Future nurse in need

My hope is to ask you for a token of generosity, in my path towards education and my attempt to keep my home for my family while I'm going to school. If you cannot give, a thought, a prayer, or simply paying it forward to another will suffice.

All I have ever wanted was to be involved with medicine. I wanted to help others. My mother told me that I watched an entire open heart surgery video at the science museum when I was little. She couldn't pull me away. I still remember that feeling of discovering a lifelong passion, and a sense of destination. My journey had begun.

I was born hard of hearing, with doctors telling my parents that I would be deaf by 21. I was taken to a few sign language classes, but refused to learn it. If I learned sign language, I would never see the inside of a surgery room or hospital. With the love and support of a special teacher, I taught myself basic lip reading. Mrs. Wong helped me to believe that I was worth something. I started to apply myself at school.

My family didn't have much. I worked at Circle K to pay for my classes, volunteered at (the then) Desert Sam Hospital ER to get my foot in the door, and went to Mesa Community College for my prerequisites. I was graced with a scholarship for my Associate's in Surgical Technology.

I became one of the first "scrubs" in Arizona to wear a bluetooth device in a surgery room to be able to hear the surgeons and work at the same level as my hearing-abled peers. I have been blessed to be employed at a Level 1 trauma center for the last six years. I can work on the entire body with the surgeon, passing tools, retracting tissue, anything that will help them help the patient. I am grateful to have been by the side of the sick and the dying, because no one deserves to go alone.

I am now at the end of the moderate range of hearing loss and soon will have to relinquish my position. I love my job, but will not be able to do it forever. In order to stay in surgery, I will become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). A CRNA is a nurse with an advanced practice degree that puts the patient asleep and takes care of them throughout the surgery.

I am now in the Grand Canyon University (GCU) Bachelor program for nursing. I am so lucky to have the support of my beautiful fiancée and two wonderful boys, aged 7 and 13. My fiancée lost her job of six years, and is now staying at home to take care of the boys and our home. She has shouldered all of the responsibilities of the house to help. There is no way we would be able to pay for the childcare or transportation to and from school.

The boys are now A students, and the oldest has been in cross country and track while keeping up with AVID, an honors program. I attribute it to her amazing and selfless character, raising our children to commit random acts of kindness and to stand up for those who are less fortunate.

My character, my work ethic, and my devotion to the profession have stayed the same throughout my life, but I need help for my last two semesters of school.  Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my page.