Opening My Heart: A Journey from Nurse to Patient and Back Again

✍ Scribed by Shalof, Tilda

• Book ID: 109254295
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: en-US
• Weight: 398 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780771079948

✦ Synopsis

Tilda Shalof had been taking care of critically ill patients in an intensive care unit for more than twenty-five years, but taking care of herself had never been a priority. That is, until she could no longer ignore her extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and crushing chest pains. When the results came in, it was time to face the music: Tilda required immediate open-heart surgery to replace a defective valve and to repair damage done to this vital organ.

Tilda's story takes readers from the diagnosis through all her fears and concerns, the or, her stay in the icu, the cardiac ward, recovery at home, rehabilitation, and ultimately, her return to work in the hospital armed with new insights on the patient's perspective. She learned more in her week-long stay as a patient than in all her years caring for the critically ill, especially about trust and working in partnership with her caregivers.

In Opening My Heart , Shalof expertly weaves recollections...