This past December I was discharged from the local hospital in my hometown and was admitted to 2-9F in Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital (SRRSH). Ms Tong Ling was the first nurse who addressed me with great hospitality. Her warm and explicit introduction to the unit environment and the scrupulous yet professional medical history taken really helped relieve my anxious mood. I was diagnosed with pancreatitis and for the last 12 days, I had been advised not to take any food or drinks, which made me extremely weak, even too weak to express my gratitude. Tong Ling comforted me and asked me to lie in bed and talk less. Her beautiful smile and gentle tone made me feel that I was loved and that she really cares about me.
My mom accompanied me while I was hospitalized. She had very little education and can only read few words and what's worse, she can only talk in our dialect instead of mandarin, the official language, especially used in hospitals. I was worried that health education provided by SRRSH medical staff might add to my mom's already high anxiety. Therefore, I wrote a note to ask Tong to please come to my bedside if she needed to talk about my treatment/condition or any disease related discussions. She came to me with an understanding smile and confirmation in her eyes that were also filled with compassion. "No worries," she said. "I will tell other doctors and nurses to come to you, too. What you need to do is to have a good rest and get ready to fight against the disease". It was such a relief because I did not expect that she would completely understand me with only a few words on a small note. Later, I noted by accident that she was talking to my mom about my condition with very simple words that Mom might be able to understand and to my surprise, she did. It helped relieve her anxiety, too. I did not know how to thank Tong for trying her best to comfort both of us. In the next few days, she even learned a few words of my dialect from my mom and seeing them talking like that, I couldn't control it, but I used my last strength to laugh out loud. That has made my days in hospital so much easier.
Four days after my surgery, I felt a severe headache and numbness in my limbs. For the first time since my diagnosis, I cried. My crying was so hard and prolonged that no one seemed able to stop it. Mom was scared for me and cried too, which made me want to cry even more. The physician came to see me and prescribed some medication, but I did not stop crying when Tong came to administer the medication. Tong did not leave me afterwards; instead, she sat by my bedside and talked to me gently while holding my hands. I do not even remember what she said that day, but it did help to calm me down. It was the tone she used while talking, her gentle smile, and her compassionate eyes that comforted and impressed me.
Tong Ling, I want to say thank you to you. You are like my sister who sits beside me when I'm sad, who laughs with me when I'm amused, and comforts me when I need it. I love the smile on your face, which brought me comfort every time you entered my room. Thanks to you I am now strong enough to laugh and to say "thank you", but I don't know how to show my gratitude for you because words seem too light compared with what you did, day in and day out. Please forgive me that I'm not good at writing. All I can do is to simply write down what you did which meant so much to me. Thank you so much!