Nursing 101

Well, I did it. I wasn’t going to tell you about it until after the first meeting in case I changed my mind or something happened that made my doing it impossible. Apparently, it IS possible…

Yesterday I attended my first class to beginning my new career…I am going to nursing school!!!

Now, I know a LOT of you think I am kidding, because, well, I would have to be. I loathe needles, sick people make me, well, sick…I don’t do body fluids. I get lost in hospitals. The list just goes on and on. So, how did I come up with this?

I was diagnosed with cancer.

Really, that’s about it. I have spent the vast majority of my life avoiding hospitals…sick people…and needles. However, the past year has shown me some of the most incredible people I have ever met. They are caring, they are compassionate, and they are true. They are nurses.

Minus the one guy who denied my mammogram, my entire medical team from start to finish, has been amazingly kind to my family and I. They have seemed genuinely concerned about my health and well-being as well as making sure my family was cared for. I have one chemo nurse who actually brought a strawberry pie to our home, for heaven’s sake!

Maybe there were some nurses who weren’t all about caring and nurturing me, but I don’t recall any of them. The doctors and nurses, the techs and aides, all of them, contributed to my getting well, my healing. So, here we are, at the end of my year of treatment, and I know I am supposed to be one of these caregivers.

I mentioned before how it breaks my heart to go to chemo and see these little, old people get off the Wheels bus ALONE, sit through chemo for hours ALONE, and then wait, sometimes for several more hours, for the Wheels bus to return them to their home, yet again, alone. I don’t want anyone to go through cancer alone. I want to give back. I want to make a difference. I want to hold the scared woman’s hand as her biopsy results are read.

I want to sit and converse with the little old lady who lives alone and has no one to talk to anymore.

I want to pray with people who ask for it and pray for those who don’t.

I want to give someone a hug when the tears have come for some inexplicable reason.

I want to be there when someone is leaving this world for a better one, but they have outlived all family and friends and are about to make the last journey alone.

I want to tell the cancer patient who feels it is impossible that it is indeed, possible.

I want to inspire those who want to give up, give in, and give out…to just give it one more try.

I want to put an arm around a child who is frightened and assure them they are not alone.

I want to connect. I want to engage. I want to give hope. I want to reflect God’s love.

The next two semesters and then one in the summer will have me ready for Track I Nursing. As it turns out, Beautiful Daughter will graduate from high school the same time I graduate from nursing school. What an exciting time that will be for our family!

I am not sure where my nursing career will take me but I do feel inclined toward oncology. I also have deep passion for hospice…always have. I don’t know. I will go where God leads me. He has a tendency to know what’s best for me.

Yesterday, someone said, “But Pandie! You have a Masters degree in business! How does this make sense?” To which I replied, “Because God changed me through the blessings of cancer and I want to bless others.”

I cannot spend the next twenty years in business. Business does not make me happy. I look around every day at my co-workers as they stress and worry and hypothesize about all the things that could go wrong. I don’t want to live like that. I want to focus on, and even help participate in, all the things that could go right…

There are a lot of people in this old world who are alone, downtrodden, scared, unsaved… Maybe I will be the nurse that makes a difference in their life. Maybe my God-given joy will spur the question, “Why are you so happy?” Maybe my can-do attitude will inspire someone to not give up just when they want to most. Maybe my ability to empathize with a cancer patient will show them that the diagnosis does not have to be a death sentence, but can be a life sentence. Maybe my willingness to witness to people will bring someone to the Lord.

Now, there’s a calling.

I have to go study now…

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