Everything is connected.

I wrote last week about how my experiences with nursing, music, and giving have come to define who I am. The nursing job I am about to begin seems to fit perfectly into the journey I’ve been travelling. The mixed unit will fulfill my love of pediatrics and my passion for oncology nursing that was sparked by my experience with bone marrow donation.

Nursing, music, and donation converged for me on Friday. I spent my morning at the hospital of my soon-to-be employment, filling out paperwork and having a pre-employment health assessment with employee health. I had labs drawn for immunization titers, and got a pretty nasty bruise from the stick. Despite donating blood and platelets several times since last summer, my arm hadn’t looked that beat up since the stem cell donation. The visual reminder made me think of my recipient, and I was actually wondering to myself about how he was doing when a friend texted me a question about the marrow registry.

I was even more surprised when later that afternoon, I got a phone call from the bone marrow registry. It turns out that my marrow has still not become dominant over my recipient’s, and his doctors have requested a T-cell donation. I haven’t been able to find much research on T-cell transfusions for stem cell transplant patients, but from what I have gathered so far it is intended to give my marrow a boost, allowing it to fully engraft and replace his cells. I’ll be getting more information the next time I speak to my advocate.

"everything's a piece of everyone"

And to complete the convergence of my passions, just a few hours after that phone call I was watching Jack’s Mannequin perform in concert. Much of Andrew Mcmahon’s music is influenced by his own battle with cancer, culminating in him receiving a stem cell transplant from his sister. There could not have been a more fitting moment than hearing him sing about “a light in the dark as I search for the resolution” and more, as I said a silent prayer for my recipient!

I am still blown away by how everything seemed to have fallen into place lately for me. If I had gotten the Florida job, doing this donation would be very complicated and maybe not even possible. If I didn’t have Andrew McMahon’s story in mind back when I saw the bone marrow registry’s booth, I may not have thought to have signed up. If I hadn’t done the bone marrow donation, I might still be as hesitant as I had been about working with patients with cancer, and I wouldn’t have known what to say when presented with it during my job interview. Everything is connected.

Who I am & who I will be

If I had to choose an outfit to show people who I am, I think I might wear just what I have on tonight as I sit here trying to keep out the cold: sweatpants with my nursing program’s logo, a band t-shirt, and a sweatshirt from the Be The Match bone marrow registry. These items hardly show any fashion sense, but– along with being cozy and warm– go a long way for defining the major aspects of “me”.

1. Nursing. It’s been 8 months now since I’ve graduated from nursing school. In that time my patience and even my hope has sometimes faltered, but my passion for the field always remained.
2. Music. The art of music brings me peace, and gets me through just about every high and low I encounter. More important is the fact that I can share this love with my friends.
3. Giving. Donating bone marrow this past summer sparked something in me that I am forever grateful for. Realizing the impact of simple actions, recognizing the connection we all share to one another… The experience has changed me forever.

Finding your passions– truly being aware of them, and seeking them out– is what life should be all about. In the recent months, I have become better at recognizing the power of listening to my heart, having faith that if I live to the best of my abilities, good things will happen. When it is meant to be, have faith that all of the pieces will fall into place.

And this has been true for me. I can proudly say that as of last week, I have secured myself a nursing job! The position seems to be just what I need to fulfill my passions. I will be working on a unit with pediatric and adult beds, accepting patients from medicine/surgery as well as oncology. Pediatrics has long been my biggest interest, but I knew that med/surg experience would be useful for the future, and after the bone marrow donation experience my interest in working in oncology skyrocketed. It’s as though it was meant to be.

It’s impossible to know what is truly planned for your life. Literally days before interviewing for this job, I had flown to Florida to interview for a NICU internship. I believed that that could be my destiny, and it sure felt like the pieces were coming together for that opportunity. But God, the Universe, whoever is running this show had a different plan in mind. My trip to Florida wasn’t meant to bring a job offer, it was meant to bring me a fresh perspective. (Plane rides always do that for me). My interview for the internship was meant to help me flesh out my thoughts, perfect my routine, and flush all those interview jitters out of my system.

I know by now that I could very well be wrong about this plan, too, and that in the end even this job offer was just a stepping stone on a greater journey. Even from my window seat on the airplane, I was only able to see as far as my eyes would allow. But it’s exhilerating to be on this journey, and I’m looking forward to bringing my passions along for the ride.