Personal Narrative: Mikah's Life

In 1997, my brother was four years old and my parents started to notice he was not physically capable of doing what other kids his age could do, so they decided to ask a doctor what could be wrong. Many blood tests and muscle biopsies later, my parents were told that my brother has mild autism and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy means that his muscles will progressively degenerate and weaken over time. This news made my parents upset for a long time. Halloween of 1997, my mom found out she was going to have me

Throughout my clinical experiences, there have been quite a few circumstances I have been placed in that have remained with me whether good or bad. All of them have been learning experiences for me whether it is how to improve and to do better next time from a mistake, for me to learn that this is or is not how a patient should be treated, how to handle family situations, and many others. One experience that I was able to participate in that will remain with me because I had not experienced this before was during my critical care rotation in the fall of 2015. This patient was dying and we were implementing comfort care for him.

Speakers. However, I did feel some may have been there because they were famous, but nevertheless still gave insight to networking.

The last experience I recall involved a nurse who back then was undergoing a cardiovascular operation. Despite the difficult moment that the patient went through, we tirelessly went with him till the operation became successful, and the growth that developed in his body got dealt managed. The patient became thankful as he left the hospital because we saved his life big deal.

As you all know, I have spent all of my professional career at ALSAC/St. Jude. Throughout this time, I have witnessed some amazing things that until this past month I think I have taken for granted. And I am not just referring to the miracles our doctors perform every day for our patients.

On May 9th, I was given the news by a doctor who I did not remember. Later, I found out that he was the one who saved my life.

My initial reaction after talking to my parents about our health history was mind-boggling. I never took the time out to look into my family history. I am grateful to have the opportunity to take the time out to investigate my family health history. This assignment was extremely necessary and well informative. To begin with, after completing this assignment, I learned that my sisters and I are at high risk of diabetes and hypertension. Let us start off with my father’s side of the family since it is smaller compared to my mother. In addition, my father has diabetes and hypertension; he was diagnosed with those diseases about 8 years ago. His mother (my grandmother), had a lot of diseases such as; Alzheimer’s, diabetes, kidney stone, hypertension, cholesterol, heart disease, and blind in one eye. My grandmother suffered a lot and once she passed away we felt that was the best thing to have happened to her to end her misery. My grandmother ended up passing away in December 2013 at 85 years old. I didn’t get any information on my parental grandfather. My father, on the other hand, has hypertension, and diabetes and many of his cousins have a history of heart problem, murmur in particular. That explains why I was born with a heart murmur (which was resolved in 1995).

I decided to become an internist soon after completing high school when my uncle, who had been a known asthmatic patient for years, developed severe dyspnea and was rushed to Black Lion Hospital, one of the teaching hospitals in Ethiopia, where he was diagnosed with severe asthmatic attack. He was in such severe distress that he developed both bowel and bladder incontinence. I got so worried that I was going to lose him. I

On November 26th 2013, I got diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Needless to say, it was an extremely difficult period for everyone in my family. I got admitted in the hospital for emergency treatment. My whole family came together in this crisis.

“Tonight on KIMT live at 5 woman found dead in her house next to her husband and kids with no evidence besides a small note with illegible handwriting, investigators are working on the case now” and then I turned and looked at my best friend Myah, and we both had a strange look on our faces.

On febuary 17, 1999 in Durango Colorado Neil and Sandi McGarraugh had a little baby girl. When Sandi was holding her new baby wondering what she should her, she turned to Neil and ask “What should we name Hannah?” That’s how i was named, by some crazy accident, Hannah Ashley McGarraugh. After i was born i had a normal release and all was well for a short while until one day my moms instincs told her something was wrong. I was acting a completely normal so her sisters and mother told her that she was just freaking out because i was her first child. After going crazy for a week my mom finally decided to take me to the hospital, and i was put into the neonatal intensive care unit for RSV. The doctors told my mom that i was hours away from dying, that she saved

The call came, as it always seemed to be the case, minutes after crawling into my lofted dorm room bed. Without an available driver to the hospital that night I hopped on the bus giving me time to review my advocacy materials and imagine what kind of case awaited me. To my surprise, the patient was not being

My first patient was a sweet man that lived in a nursing home. With his wife living 30 minutes away, he got lonely. He loved classic mystery novels, but his eyesight didn’t allow him to read the small print on his own. Most of my visits with him were spent reading those novels to him. He was always appreciative of the time I spent with him, even if he accidentally fell asleep. I had a total of 3 patients with Legacy, but with him I learned the importance of honest communication in the health care system. After some time struggling with his prognosis, he decided to stop dialysis. His wife explained to me that he made the decision on his own. She was angry that they weren’t informed on how horrible a death it would be. The doctor told them that

Hi Sami that was a touching story, it made me feel sad. I think it's awesome that you want to help others you sound like a good person. Your major sounds so hard because I took biology and it was so difficult to me. I think you have a solid plan or goal and I hope you acheive it one day. I believe in you and good things come to those who wait.

Months before my mother went a specialist she had symptoms such as severe bloating, constant fatigue, and sometimes even blood in her stool. These symptoms would only worse and create more agony as time went on. Watching her suffer through this on a daily basis was only more painful for my father and I as we wanted to help her, but there was nothing we could do. We felt useless and helpless, and even vulnerable at times. Eventually, we set up an appointment with a specialist to figure out what was causing her all this discomfort, and for a very long time see a smile of joy on her face.