Showing compassion

By Jeff Becraft

Two weeks ago, I had eye surgery… and most would consider it minor. Well, I think minor is a key you play on a piano. If there is anything medical going on, and particularly if it’s with my eyes, I wouldn’t consider that minor; I would call that major.  (Never mind that I am a high-maintenance person. We’re not going to talk about that right now.)

I know that this is a very common procedure, but still, the whole idea of someone operating on my eye just leaves me with a little bit of an odd feeling. Anyway, Brenda drove me to Palmetto Surgery Center early in the morning. All the nurses were fantastic. My doctor is Dr. Bryan.

Everyone was just wonderful to me. When one of the nurses was putting the IV in my hand, she says, “This is going to be the worst part of the whole thing.” Now, it did feel like someone was sticking a needle in the back of my hand. Maybe that’s because someone was sticking a needle in the back of my hand. And that did sting… but the oddest part for me was once you’ve been wheeled back into the operating room and I asked the question. “Well, what if I blink?”

And they respond, “We’re going to put this contraption on your eye so you can’t blink.” Now, it didn’t hurt… but it was uncomfortable, and you could feel it going underneath your eyelids… and that’s just a really wonky donkey feeling right there. In my opinion, that was the worst part of it.

You are still awake during this procedure, but they give you some anesthesia to kind of make you loopy (in the words of the nurses… who were great). I am going to have to go look up loopy in a medical journal.

Of course, having, you know, a light shine in your eye the entire time and going through everything… that’s not the most comfortable experience either. But again, the doctors and nurses were great.

At one point, one of the nurses who had been a nurse for a while, picked up that maybe I was a little bit anxious about everything that was going on in the procedure.  She reached over and touched my arm and said, “You’re doing great.”

And just that little act of kindness right there, that little act of compassion, meant a whole lot to me. I’ve never had an MRI, but I have heard that it is a pretty traumatic experience… all by yourself, feeling like you are all alone in this tight tube. In this situation, when I felt nervous (and I guess after you have been a nurse for a long time, you can pick this up in people), her reaching out and just giving reassurance was an extremely encouraging thing.

You know, we have those kind of opportunities all the time where there are people around us that might be anxious, they might be carrying a heavy burden, they might be discouraged, and we, in some small way, can reach out to them and just show them kindness and compassion.

And who knows… that might be the encouragement that turns the corner for them and whatever they are dealing with in their life.

So with that said… it’s a great day to reach out and show compassion to someone today!

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected].