The kindness of nurses

I am a patient of the Infertility clinic and have been for over a year. I am 39 years old. My husband and I have been married just over three years and desperately want to have at least one child. It has been a tough year with many disappointments added to ones that had previously occurred (we had tried for over a year before coming to the clinic.) There have been a number of things that have kept me going, in spite of everything. One of the most significant being the staff, particularly the nurses, in the clinic. The nurses in the clinic are incredibly compassionate which can be exemplified in the following story.

At one point, in our many attempts to get pregnant, we actually succeeded. After a blood test confirmed the results of a home pregnancy test taken, I was scheduled for an ultrasound. Unfortunately, my husband was not able to come to the appointment with me. During the office visit, I found out that it was an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy and immediate surgery was recommended. After the doctors gave me the news, one at a time, all of the nursing staff came in to express their condolences and support and to give me a big hug. Everyone in the clinic was extremely sensitive to the loss I was feeling. I later found out that before coming in to console me, the nurses were deciding as to whom would be the first one to come in because they were all about to break down in tears themselves. On that day, the nurses in that clinic were not just professionals doing a job. They, too, wanted me to be pregnant because they had opened up their hearts. On that day, they became part of my family.

The kindness and caring that is demonstrated in the aforementioned story is what I have experienced since beginning in the Infertility clinic. Without the significant support of the people here, without their willingness to laugh and cry with me and without their willingness to support me on both a professional and personal level, I can honestly say that I could not have lasted this long.

We recently found out that, once again, we were not successful at getting pregnant. Although I cannot know what the future has in store for my husband and me, I know that I will be forever appreciative of my experience as a patient in the Infertility clinic.

Respectfully submitted by,

Lisa Skelly
Cheshire, Conn.