told me to come around to the other side of the bed so I could see it, an when I did, I was amazed that this man still had his leg. It basically looked like someone had just cut out a deep chunk of his leg. I could not only see the muscles and tendons running down his leg, but part of his fibula could also be seen. The nurse continued to swap out the gauze and clean the graft site, and I just stood there in amazement. It is unbelievable how the human body works. Although I would prefer to work with children, my experience in the Hanna House was one that will stick with me through nursing school.