Personal Narrative: My Recovery

Growing up with a father in the military, you move around a lot more than you would like to. I was born just east of St. Louis in a city called Shiloh in Illinois. When I was two years old my dad got the assignment to move to Hawaii. We spent seven great years in Hawaii, we had one of the greatest churches I have ever been to name New Hope. New Hope was a lot like Olivet's atmosphere, the people were always friendly and there always something to keep someone busy. I used to dance at church, I did hip-hop and interpretive dance, but you could never tell that from the way I look now.

I feel a sense of calmness wash over me. My thoughts are peaceful and positive. I am confident and capable. I sleep a deep, healing sleep. I wake in the morning refreshed and renewed.

The state of resiliency is the competence to recover quickly from difficulties; resilient individuals are efficient in avoiding anguish. In the past I have encountered multiple situations where there was no option but to be resilient. At a young age I experienced homelessness. My mother could not pay the bills in the apartment, so we were evicted. Imagine being led astray not knowing when the struggling times were going to end and then having to undertake school. That was a very arduous time for me being that I was only a freshman. Living in that position was not a thrill; we wondered from place to place like drifters. The steadiest time period was when my family and I slept on my mom’s coworker’s living room floor that lasted about 8 months. Because of this financial depression

Starting over. Those two simple words pretty much sum up where I am at in my life at the moment. I am a 34 year old mother of three. I have never been to college. My husband just recently left me. It has been a whirlwind summer to say the least, but before I get into what brought me back to school, I'll start at the beginning. I was born in FL., and quite literally spent all my time either at the beach or running bare foot on my grandparents farm. I loved every second. Shortly after I turned 8 my mom met my step-dad, and we were quickly headed on our first big adventure, moving to Texas! While I missed my family in FL., I can not tell you enough how happy I was that my mom married my dad. He has been a rock and solid foundation for me my whole

After suffering the past four years from multiple concussions with limited help, you begin to feel that recovering is just about impossible. I have essentially been at the same recovery level the past four years with only small improvements in my well-being. The Doctors I had gone to in the past were very limited in what they could do for me. Until rcently if you asked me if I ever felt I would be able to fully recovery from my concussions the answer would be, no. This answer completely changed after returning from Cerebrum Health Centers in Dallas, Texas. I was very fortunate to have come across Cerebrum when I was looking for information for my website. Shortly after I had found out about the Brain Center I was on a plane to Dallas to go

For my 28-day experiential exercise I was determined to renounce sweets and pastries. I have been trying to lose weight for some time, which I have been successful, however I gave up sweets id loose much more weight. I have been able to lose a substantial amount of weight but it has taken me some time. But, because I love sweets, it had become impossible for me to reach my goal. Before starting this experiment, I would say that I was addicted to sweets such as pastries, macarons, milk-shakes, ice creams, and cake.

I had such a great day at clinical yesterday. I was finally able to see a vaginal delivery and that entire process. When I arrived in the morning, the mom had just received Cytotec, to help induce labor and ripen her cervix. She was forty-one weeks and zero. Around ten thirty in the morning, she asked for her epidural to manage her pain. We bolused her with fifteen hundred milliliters of lactated ringers to prevent hypotension. Shane was the certified registered nurse anesthesiologist (CRNA) who administered the epidural. It was very cool watching him administer all the needed pain relief medication before he administered the epidural to make sure that it would be placed in the epidural space in the spine. Then administered a small test dose, waited till a few blood pressures were taken, then administered the remaining about through an epidural pump. After the epidural was administered, I was able to administer her foley catheter. I was so happy that I was finally able to place one. I learned a few tricks from Maura (my nurse) as well. She taught me that it was easier to take the top off of the lubricant syringe and to place the tip of the foley inside of the syringe, that way it will not wiggle around and become unsterile. She also taught me to grab from the bottom of the labia and pull up, that way it ensures that I will have a clear entrance to

There I was on the block next to the High Bar. It was about 5:00 at night when my coach told me to do a Kip. As I got up on the bar my nose filled with the smell of chalk. I started to swing, and as I came out of my half turn I looked good. Everything seemed fine but as I came to the part of the Kip where I have to pull my legs up to the bar, I slammed my shins into the bar. My momentum was stopped and I dropped on to the mat, missing the Kip. I felt like I had let down my coach and I had let down myself too. That day I experienced failure. That failure made me want my Kip even more so I worked harder and had support from my teammates.

Today was the second day of my 6-week placement at Ward 3A-Logan Hospital, I have originally been paired with a demand casual pool RN, however, the said RN is not confident enough to handle me as her student nurse at the time. After the scrum at 7am, and the handover on the 4-bed bay + sides, I politely ask her if I could take one patient as it was one of the instructions of my CF during the orientation on day 1, but I was answered with “I’m not really familiar with the area and I’m from the demand casual pool...” Having sighted my CF at the corridors, I excused myself from the RN and discussed the matter to my CF, and she allowed me to be buddied with a very good EN, informing me that “she is an EN” before letting me to the bay and introducing me to my new buddy EN.

This week I had rotation at Genesis and also Cumberland Hall. Genesis was very different that what I expected. When I think of a “rehab” I think of people all sitting around with major withdrawal symptoms, a very strict schedule, multiple one-on-one session, and with no smoke breaks. At Genesis, throughout the day the client was able to do their own thing until the scheduled group session and smoke breaks. I was placed on the male unit and I was very surprise of the self-awareness that I experienced. Just listening men talk and tell their stories brought on a whole new prospective and quickly changed the image of the addict stereotype. While I was there we also established that all the clients was first timers and all fathers, and afterwards I was able to sit and think about how grateful I am to have my father who’s not an addict. I have had the luxury of always having a clean and sober father; which I had taking for granted.

My feet pound the track. I take deep breaths and pump my arms in rhythm with my steps. My muscles ache but my mind is focused, I am in the zone and I feel invincible, moving faster than ever before. Run, rest, repeat. The cycle of intervals in the workout let me just tune out and push myself. The only problem is, as I run each interval I feel a nagging pain in my leg. The pain slowly increases until I realize the worst: I might be injured.

I have been in recovery now for about five years because of my drug and alcohol dependency. I started doing drugs in middle school and kept appearances up until my senior year of high school. My senior year of high school I stopped dancing and other positive activities. I believe that being a part of activities kept my drug use at bay until it took over my life. Some positive factors in my life that helped me not use every day were self-control and teacher monitoring. Also, I kept busy so I could stay on track for the most part. The risk factors for me using drugs and alcohol are having a hard time expressing emotions in a healthy way. I was unable to delay gratification and using drugs so young made it hard for me to mature like the rest of

One is on my right foot, one is on myh right forehead, one is on my right elbow and one is on my left leg.

Waking up, knowing the day was going to be the same, Elizabeth or Liz for short, was ready to go to school. Doing the same routines every day of school: waking up at 8:15, take a 10 minute shower, get dressed up, brush her teeth, do her hair, eat breakfast, walk out of her apartment, drive to school, and hang out with her friends until the bell rang at 9:15. Liz started the second semester in 11th grade, but now she has been in school for 2 months.

My experience about clinical this week was great because i provided care to a resident who was on parental feeding. This was an opportunity to witness some of the procedures being performed on real patients. This experience enable me to understand the rational behind most of the skills which i practiced during clinical labs.