Living in Freedom as a Woman

This week is Nurse’s week. Celebrating a career that is unique in so many ways. I remember it was midway through my freshman year that I shifted the course of my educational pathway. I had grown up wanting to be a doctor that delivers babies. I went to the University of Texas at Austin as a pre-med major. Then I took my first biology class- Holy cow! I changed my major to Nursing. Life has never been the same. I remember my first clinical rotation was in an acute rehab place (basically the middle place between hospital and a nursing home). I already had some PTSD with nursing homes from being a young child and visiting my great-grandmother in one. Well, my first clinical day, I walked in and met my first patient and her diagnosis was “Dumping syndrome”, aka “explosive diarrhea as soon as I eat anything”. Literally, she had to sit on the bedside commode while she ate. Sadly, I had to stand in the corner and literally dry-heaved the entire time. I had to go get two of my friends and my