One of My Dormmates May Single-Handedly Cause Me To Change My Major!

[lost_n_justin's_smile]

I want to change my majors. I've decided I want to go into Nursing.

Last night one of my dormmates and friends was chillin' in my room for awhile. She has Cerebral Palsy like I do, but her form is much more severe than mine is. Her muscles are so tight that her muscles sometimes spasm. Last night, as she was sitting in my room with her, I noticed the signs of a spasm coming on. You can tell because her whole body tenses up and she stops talking. Basically her whole body is rebelling against her. So I sat with her and started massaging her arms to try and work the spasm out. Then it started spreading to her lower extremities because she unbuckled her wheelchair seatbelt and started to ease out of her chair because her whole body was rigid and she couldn't sit up. So I basically had to catch her when she came down to make sure that she didn't hit her head. It was really scary to watch:(. I sat with her for an hour and a half while she screamed from the pain. She had a death grip on me, so I had to call my other friend to go find someone who could help work the spasm out. I got her to calm down and held her hand. By the time we got her loose enough to move, she was really incoherent. But we got her up and she came out of the spasm soon after.

As I was sitting with her, I realized I want to change my major to Nursing and help people just like I helped her. But I keep thinking
"What would I do since I don't have all my physical abilities". I think I really want to do this. I mean I love writing, and everyone says I'm good at it, but I don't think my heart is in it enough to do it as a career.

I need to get the opinions of everyone here at LD, Mr. Lanie, and my parents before I actually change my major. I also need to do some major soul searching, but I think I really want to do this.

Thanks for reading,

Lanie

[AlmostFamous]

What a noble thing to want to go into Nursing. My grandmother was a nurse and her daughter (my aunt) is one also. I thought for awhile that I wanted to get into it, but I don't know if I could stomach some of the things I would encounter.

Sounds like you would be more interested in becoming a physical therapist than a registered nurse. And I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go for it. If in your heart, you feel that is what you are meant to do and help people like your friend, you should do it.

Does your friend receive any sort of physical therapy at all? Since her CP is so severe, she really should recieve PT once, if not twice a week. That would keep her from having such painful muscle spasms. I mean, the PT itself will not be the most pleasant experience either but it will stretch her out and keep spasms at bay.

[GoalGrl21]

Yeah, that's awesome Lanie!

My mom's an occupational therapist and it's somewhat of the same thing, just different areas of the body and all that stuff.

I could see you really enjoying that, it's a admirable profession.

[lost_n_justin's_smile]

Originally posted by AlmostFamous
What a noble thing to want to go into Nursing. My grandmother was a nurse and her daughter (my aunt) is one also. I thought for awhile that I wanted to get into it, but I don't know if I could stomach some of the things I would encounter.

Sounds like you would be more interested in becoming a physical therapist than a registered nurse. And I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go for it. If in your heart, you feel that is what you are meant to do and help people like your friend, you should do it.

Does your friend receive any sort of physical therapy at all? Since her CP is so severe, she really should recieve PT once, if not twice a week. That would keep her from having such painful muscle spasms. I mean, the PT itself will not be the most pleasant experience either but it will stretch her out and keep spasms at bay.

Any sort of physical exertion causes her to spasm, so PT isn't much of an option.

I want to help little kids with severe disabilities like Krabbe's disease and others. I went through PT myself, and I don't know if I'd want to be a Physical Therapist.

[Katlin]

I say do what feels right.

Nurses are definitely in need! Kids who are nursing majors here get special treatment just because they want more people in the program.

My future roommate is an OT major and she LOVES it. She's going to go into the schools and work with children as well, so maybe that's more up your alley!

[AlmostFamous]

OT is such a neat and interesting profession. SI Disorder is fascinating. And autistic children......they are just so amazing.

[GoalGrl21]

Occupational Therapy is an awesome thing too. Lanie, if you're interested in that let me know because my mom has a lot of the information on it.

[lost_n_justin's_smile]

Maybe I could do OT. The OT I had in school was an absolute witch. LOL.

I grew up in a family of nurses, though, so I guess it's in my blood.

[Katlin]

Xavier is actually known for it's OT program.

One of the only and the best in the state. :)

[HipHopChristian]

I think that's awesome you had an experence like that, where you realized you wanted to change your major. :)

Well, I have a couple things to say actually. I don't know if they're to random, or... what. I'll just spit them out at you..

Well, first of all I want to say... like you said, you should do some major soul searching first. Like, I know you really liked the feeling of helping someone, and you were overwhelmed by it, etc. But not to underestimate you or anything, this might just be a temparary thing. You might want to do it now... but in a month or two, it may just wear off. Is there anyway you can just like, take a nursing class as an elective to see if you like it, or... maybe see if that's actually what you want to do with your life.

It seems to me your really into writing. I read a quote in your signature after I read your post... the one about writing, by you. That's a pretty cool quote, don't you think?

Do you think you may want to double major?.. or no? I don't know if that sounds weird to you or not.

