Lean on Me

"Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, We all have sorrow, But if we are wise, We know that there's always tomorrow, Lean on me, when you're not strong, And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long, 'Til I'm gonna need, Somebody to lean on..."

False reassurance is a big No No in the nursing world. You will most definitely get that answer wrong. It just means false hope, and we aren't allowed to give it. No everything might not be okay, and I don't know if they will make it out to see another day. The correct response? Tell me more about your feelings, or maybe you would like to talk to the surgeon? And we state facts. Plain and simple. Yeah plain and simple on the tests, but when it comes to real life, that books goes out the window. I am not a nurse yet, so false reassurance is what the world knows. I'm sure everything will be okay. You'll be fine. Now, if only it were like that. Only if we knew everything would be okay, then the reassurance wouldn't be false. It would just be reassurance, and it would be the truth.

I can say 100% false assurance feels better than no reassurance at all. Surely people know everything might not be okay, but just hearing that it might, seeing that small glimpse of hope, makes them feel a whole lot better. I think. I can kind of say that from experience. And I can know, and say I know. But I don't really know. I know that I need the facts, and in this world, the facts are buried too far down in the dirt.

Some things are not very assuring. Because the facts are plain and simple. The diagnoses are black and white. It is good or it is bad. Well sometimes at least. Its an evil world with evil lurking at the next turn. So I suppose if you are on the good side, the it is assuring. But most of us aren't. That dreaded C word I spoke about yesterday is most definitely in the grey area. Doctor says 5 months, it could be 5 years. Doctor says 5 years, it could be a long and grueling 5 months. We just don't know. But no one wants to hear that. We can't walk out of a room, and say sorry, I just don't know. Better luck next time. The outcome could either be really good or really bad, but everyone is different. And that is not false reassurance, that is just the truth.

Also a truth, God has it under control. No matter what happens. He never leaves our side, and is fighting the battle with us. His assurance is never false. His assurance is just what we need when no one else has an answer. So we give it to Him, and let Him do the work. This is His journey too. Its all just easier said than done isn't it?

Just keep a special family member in your prayers as they start a journey to regain what is rightfully their's.