From the time of my first stay in the hospital, I never wanted to be anything but a nurse. To get ready for my grown-up career I had my own little hospital in the basement of our house. Wearing the nurse's costume that my parents got me and my grandmother's Red Cross pin, I took good care of my dolls, with all their ailments and broken bones. As a small child I read Nurse Nancy and Johnny Goes to the Hospital. Then in my middle school years I devoured all the Cherry Ames books and longed for a long blue nurse's cape.  

After high school I started working toward my BS in nursing, but because of the intensity of the radiation treatments I'd had, it was very hard. My blood vessels had been damaged and I had necrosis of the bones. Even though I went to a small college, it took me a long time to walk across the campus from one class to another. I had a couple of surgeries during that time, but I was able to graduate with the rest of my class.

At last I was able to say with pride, "Yes, I am a nurse."

Even though I began to practice as a pediatric nurse, my own physical problems continued. Facing surgery on my hips, with the prognosis that I might never walk again, I decided to spend several months working with children in Honduras, knowing it might be the end of my career as a nurse. After the surgery I had to learn how to walk all over again. While I was recovering I studied holistic nursing, including Healing Touch therapy and lymphatic massage therapy. That led me to start a small clinic where I worked with people suffering from lymphedema, a common side effect of radiation therapy that results in fluid build-up in the tissue. It was work I embarked on to save myself as well as my patients. I always hoped that one day I would be able to get back to nursing.

Then, in my mid thirties, I weighed 86 pounds and was not absorbing nutrition. My intestines failed, and I had to have a colostomy. I was on disability for years and was repeatedly told that I was medically fragile and that it would be foolish to try to get off that assistance and get a job. My mind listened, but my heart and spirit did not believe the medical experts. I knew I was strong.

Finally I had to ask myself serious questions about the rest of my life: What shall I do? How do I take all my life experiences and head in a direction where I can help people? I realized I wanted to be an artistic nurse! I wanted to go into something I could do with passion. I decided to become a nurse who specializes in wound care and ostomies.

Shortly after completing my course work at Emery University, I met the man who would become my husband. Having a loving relationship along with the confidence that going back to school had given me, I accepted a job at a small hospital near my home as their first wound and ostomy nurse. I was thrilled and terrified! Hospital nursing had changed a lot in 15 years. The technological advances were enormous. Even what you wore was different. When I first started nursing we wore white--now nurses wore brightly colored outfits.

Whenever I had questions I would call colleagues or look things up on the computer. I pushed myself from behind until I felt fully confident and a part of 21st century nursing. Then, two years ago, I decided to tell my story and entered a contest called Great Comebacks, for people who had survived a life-altering illness resulting in life with an ostomy and who had become a positive example to others. In 2011 I became the Southeast regional award recipient and a year later was named the national recipient. Now I am a national speaker and patient advocate. I always share my story with my patients who are afraid that having an ostomy will ruin their life.