Second, you said you want to help kids that went through what you were.are going through. Me and my friend were just disscussing something of that similar nature last night. As you know (or don't..), I major in Social Work. It used to annoy me greatly sometimes in my Intro To Social Work class when people would comment on the text we just read, but ya know... (excuse me if my sentences don't come out right, I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say... but you'll get my drift) they've never been in that situation, or they've never experenced that... so how can they totally comment on it? How can you comment or be an "expert" on a subject you never been through yourself. Like, for example, a person writes a book on child abuse. They've most likely never been abused by thier parents, but they're the "expert" on it... even though they haven't been in that situation.

We had a journal entry every week in that class and we had to comment on the chapters, and the class discussions and stuff in that journal. Mine was probably the most in depth one, because I was in pretty much most of those situations in some way. My teacher would always say sometimes when your councling a person on a particular subject, it's best if you weren't in that situation yourself. But I believe that you should be able to relate to that person in some way, and have gone through a simalar experence.

I'm thinking about becoming either a youth councler, marriage and family councler.... something along the lines of that. Because I feel I could relate to a lot of the stuff that they'd be going through... as I was in that. Lanie, it'd be awesome if you did something in CP, because... you would know about it, because you've been through it.

My major was computer science at first (well, kinda...), but I decided Social Work was better for me (not just because I'm bad at math ;) ), because I like people, and I want to help people that were in the same situation as me. I don't want them to make the same mistakes I did :)

Think about it... keep us update. I hope I helped in that tiniest bit. :) Sorry I'm not to much help...

[lost_n_justin's_smile]

Thanks Hollis:)

[JRT's#1Buckeyes]

Originally posted by AlmostFamous
What a noble thing to want to go into Nursing. My grandmother was a nurse and her daughter (my aunt) is one also. I thought for awhile that I wanted to get into it, but I don't know if I could stomach some of the things I would encounter.

Sounds like you would be more interested in becoming a physical therapist than a registered nurse. And I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go for it. If in your heart, you feel that is what you are meant to do and help people like your friend, you should do it.

Does your friend receive any sort of physical therapy at all? Since her CP is so severe, she really should recieve PT once, if not twice a week. That would keep her from having such painful muscle spasms. I mean, the PT itself will not be the most pleasant experience either but it will stretch her out and keep spasms at bay.

I think a physical therapist would be a great job. My sister is a registered nurse...the only bad thing was when she was just beginning, she was a nurse's aide. Unfortunately, the aides get all the worst jobs to do. I too was thinking about going into nursing...but I knew I didn't have the stomach for it.
I'm also a firm believer in following your heart...I think you should go for it! :)

[KareNsync2000]

It would be difficult but not impossible for you to become a nurse. I have read articles, but a source doesn't come to mind. I found this site: http://www.exceptionalnurse.com/
but don't have time to read right now. You may find something useful there.

http://www.dcardillo.com/career_tape.html Career alternatives for nurses


If you have a nursing program where you are, why not talk to one of the professors?

Also, a way to find out a bit more about hospitals is to become a Volunteer.

Good luck, Lanie!

[ajfan4life]

Originally posted by lost_n_justin's_smile
I want to change my majors. I've decided I want to go into Nursing.

Last night one of my dormmates and friends was chillin' in my room for awhile. She has Cerebral Palsy like I do, but her form is much more severe than mine is. Her muscles are so tight that her muscles sometimes spasm. Last night, as she was sitting in my room with her, I noticed the signs of a spasm coming on. You can tell because her whole body tenses up and she stops talking. Basically her whole body is rebelling against her. So I sat with her and started massaging her arms to try and work the spasm out. Then it started spreading to her lower extremities because she unbuckled her wheelchair seatbelt and started to ease out of her chair because her whole body was rigid and she couldn't sit up. So I basically had to catch her when she came down to make sure that she didn't hit her head. It was really scary to watch:(. I sat with her for an hour and a half while she screamed from the pain. She had a death grip on me, so I had to call my other friend to go find someone who could help work the spasm out. I got her to calm down and held her hand. By the time we got her loose enough to move, she was really incoherent. But we got her up and she came out of the spasm soon after.

As I was sitting with her, I realized I want to change my major to Nursing and help people just like I helped her. But I keep thinking
"What would I do since I don't have all my physical abilities". I think I really want to do this. I mean I love writing, and everyone says I'm good at it, but I don't think my heart is in it enough to do it as a career.

I need to get the opinions of everyone here at LD, Mr. Lanie, and my parents before I actually change my major. I also need to do some major soul searching, but I think I really want to do this.

Thanks for reading,

Lanie

Definitely follow your heart. You can do anything and accomplish anything as long as you follow your heart. If this is something you really want to do and you are passionate about it(and it seems like you are) then I say go for it. And don't let your physical abilities deter you. You can do your writing on the side(since you love it and are good at it, you definitely don't want to let that go). But definitely do alot of soul searching and whatever you decide I am sure it will be the right decision. Good Luck.

[lost_n_justin's_smile]

Originally posted by KareNsync2000
It would be difficult but not impossible for you to become a nurse. I have read articles, but a source doesn't come to mind. I found this site: http://www.exceptionalnurse.com/
but don't have time to read right now. You may find something useful there.

http://www.dcardillo.com/career_tape.html Career alternatives for nurses


If you have a nursing program where you are, why not talk to one of the professors?

Also, a way to find out a bit more about hospitals is to become a Volunteer.

Good luck, Lanie!

Thank you Karen:D