ABSTRACT
Jim's first telling of his story had a very clear shape. Jim's story involves his wife's observations and interventions from the very beginning: his feeling that she may have 'had some inkling', and the implicit sense that he saw a doctor because his wife worked at the clinic nearby. The symptoms represent a significant bodily change that precipitates a sequence of events transforming the ordinary and everyday of Jim's life into the extraordinary and unexpected: the world of medical tests. The dramatic tension of Jim's story powerfully reflects the 'peripeteia' which 'swiftly turns a routine sequence of events into a story'. Again, Jim experiences both the art and the heart of nursing; a quality of care which contributes so much to the process of recovery, of regaining strength and building confidence in fragile bodies. Jim was fortunate to experience rehabilitation that offered both psychological as well as physical support.
