I have been interested in becoming a part of the medical field since I can remember. I have grown up around many different health issues and went through my own, too. I have been through a lot of my own medical mysteries from when I got back from our cruise to the Bahamas and slowly a virus would try to take over, to a week long stay at the children’s hospital trying to diagnose what was going on with me. 

When we got back from the Bahamas, I was six years old at the time, I started to feel sicker and sicker and ended up not being able to be my six year old spunky self. I was constantly nauseous and losing weight rapidly. I was in and out of doctors offices and didn’t get answers. My jaundice got so severe that my parents finally decided to bring me to the St. Cloud Hospital where I was admitted and put through a multitude of tests to try to figure out what was taking over. I was yellow with jaundice because my body was fighting so hard against the disease it did not know. When I was about to be brought down to the Children’s Hospital my doctor walked in with the biggest smile on her face and said that they had figured out what I had. It was CMV (Cytomegalovirus) . This virus is a very, very rare virus which is why it took so much work and so many doctors to figure out this diagnosis.

I also spent a week in the Children’s hospital due to another mystery. They could not figure out why I was always “icky” as I called it or nauseous every time I ate or drank too much of any kind of foods or liquids. They did a multitude of testing again and could not find anything that was wrong. At the end of my stay the doctors did a gastric emptying scan. I had to eat a whole breakfast infused with radioactive dyes in ten minutes and then for two hours I would have to go stand in between the scanner which would take a picture of my digestive tract. With this test they figured out that I had a slow digestive tract, or gastroparesis that was caused by the CMV from my past. I went on heavy antibiotics for many years to speed up my digestive system. After these medications my digestive system improved to where I am now. 

 Every time I had to get my blood drawn or a test done I would always want to watch and would not be scared of any of the medical team and terminology around me. I thought everything was so cool that all of the doctors were doing it to help me feel better. I knew at that time that I was going to go into the medical field and help everyone around me to feel better just like they did for me. I told my parents that I wanted to be a doctor for Halloween almost every year because I loved it so much, so they got me all dressed up in scrubs and even made a name tag for me. Once I actually had to think about what I wanted to do, I thought I wanted to be a surgeon, however I knew that I also wanted kids and a family. I then decided that the profession that would be the best for me would be to become a Registered Nurse (RN). Once I am done with college I hope to work in the ICU or the NICU. I have always known that the medical field was for me, and I am so excited to show my younger self that I made it one day.