RN Had NO IDEA! – He Had FAMILY At The Cancer Center

     RN Had NO IDEA! – He Had FAMILY At The Cancer Center

|by Mohamad Younes, RN, BSN, CPHON®

Two of my RN colleagues (Ali & Alison) in the Oncology Triage Team, stepped to my cubicle. Surprise!
We are having a baby shower party for you down at the lounge area at noon for you and Dr. Mantha.
I was like WOW! What? … Say that again?

Let me give you a bit of a background story about our culture and me. So I come from Lebanon, and we don’t do baby showers over there. Our tradition – after the new baby is born – we decorate our home, we bring chocolate, juice, dessert to be served for the people who will visit. We also design and order little souvenirs for family and friends to take home after they come visit us and see the baby.

So going back to Ali & Alison, I was like! Can I call my wife and ask her to come; I mean she is the one who is going to have the baby… they were like, heck yeah!

Picked up the phone, ring … ring … ring … It was 11:15, C’mon Amani – Pick up!

Me: Hey honey, my team here at the Cancer Center are throwing me and Dr. Mantha a baby shower party in 45 minutes, do you think you can come!
Me thinking (she is going to kill me, bearing in mind that my eldest “Jude” was febrile that morning and didn’t send him to school, so she is supposed to come with both my boys)
Amani: What’s a baby shower!
Me: With my little knowledge of baby showers that I have from following up on my transition specialist’s (Dennis) baby shower pictures on Facebook. I tried to explain to her the purpose and the idea behind baby showers.
Amani: Okay babe that is great! I will be there by 12:00.
Me: Oh okay, text me when you get here.

Noon Sharp.

Amani texted me, she is at the South Clinic entrance. There she was, with the boys. We all went down to the lounge area and oh man – looking through the glass window of the lounge door – the room was stacked with people.

We stepped in and my GOD, the welcoming was phenomenal. My little one “Noah” was so shy from the attention, he was behind me grabbing my legs and sticking his face in my butt. Jude and Noah had no idea what they are walking into. Nurses, Doctors, patient care representatives, I mean everyone was there.
My wife was like – speaking in Arabic – wow Moe that’s quite a gathering. I could sense that she was blown away, we sat on a couple of free chairs, I grabbed a couple of plates and put some fruits and dessert for the boys. I had some beef, Homos paste and beans, which were delicious. Amani got some chocolate cake, ice cream, and fruits. There was a wide variety of sugary stuff, which I made sure I tasted all of them.

Lol the IRONY, I was reading an email earlier that morning, it was a reminder to consider donating blood because it has been 8 weeks from my last donation. Part of the email was explaining the benefits of donating blood, it says: “You dump 650 calories with one donation and can skip the gym”. So I guess we evened out by the end of the party.

The people at our table were so nice; they were talking to us and getting to know us. Everyone was friendly and kind; my wife loved the engagement with the team.

Half an hour into the party Sybil – my teammate in Triage – approached us and asked me: “Do you want to open the gifts here or at home? I was like nah, we will open it here. My thinking was that there is ONE gift. Sybil started handing me gift bags, bag after bag, six, seven, eight bags, and the bags are still coming, fifteen, sixteen, still coming. Twenty-one gift bags and boxes were given to us by an amazing team, the Carle Cancer Center Team.

My wife was out of words; she was even unable to express in Arabic. Honestly, that was unexpected. The hospitality, the kindness, and the thoughtfulness of the colleagues around us were unforeseen.

Amani was telling me few weeks back, poor this new baby, she won’t be having any gifts because there is no family and friends to visit and celebrate her arrival to this world. I guess now she knows we have plenty of family and friends out here.

Yes, yesterday I felt my family around me. I guess I’m part of a family that I didn’t know exists – The Big Family of the Carle Cancer Center.

A huge Thank You to everyone who contributed to this party. A big Thank You to the Oncology Triage Team who managed to pull this off without me even noticing. A big thank you to Jane my Triage Teammate who coordinated the whole thing. A Big Thank You to my Nurse Manager, all the Doctors, all the Nurse Practitioners, all the Patient Care Reps, Clinical Educator, IT, Environmental Services, literally everyone… GOD blesses your heart.

Amani, the boys, and I left the lounge carrying all these gift bags and boxes. Walking down the hallway from the Cancer Center to the South Clinic, we were drawing attention, we were glowing. We felt special yesterday, we really did.

Ever since we arrived to the United States 5 month ago, I have not seen Amani any happier. On top of the baby shower, she also had her Ultrasound on that day, she saw the baby sucking on her hand for full 3 minutes and the boys were standing there looking and the black and white ultrasound monitor with their eyes glazing with joy.

When I woke up that morning getting ready to work, 9/27 was another working day, but ended up to be the Best Day in a really long time. Amani spent the rest of that evening looking at the very nice creative gift cards, holding up the baby cloth which are the cutest ever, and taking pictures of every single item that we got.

Late that night Amani was like, Moe… (pause) … Moe… (pause) … Babe … (pause) … did you sleep already!
Of course, I was pretending to be dead because it was a long day and I had to wake up early for work the next day.
Moe… (pause) … Babe … (pause) … then she slapped me on the back of my head, I was like Emmmmmmm What! (moaning)
Amani: “I like your colleagues … (pause) … you have a great team in the Cancer Center”
Me: “I know, I’ve been telling you that for 3 months now”
She said: “I know, but hearing it is one thing, living it is another”

I smiled and slept on that thought…

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|by Mohamad Younes, RN, BSN, CPHON®