In the summer of 2014, I thought I had life completely planned out. I was enrolled at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College while still attending Mount Pleasant High School. I had just started taking my Emergency Medicine class and had already completed two-thirds of my fire class. I volunteered at Northeast Cabarrus Fire Department and was so close to becoming an interior firefighter, I could taste it. I never slowed down enough to think about God’s plan for me. I seemed to only care about creating my own plan and following through with it. My intentions were to graduate high school and be completely done with my education. Graduating meant I was free to spend my time chasing my dreams, but that changed on my way to my Emergency Medicine …show more content…
I was overcome with an intense pain shooting from my neck to the area between my shoulders. My breathing slowed and shortly was accompanied by my low moans as I tried to squeeze little bits of air into my lungs. I could feel myself being consumed by the feeling of fire inside my chest. I passed out for what felt like a long night’s sleep, to only be awakened by the sound of the ambulance and the frosty fingers holding my C-spine. My precisely drawn out plan was no longer in my control; I had relinquished all rights to my plan when I agreed to join the game leap frog. That fun game of leap frog left me with broken dreams and in excruciating pain.
At some point on that rainy day, I found myself consumed in complete and utter denial. It must have been after the doctors notified my parents that I had broken four thoracic vertebra; my T-1 though T-4. The doctors told me “my life would never be the same” because my back problems would limit my future plans. They informed me the pain I felt would go down some, but never completely subside. A couple doctors wanted to place me on a pain medicine regimen for the rest of my life. I remember the icy puddles from my tears that accumulated on my pillow, the smell of the doctor 's cologne that slowly suffocated my already struggling breaths, and the sound of my mother weeping at my bedside. I took the diagnosis like a bullet; it pierced my heart and exited my body carrying my
Later that night, I would find out that I fractured my femur, clean into two. My doctor told me that I would be out from sports for at least nine to twelve months since it was an extreme injury. Normally, with being an athletic person, I was absolutely devastated. I knew that it was going to be a long recovery, but I did not know that it was going to be a mental setback as much as physical. At first it was nice to have my loved ones come around all the time to visit me and check up on me, but after a while they all moved on. They all headed off to enjoy their summer while I laid on the couch watching television and attempting to do some leg exercises. I had to have help with everything, which led to many arguments. Being independent, I abhorred the fact that I needed help with the simplest things, such as grabbing the remote or even getting up. I became so upset about it that I quit arguing about it. It led me into a lazy mindset that made me not feel as motivated to do things. Once I started physical therapy it felt as though nothing was changing. On our first day we had to so electroshock therapy on my thigh because I could not move the muscles on my
Everything hurt, It felt like a million knives were being stabbed into my back. It wasn't turning out to be a very good morning, and it was only going to get worse. It was also the day I would learn to re-walk again. Right here A lot of people have always question me when I say “learn to walk again” they just assume i’m saying it like that because I want the attention. The part they don’t understand was it really was learning how to re-walk again. I had a brand new back, and I didn't know how to use it yet. Everything was tight and it was hard to breath, so I wasn't even sure at one point I would be able to ever move again and be comfortable doing
About two months into scribing, I felt like this is where I belong, this was it. Since I was already enrolled in classes for the fall semester, I decided to start my new path in the spring, the path of becoming a Physician Assistant. My goal at the time was to work hard, take college serious and give back to the two people who brought me into this world, my parents. When I first attended college after high school I did not take it serious at all. I would use my time in college to hang out with my friends, I would tell myself I’m still young and in due time will get it all done. When I started my new path to become a Physician Assistant, I realized how important college was and from this point on would do what would be necessary to make up for lost time and poor grades. With me being human and not knowing what the future held, a turn of event took place in late summer of 2011. My parents were not getting along and decided to split
When I was in 7th grade, I learned to be religiously literate, through trusting God in hard times instead of being ‘medically literate’; I learned that letting go of things, and not letting my emotions take over at the wrong times, helped me to step up my faith. During 7th grade I had an experience that most people will never have or understand. I was great at hiding it externally, but internally, I was on my death bed. It all started with a physical, which, of course, was no big deal. Not until there appeared to be a big problem with my X-ray and I had to be referred to a spinal surgeon to double check my results. I ended up receiving a confirmation; I had scoliosis, and that there was nothing left to do, but wait for back surgery. Naturally,
I was thirteen, and I had just come home from a school softball game. My friend Dalton had invited my sister and I to come and swim at the neighborhood pond. My sister stayed home, but I got permission to go. After a while of swimming, Dalton looks at me claims that he’ll jump out of a tree near the bank if I jump out. Of course, I accepted my friend’s little dare and climbed into the tree, focusing on the seven-foot-deep drop-off off of the bank. Regrettably, I didn’t jump far enough. My right leg landed in the drop-off, but my left leg hit the clay, which caused all of my weight to shift to my left foot. I felt an immense pain in my ankle and started screaming while crawling over to the bank as Dalton ran to get my mom. After I finally made it to the emergency room, I found that I had broken my fibula at an upward slant, which caused the upper part of the bone to slam down into my ankle.I had completely blown out every ligament and tendon on the left side of my ankle. I had to have a plate and four screws implanted into my fibula along with the surgical repair of all of my ligaments and tendons. The entire ordeal left me extremely interested in the human body, and this interest was heightened when I had to get my appendix removed a few months later and again when I took Anatomy and
