Lessons that her patient had, taught her, and she is, the medical professional! Translated…
“There’s a mother-in-law back home I need to take care of, how did my child have this diagnosis, what do we do, with the rest of our lives? We’d, worked hard all our lives for them, there’s, no chance, for us, to have a better life………”
This was what Shane’s mother told me, while we were, waiting for the shuttle at the hospital. In her gazes that showed loss, and her plain tone of voice, I’d heard, that scent of giving in to destiny of the traditional Chinese women, and how helpless she’d felt, and, being young, I couldn’t, answer her inquiries, as a professional.
Hsuan’s mother visits the hospital twice every day, to bring Hsuan the homecooked chicken soup and meals. In the ordinary cooking, I saw a mother’s extraordinary heart. She knew Hsuan’s preferences of foods, and knew that he’d needed more fiber into his diet, and, compared to how other patients had ordered the hospital meals, there’s, a ton of love, overflowing Hsuan’s ward.
Having the diagnosis of schizophrenia, Hsuan gave all his family a ton of troubles. Actually, following the Buddhist teachings, Hsuan is a courteous, kindhearted man, but because his auditory hallucination told him to give his money to donations, and so, he’d, donated every single cent he had to charity, and, even took out over millions of dollars in loans with the loan sharks, causing his family to swim in debt.
In the medical conferences, the medical teams other than being proactive in treating his symptoms, they’d wanted to get the social workers, the police involved, to help reduce the family’s economic difficulties. We couldn’t help but wondered, a ton of people in Hsuan’s situation would think about suicide, so how come, Hsuan is, still very optimistic?
“It’s already written, whether we are well-to-do or poverty-stricken in life, it’s due to the seeds we’d planted in a past life. And, if we want to be well-to-do in the next life, than, we’d need to, pave the way for it in this life, by helping others………” Hsuan had, told me. And, his words had, etched into my heart, to this day, and suddenly, I’d realized, that his being able to face the trials of his life, and still offered the lessons of his life to us, that it’s, a learning process between the medical professionals and their patients!
And this, was my encounter as a rookie nurse, and at that medical conference, I’d finally realized, that other than treating the patients’ illnesses, helping each family with their most basic troubles, that, is what will help the patients after they’re released by the hospital; and I’d understood, that we, the medical professionals aren’t the only ones who gets to help treat or cure the patients, they help, and cure us too, they’d given us more in their attitudes in facing up to the trials in their lives, than how we just, helped treated their conditions.
And so, these are the lessons that we can learn, from everyone we encounter in this world, because everybody has a story, and, people’s stories often had lessons about their lives, that we can, take from.
Life, the Obstacle Course 