I am 22 years old. I started nursing school in June of 2018. Nursing school is hard enough as a healthy person.
I got a kidney infection in the end of November of 2018 for which I was hospitalized for. That began a severe struggle with my health. I stopped being able to hold down any food (even water). After multiple hospitalizations, one of them lasting a month.
I was officially diagnosed with severe gastroparesis in April of 2019 after I had lost 60 pounds and my gall bladder removed. They couldn’t control my nausea and vomiting with any diet or medication, so I ended up with a surgically placed J tube. I have since been hospitalized 3 more times, not including the ER visits from passing out at clinicals in which I was not admitted.
I currently have not kept down anything I have ingested for about a year now, despite the gastric pacemaker I had placed in June. Despite the 4 surgeries I have had this year, the accumulated 2 months of the last year I have spent in a hospital bed because of this disease along with kidney stones and an ovarian cyst that burst, and the malnourishment that keeps me exhausted most of every day, I graduate nursing school in 38 days with a 3.9 GPA.
I also accepted a position on my dream unit (an ICU) for after I graduate. I am still learning to live with my feeding tube and still struggle to remain positive. I have my days where I cry and want nothing more than to be able to enjoy a glass of ice cold water and gain some weight. I still have hope that, one day, I will be able to get rid of my feeding tube and keep down something. I am so excited that I am going to graduate with my BSN despite my bad luck with my health. This has been easily the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Thank you for letting me share.
