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Every patient has a story: This editor learns valuable lesson in not jumping to conclusions about people's back stories...

I started the year with a determination to start my sixth decade fitter than I had spent my fifth. Every Wednesday morning of that previous decade I’d heard, then seen, a group of chatting runners come past my office window. Determined to get fit enough to join them, I signed up to an eight-week “Get up to 10K” running course.

The first two weeks were tough, and I didn’t identify much with my fellow runners, including two slim women I overheard discussing diets. One week later, I found that one of those slim women was literally half her former self as she had lost 65kg. Another week later, I found the other was wanting to lose weight so she could reduce her daily chemotherapy dose for a blood cancer she was living with. I reminded myself never to judge …

I graduated and joined the Wednesday running club. As the weeks rolled by into winter, I struggled to make the weekly club runs as I became “too busy”, “too tired”, or “too sick” with winter sniffles. I eventually stopped making excuses and returned to find more of my fellow runners’ stories, including the 76-year-old who had stopped competitive running after his cardiac bypass surgery a few years ago, the 72-year-old with bronchiectasis who ran her last half-marathon on antibiotics fighting yet another lung infection, and the 65-year-old who declined a pin in her smashed pelvis as it would stop her dream (fulfilled this year) of competing in the Hawaii Ironman as a veteran.

What has this to do with nursing? Probably not much – but maybe just like me, it is always good to be reminded that the patient/person in front of you always has a story behind them and future dreams  that at first glance you will never guess.

Fiona Cassie
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