Lynn Larsick
May 2019
Lynn
Larsick
,
BSN, RN, VA-BC
Imaging Institute
Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital
Avon
,
OH
United States

 

 

 

I was 5 days out from having a bile bag inserted in my side after a surgery at the Cleveland Clinic main campus. I went to the Avon Cleveland Clinic for the lab draw with my daughter since that's closer to her house where I was staying after discharge. Through a miscommunication between my daughters, no one was in the right building to meet the surgeon after the surgery so we didn't even know the name of the surgeon who operated on me and had no phone numbers or future appointments with the Radiation Imaging Department who performed the surgery. Also, this surgery was done because an easier procedure two days prior was unsuccessful so it was my only hope. I have cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer.
I was under the impression that my injection site/dressing would be checked at this 5 day post-surgical follow-up but the lab said, no we don't do that. So, we happened to walk by the Radiation Imaging Department and my daughter wheeled me in and we asked if someone could please check the site and maybe teach my daughter how to change the dressing. Shortly after Nurse Lynn came out, took us to a back room, checked the incision site, changed the dressing while my daughter watched, loaded us up with supplies, showed my daughter the things I need and how to use them to take a shower, looked up the doctor who did the surgery and gave us the doctor's contact numbers. All this took a good half-hour, and not only did we not have an appointment, but I heard the receptionist tell patients on the phone how booked up they were that day, so I know Lynn was busy. She still took all this time and never seemed put out and was, to us, like an angel with wings and a halo. She said she'd been a nurse about 30 years, and she was lovely, kind and professional to the utmost degree. We could breathe a big sigh of relief that evening. I am so grateful for her devotion to her patients.