Instead of walking up to him to start my perioperative nursing interview, I stayed at the nursing station sitting down at the desk, which is still close to where he was in his stretcher. I didn’t do it because I was afraid of him. I did it because I got an inkling to treat him like this was a casual conversation between friends. We also have a checklist to sign off on the surgical safety checklist. We chatted for a bit, then started going in the direction of the of the surgical safety checklist. We ask them to state their name and birthday. Or at least two identifying questions about them. At this point I looked down at his birthday and got the idea I could work this into the perioperative interview. Especially since no one else was in this area. The other nurse I was working with was off in the break room and the anesthesiologist was pulled away to do an epidural on the maternity ward, so I had all the time in the world with a chatty patient. I looked down at his birthday which is 8/31/63. Today is his birthday. Let’s call him Ron. That isn’t his name, but for confidentially reasons we will call him Ron. Happy birthday Ron! I did not make a chart in the moment, but glanced at the numbers just chatting with him. His 6 popped out at me right away.

Out of nowhere, I said as he was chatting away, what do you do with your hands to create! He said oh lots of stuff! I said that’s cool, like what? He said oh you know lots of things. I could tell he didn’t want to go in that direction, but he made it very clear it was definitely a thing about him. I then asked him to confirm his date of birth. From there he started talking about the environment and electric cars. He said you know we have to leave this planet a better place for the generations to come. Later on, I charted his numbers while he was asleep for surgery. I didn’t have my notebook with me, but some of my notes on my phone that had goal numbers. If you haven’t guessed it yet. The goal numbers of 6 and 8, which combined are to make the world a better place for having been here and creating new paths for future generations. I didn’t see that until after he was asleep. I had chatted with him long enough to see he was in tune with his goal numbers. So cool! He talked about how he matches people’s energy. We talked about how he talks to people and makes people feel how they make him feel. He talked about how he’s here to get people back. He said he used to be soft, but now he doesn’t let anyone mess with him. Sometimes he hates it when he has to match people’s energy, because now he feels like he has to do that. He sees what he’s