How nursing changed my life:
My decision to become a nurse
was mostly financially driven, and I knew that as a nurse I would always have
employment opportunities. However, while I was still taking general
prerequisite classes I began having severe intractable “cluster type”
headaches, debilitating back problems and I started having a great deal of
trouble ambulating, to the point that I had severe muscle wasting and severe
lower extremity weakness. It was soon discovered that I had a severe “Arnold
Chiari Malformation” which required a posterior craniotomy to correct. After
the surgery I was released and soon developed a complication which required a
second craniotomy. I was off of work for a year and spent the better part of
that year learning how to walk again. Throughout this time I continued to take
classes which propelled me into nursing school.
During my first year of nursing
school, my best friend and a man who was like a brother to me, had been
diagnosed with liver cancer. After going through my struggles and major life
changes, and witnessing the kindness and compassion that my nurses had shown to
me, I felt that the only decision I could make for my friend was to give him my
liver. However, his cancer was to advanced and had metastasized and I was
unable to donate to my friend, and 6 weeks later he passed away.
During my third semester at
nursing school I began having trouble with an elevated White Blood Count; they
were running 3 times higher than normal. Multiple tests shown nothing and
everything pointed towards leukemia. This was difficult news but I decided to
continue through nursing school. Two long weeks later I was sitting in class
and I got a call from the lab, I excused myself from class momentarily to take
the call, my results were negative for CML. When I returned the entire class
focused upon me, and when I revealed my good news, the entire class and faculty
all came cheered and came through shaking my hand and gave me hugs.
The day before graduation the
faculty was handing out scholarships for those who had applied, and I hadn’t
applied. However when they got to the last scholarship the Dean announced that
every year a scholarship was awarded to the student that they felt most
represented St. Mary’s School of Nursing’s morals and values. When my name was
announced I was in shock, it took a moment to sink in that they were talking
about me. I obviously had to excuse myself from the room for a few moments in
order to compose myself.
I hadn’t really noticed over the
last 4 years that all of these instances had changed me so drastically. What
had started as a dream of a well-paying career had evolved into something
bigger than me. I had learned empathy from my surgeries, compassion from my
nurses. I had learned to be more giving from my best friend who was dying of
cancer. I had learned what it meant to root for, and be rooted for by being a
part of a team.
These are just a few small ways
that Nursing has changed my life, and I hope I’ve changed for the better. I no longer
see myself that looks at my nursing for the financial gains which it can bring.
I look at it as what can I bring to the patient.
