HEALTH & WELLNESS

You Are Not Your Wound

Provided by Novant Health UVA Health System

After a mysterious illness left her completely debilitated, Ashley Miller couldn’t imagine the emotional journey that would accompany her physical healing with the team at Novant Health UVA Health System Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine. In 2017, Miller, a Nokesville local, was a healthy young woman who found herself admitted to the hospital. She was put on a feeding tube, treated for pneumonia and discharged. Five days later, her father noticed she didn’t look well and immediately drove her to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. She was transferred to George Washington University Hospital and within an hour, Miller went into respiratory failure and cardiac failure. She was intubated and taken to the intensive care unit, where she spent the following two-and-a-half months. While in the intensive care unit, Miller was in critical condition and lost all control of her voluntary functions. Her parents were told by physicians to prepare to say goodbye to their daughter. “I am here by the grace of God,” she said. “I lost my ability to walk, lost my ability to eat, lost my ability to do anything. I couldn’t even lift a finger on my own. I had to relearn everything. It is truly a miracle of Him that I am here today.” After lying in bed unable to move on her own for so long, Miller developed a severe sacral decubitus ulcer exposing the underlying bone. She was referred to Novant Health UVA Health System Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine in Manassas, where she underwent intensive treatment for nine months.

As a physician’s assistant, Miller knew she had to seek care in order to heal, but the unknowns of her treatment worried her. “I was terrified of going and couldn’t help but think, ‘Who wants to deal with this?’” Miller said. “I also had no idea what it was going to take to heal or the amount of pain I would feel.”

Healing Emotional and Physical Wounds

On her first day of treatment, Miller met the team at Novant Health UVA Health System Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine who greeted her with a smile and no judgement. The team recognized that she was more than a patient with a wound and looked beyond her treatment plan to help her heal mentally, as well as physically. “From the minute I was there, there was no shame,” she said. Ashley Miller with Christy Robinson, BSN, RN, CWCN

“I wasn’t just a patient. To them, I was a unique individual with a story, and they wanted to know that story.” Miller called the team “warriors” because they battled by her side without hesitation. They walked her through every treatment — every cut, every noise, every machine — so Miller knew exactly what they were going to do ahead of time. “They gave me back that sense of control I had lost for so long,” she said. “They saw me from when I couldn’t walk without a walker to reclaiming my life.” Miller grew closer with the wound care team and bonded with one of the nurses, Christy Robinson. Robinson was the first member of the team Miller met when she came to the wound center and grew to be Miller’s key support person throughout her journey. “She was my pillar,” Miller said. “In every moment of anxiety, she knew what to say. She would tell me, ‘You’re going to hold my hand, and I’m going to journey this pain with you.’ Her heart of empathy and the humanity she felt for me got me through my most painful days.” Robinson recognizes that each patient is unique and consciously leaves her judgement behind with each case. She intentionally listens to every patient’s story and treats them with dignity and respect. “Everyone is at different points in their lives and everyone has had different struggles, so I accept them as they are without judgement and help them heal their wounds,” said Robinson. (continues on page 20)