I am a nurse in a hospital.
I have an old arm injury. I like to ski. I am afraid of heights. I don't know how to play the piano.
have you been skiing lately? No, I haven't skied recently.  But I can't wait to book my next ski vacation.  I just have to be careful with my arm. Oh gosh, that's right! Yeah, you better be careful, you don't want your arm to start bothering you again! True.  I don't want my arm bothering me again.  But I can't miss out on skiing and other sports just because of my arm.  Have you ever injured an arm? Yes, I broke my arm when I was in nursing school so I pretty much learned how to take care of it while I was learning how to be a nurse, ha! How did you injure your arm? So I see, you know what it's like to take care of an injured arm!  I mean, besides a patient.  Actually, I injured my arm while playing baseball,  I was a pitcher for my college baseball team, and I tore a ligament.  My baseball career was pretty much over after that!  Oh that's too bad! Well, at least you can ski and do other fun things, you just have to be careful! Are you still kind of scared on the chairlifts? I know you've always been afraid of heights. Yeah, I sure am.  That's the only thing I don't like about skiing.  When I'm on the chairlifts, I get butterflies in my stomach.  Kind of like a patient before surgery.  Any ideas on how to overcome my fear of heights? When you are up there just close your eyes and imagine that you are sitting on the ground. You will start to feel calm. Keep doing that every so often until you get to the top of the mountain.  Another thing is to imagine yourself playing the piano, I know you don't know how to play but if you imagine it that might calm you down. Piano music is very soothing! Thanks for the tips.  I will definitely try them.  I will listen to some soothing piano music as I'm on the chairlift, and I'll just close my eyes until I reach the top of the mountain.  That way, I won't even see the ground as I'm rising.  As a nurse, I'm sure you have lots of experience helping patients overcome their fears.  What's the most interesting thing you've helped a patient overcome? I had a patient that was having really bad nightmares. I spoke with her a lot and we tried to get to the bottom of what was making her have these nightmares. Once we figured out what the cause was then it was time to deal with it and make them go away. So basically I just had her talk it all out, all her fears and everything that was bothering her. I've talked to her since and she says she no longer has the nightmares. I felt pretty good about helping her overcome that. That was a horrible experience for her and they were keeping her from a good night's sleep. She is healthy and happy today! You're such a great nurse!  It sounds like you can also be a counselor or therapist.  I know that not being able to sleep is just horrible.  It's happened to me before, especially after I tore my ligament.  First, it was the pain.  Then, it was the fear of not being able to move my arm again.  I'm sure the staff at the hospital is grateful for all the work you do to help patients heal physically, and in some cases, psychologically.