Chronically Alive

Pee Complications

Complications followed me around like a shadow.  Nothing was ever straightforward for me. I had just finished a semester of nursing school walking with just a cane for assistance. By the beginning of summer, I didn’t even need the cane anymore, but a new problem had cropped up. i started to be unable to pee. At first, it was just that I felt like I needed to pee all the time and was always in the bathroom. The thing was that I only peed a little bit every time I went in there.  Then I started to still feel the urge to pee even after I had just left the bathroom.  

I mentioned my peeing issue to Dr. Kaye, my adolescent medicine doctor, and she made me a referral to go see a urologist.

Even Worse Pee Complications

The day before I was supposed to see the urologist … Find Out What Happens Next

Will I Need Another Catheter

Most people take peeing for granted. You drink liquids, and then after the liquids have been processed through your kidneys you pee out the waste products. They don’t have any need to go to the urologist’s office and have them stick a catheter into their urethra and suck huge volumes of urine out of their bladder.

Well, in my case, my body didn’t want to let the pee go. For a couple of months, I’d been having issues where I always felt like I needed to pee, and then when I went into the bathroom only a little bit of urine would come out, as soon as I left the bathroom though, I would instantly feel the urge to pee again.

Dr. Kaye, my adolescent medicine doctor, had set me up with a urology appointment but an emergency had cropped up a day before the … Find Out What Happens Next

Beginning to Self Catheterize

Peeing in the toilet is overrated anyways. That’s what I kept trying to tell myself as I learned how to catheterize

I went two months without being able to pee normally. Then I went a week of not being able to pee at all. That meant a week of daily visits to my urologist, Dr. Metta. Finally, we decided that I would need to learn to catheterize myself. Neilsa the medical assistant at my urologist’s office had taught me how to do it in the bathroom in a grueling 45-minute session. I thought I would never pick it up, but on the very last try, I struck golden liquid. Urology sent me home with a whole bunch of catheters to sample and a whole lot of positive encouragement. My instructions were to self catheterize myself at least five times a day.

The first few days … Find Out What Happens Next

Faking Healthy for Clinicals

During nursing clinicals I had to stuff catheters up my sleeves under the long-sleeved shirts that I wore under my scrubs. That way no one would know I was sick. No one would know that I couldn’t pee without medical devices.

Dr. Metta was the urologist that I was seeing for my issues around not being able to pee. For the last few months I constantly felt like I had to urinate. I had also been unable to fully empty my bladder. Over the last week I’d been unable to pee at all on my own. Now I had to rely completely on catheters that I inserted myself to drain out all my urine. Once the urine finished trickling out and my bladder was empty, I would pull it out and toss it.

The Urodynamics Study Results

A month after my original appointment with Dr. Metta, … Find Out What Happens Next

Nurses: The Real Superheroes

I’d always wanted to be a nurse. Most of my life had been spent in hospital since the age of ten. Because I am such a frequent flier, I knew that what really made the difference in the care you receive at the hospital is the nurses. When my symptoms flared up in the hospital, it was the nurse who came in with the pain meds and the heating pad, and the soothing words.

I’m Cut Out to Be A Nurse

School has been important to me my whole life, and I’d thrown myself into my studying full force. I earned a 4.0 GPA at the community college. My perfect GPA had secured me a $40,000 scholarship to Elms College. l’d gotten A’s in all of the classes and clinicals that I’d been able to attend at Elms. Academically, emotionally, and clinically I was totally cut … Find Out What Happens Next