Adjusting to the difficult situations they find themselves in can be very challenging for new palliative care team members. One nurse named Pari shared that at first, she could not tolerate either the sight or smell of illness, and she also struggled with severe motion sickness, even on short journeys. All of these issues made giving palliative care almost impossible, as the sights and smells are far worse than in hospital care, and the travel often involves many hours on bumpy roads. In the beginning, she often had nightmares because of the serious wounds she had seen, and she couldn’t get the odors out of her memory.

Undeterred, Pari asked God to help her overcome her weaknesses as she was eager to serve those who suffered without care. As she continued, she slowly overcame these hurdles and now is able to travel without motion sickness and can stand the worst sights and smells without flinching or experiencing nightmares.

Recently Pari and her team visited a young mother of two toddlers who has metastatic breast cancer. She was moaning in pan when they arrived, and she was suffering with excess fluid in her abdomen. The team was able to perform an abdominal paracentesis, removing 5 liters of fluid, which brought her much relief. Without nurses like Pari, patients like this one who cannot travel to a hospital would be left to suffer alone at home.