I entered the sacred field of Healthcare after 10 very productive and financially rewarding years in manufacturing.

I was thrown in head first at the deep end with no floaties, and no life guard on duty. While all my peers claimed that they always dreamed about ‘helping people’ after having ‘taken care of their Grandma’ for 15 years, I was here because the first and only job I had ever loved was shipped over to Mexico.

For me, there was no glamorus story of wanting to save the world, make a difference, of loving the patients and their families. Instead I was scared, helpless, in way beyond my head. This was a different world, one I didn’t realize existed, and I couldn’t wait to abandon.

But then there was the down’s syndrome resident that should not have lived past 5, but grew to be a young man-the youngest in the Nursing Home. There was the patient that had been on a feeding tube that was tired and wanted it turned off. There was the 101 year old that had a mind sharper than mine. There were the families-some who came in everyday to visit-some, whose very presence I feared-their love for my Resident was a fierce force that awakened something in my own soul. The daughter that screamed at me down the phone as she was driving in from out of town, “Keep Mom alive so I can say bye”, as if I had any control over this…but nevertheless I prayed my heart out she would find her. Those families that baked brownies because they didn;t know how else to express their gratitude.

Then there are the insurance companies, that never see a face, never count the cost of cutting someone off a week before they can be safely discharged. The insurance companies that pay for a vial of 10mg of Chemo, when a dose is 15mg and now you have to buy 2-but waste the 5. The insurance companies that will cut off payment for your patient yesterday.

I love all of it-it sometimes hurts, and sometimes it give immense joy. I am here. For all of it.