Shortly after that, in a practice game, a game I wasn’t going to play in ended up being the last game of my career, ending with three torn ligaments and severe structural damage to my left knee. Leaving me on crutches for six weeks, leading into four months of extensive physical therapy, a place that I learned to hate and love, both at the same time. Then my world came crumbling down around me, I was driving home after picking my brother up from a friends house, I never saw it, a truck apparently had hit a car, two cars in front of me. The car directly in front of me went into the back of that car, and then my world went black. I woke up in a car filed with smoke, the airbags had
I was told pretty early that he had broken his neck, but I had no idea what that really meant. I didn’t really understand what the word ‘quadriplegic‘ entailed. In my mind, my interpretation was that one-day I would help my dad walk again. I envisioned him taking slow, unsteady steps, but once I learned what paralysis really meant that image was shattered. Never walk again. The words took a while to sink in, but my mind was already reeling. I became more aware of the adaptations I was going to have to make as his daughter, the alterations in the routine and activities that directly affected my life, and my fear of the unknown. This was not the type of problem that had a clear-cut solution. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Conflicts arise everyday that demand determination and creative thinking to solve. I’ve learned how to step up to those tasks and take the
I fell backwards and heard a crack, after that all I remember is excruciating pain. I was rushed to ER, there was my first encounter with caring and helpful strangers who made the pain disappear and the experience became my rite of passage into the trying, sometimes painful, and always gratifying world of medicine. The root of my desire in entering the medical field is to help people and to provide comfort to them while providing excellent treatment just as I received as a girl that alarming day.
I started doing physical therapy immediately, then three days later I could not move my legs. They ran more test and then the doctors saw I have broken my back. I was care flight to Cooks Children Medical Hospital where more test was ran. I was told I had a broken back and could never walk again also the growth plait in my hand was put on backwards and internal bleeding. The hardest thing for me was never being able to walk again, I was an athlete I played volleyball. I prayed really hard before my first back surgery. I came out of surgery ten hours later; I was in bed ridden for five days, the fifth day I was determined to stand on my own. My mother lifted me up out of the hospital bed and I fell and then after 3 attempts I was ready to give up and except my life as a handy cap. My mom pushed me to stand one more time and this time I stood with my mom’s help I took my
Being an older, non-traditional college student with 36 years of life experience behind me I thought I had my life figured out. Academically, I would take the degrees that I already have, coupled with the joint Bachelor’s degree I am about to receive from St. Mary’s University, go to law school earn my J.D. Become a practicing attorney and watch the life I have always wanted start to unfold. When given this assignment however, I began to seriously question myself about my passions in life and an immense dissonance overwhelmed me. Nearing 40 years old, I have felt for some time, that I should have in order what I want to do with my degrees and my life for that matter. If I was honest with myself, I do not and therefore, began to do a lot
As I got older I started to come to the realization that plans often do not go exactly as contrived. Sometimes, the plans I have made will alter in some way, or drop all together, resulting in an enormous amount of stress. This was the case when I decided to change my choice in career my senior year of high school. Most of my life I had been working toward the goal of being a dance teacher, but while watching a medical drama about kids with cancer, I soon realized my desire to be a pediatric oncology nurse was stronger than my love for dance. With that decision, all of my plans had entirely changed.
Last fall, I went for a checkup appointment because I was complaining to my mom of the amount of pain I was in. My doctor kept telling me that “scoliosis doesn’t hurt”. He took my x-rays and my curves had increased tremendously. We had to schedule the appointment I would have to have my spinal fusion surgery. I remember sitting in the room and the only two things I was thinking about was if I would ever be able to cheer again, and how excited I was to finally be relieved from all the
My aunt, who’s a nurse, would let me tag along her work. and those were the times I looked forward the most:
Looking back on my sophomore and junior years of high school, I had a very difference idea of how my life was going to turn out. I worked three days a week on my school’s radio station, WBMT, and played guitar during my free time. I was going to major in business and minor in communications and hopefully pursue some career in music production and management. From middle school until late high school, that was the way I was going to affect people, through music. While I had worked as a camp counselor, and had experience working with children, it just wasn’t a path that I thought I could turn into a career. As I grew up and had new experiences, I began to reevaluate my plans for myself.
The summer after I completed the 6th grade, my parents decided to pull me out of my Baptist, private school and homeschool me. I, like most kids, was not thrilled with the decision, but being only 11 years old, I had no say in the matter. Despite my initial reservations, being homeschooled was a great experience for me, but I began to get bored. I missed seeing people every day. It was just me and my family. I was ready for a new experience, something big, and college was exactly what I was looking for. It was Sunday night, and there was a high probability that class would be cancelled. I prayed that that wouldn’t happen, however, it did. The