Mission at Work: Amanda's Story

I've had a couple of stressful times since starting school. A lot of stressful times. When I, like three months ago, my son got sick. He had what's called Immuno Thrombocytopenia Purpura, ITP. So I noticed that he came home and he had a little darkening in his lip. And it looked almost like a bit his lip. It was like a scab. And I thought that was strange. He's seven. This is a week before HESI exam. And, you know, I took him to his Cub Scouts that night, and I just kind of was watching him and all night I was kind of thinking, "Oh." And when I got him dressed for scouts, I tied his little neckerchief on and I saw some little, particularly little red dots on his chest. And I thought that that was strange.

So all night when he was at Scouts, I was watching him and he just seemed a little tired. and my little hamster wheel, student nursing hamster wheels, [makes gear sound], "What could this be? What could this be?" And I started thinking of how to be a platelet issue because of this, these little Petechiae. So I called his doctor's office, and I made an appointment for him to go in the next day. But at the doctor's office, they won't do labs. And if it's a blood problem, it needs labs. So I decided, after we came home, I decided, "You know what, I just I'm going to take him to the Pediatric ER," and I'm not somebody who's done that -- He's -- My kids, I can count how many times they've been to the ER, they're whole lives. They're eight and 11. Now, one time, this time.

I called my mom who's been a nurse for 45 years, just retired last month, and I just said, "What do you think of this? What do you think of that?" And I told her, "I think I'm going to take him to ER." And she said, you know, "Trust your nurse gut and your mom gut." And so I took him in. And it was like, 10, at night, we finally you know, I told him what I thought he had, and they kind of looked at me like it was crazy. One nurse didn't know what it was. I'd never heard of it. Anyway, they got us back into a room and they and they drew a bunch of blood. And we just kind of snuggled up in a hospital bed. And a few hours later, when the labs came back, all of a sudden, like five doctors and three nurses came in and they said, "We're going upstairs right now we're admitting him, his platelet count was one." So all you nurse people know that platelets was supposed to be 150 to 400. This was one not 150.

So basically, this is an autoimmune thing. His body had destroyed all its platelets. We were admitted immediately to pediatric oncology, and hematology while they ruled out leukemia and meningitis and came up with the conclusion that he had ITP, the initial condition I thought he might have, and he was admitted for immunoglobulin therapy, prednisone IV treatments. So IGG treatments, possible platelet infusion, but then they just ended up sticking with the IGG treatments, which are really hard on him. And I was stuck in the hospital. They still have COVID locked down rules here in Washington, one parent, my husband couldn't come my daughter couldn't come see him. I didn't want to leave him there to get my schoolwork.

I had um, I had to argue with the hospital administration to finally get a second pass, they agreed to let my mom come sit in the room while I left and I went home and got my camera. So like my camera, my schoolwork and my stuff. It was two days before HESI exam and I was living in Pediatric ICU with my son in same change of clothes in the same everything for three days. And I got my laptop and I scheduled a one-on-one with my professor from the hospital room and got on Teams and let her know what was happening. And anyway, we were there about a week and when we went home, two hours later, I took my HESI exam at home in my living room.

And he's okay now, thankfully, but that was really difficult. Obviously, I was able to make it work but barely. And I had understanding professors who understood that I couldn't -- I still did my webinar from the hospital room -- I just couldn't be on camera because of protecting HIPAA. So obviously that that was good, how it worked out, but it would have been really easy to give up. It would have been really easy to say, "I guess I just can't finish the semester this is going on." But part of why I'm in schools for my kids, so giving up when somebody gets sick or something, you know, it just isn't an option. I'm not stopping until someone stops me. Otherwise, I'm gonna keep going.

So anyway, I also was in the hospital myself during BSN 266. Between 246 and 66. I had a major surgery last April, I had an anterior wall repair, posterior wall, cistocele, rectocele, and total radical hysterectomy. So like a five-in-one major surgery. I had this major surgery and I knew that I had clinicals coming for the next semester, my HESI exam here, I had to pass the HESI on the first try, because if I'd had to take the retake, it would have been while I was in recovery. I did my first clinical or my first webinars of the next semester upstairs in bed with a catheter with a lap desk that I ordered off Amazon, you know, in pajamas. I had to communicate with my professors like, "I'm here, but I can't be in scrubs because I can't wear pants. You know, so I'm going to be in the blankets, I'll be covered. I might be medicated, but I'm going to do my best."

And, so yeah, major surgery, I've been through. My husband having COVID we've been through. My son getting sick with the ITP and being in the ICU, all these things are things that probably would have knocked you out of a normal nursing program. But I think if you just keep communication open with your professor, nobody, nobody on the other side of the computer is a monster. They're all humans, but they just need to know what's going on in order for you to help them and if you try and talk to them after something's happened, you know, it's kind of too late to be of assistance.

But like when my son was in the hospital, I messaged my professor. I said, "You know my son sick, I need to talk to you. I don't know what's going to happen." She kept that communication open with me. She said, "Let me know if things change or get worse or if we need to make different accommodations if you need to reschedule." They were you know, I didn't end up taking them up on much of that help. I didn't get any extensions or things changed. I passed my HESI on the first try, which is amazing since I got to study for zero. But so far, I've passed them all on the first try. So I'm hoping to this is my final one this semester. I'm hoping to continue that streak and just finish this last one but anyway, yeah.