Hello, my name is Miriam and I am someone who has survived 2 brain surgeries. The first of the surgeries was life saving. I had what was called a subarachnoid hemorrhage (a blood vessel popped in my brain) and I was coherent enough to call 911 for myself since I was home alone. I was in the hospital for a total of 10 days. My neurologist said I was a walking miracle even if I had to relearn how to walk. That was in 2015 when I was 34 years old.
However, come 4 years later, I found out I was pregnant and so I told my neurologist about my pregnancy so he said to come in for an MRI to see if my aneurysm had closed after the initial surgery and to determine if I was able to push my son out, but I had to be late in my pregnancy. I said ok and I waited until I was 7 months pregnant. They did the MRI and said absolutely no pushing and they said they needed to go back into my brain to close it better because there was some kind of residual fluid. I said ok to this, too. I had a cesarian and gave birth to my baby boy, Daniel. As soon as he was 4 months old, I was back in the hospital for the second surgery.
When I came to after the surgery, I noticed I had a speech delay. I couldn’t remember my phone number. I didn’t respond to any questions fast enough in time. What was supposed to be and in and out procedure, turned out to be a 3 day stay.
To this very day, I still have lingering effects of the surgery. I have no idea which day of the week it is without looking at a calendar or on my phone. I don’t know what number day it is either. Imagine being able to multitask and being able to get stuff done in the past only to find yourself having a hard time understanding and learning a whole new career. I hadn’t worked since my pregnancy complications and then the followup surgery. That was 4 years ago. I decided to go back to school and become a phlebotomist at a hospital for kids. I had assistance at the community college. It was called Students with Disabilities. My professor gave me such a hard time when I asked her so many questions. I cried so many times and wanted to quit but then I passed the class after studying for the final for what seemed to feel like forever. I scheduled the ASCP exam for Phlebotomy. They gave me up to 4 months to study but I scheduled it on the third month. I studied my behind off. The day of the exam arrived and I took the exam. There was a lot of guess work and a lot of changing answers last minute. I thought I was going to fail. The result came back saying that I had passed the exam!!!! I was shocked, surprised, happy and then so scared that I would have to be responsible for someone else’s health and life. I applied to different places where they were hiring for a phlebotomist.
I decided to work next door to the hospital that saved my life. I work at a children’s hospital. High anxiety kids who are fearful of needles with their high anxiety parents. It is absolute stress. I had no idea being a phlebotomist was going to be this challenging. Of all the challenges, it challenges your spirit. Becoming a phlebotomist has been a tremendous struggle. I struggled with learning, understanding, comprehending all of the information that relates to phlebotomy. I fear my job is in danger because I’m not learning fast enough. It’s slow being that not too many people are sick because it’s summer but I mainly fear the fall and winter when everything is super busy. I thrive better in calmer situations ever since my second surgery. My place of employment gave me ADA forms for my neurologist to fill out and to give them precise instructions on what to do to help me thrive but he is on vacation and will be until the 15th. They wanted the forms pretty much yesterday, figuratively speaking. So with this going on, I am asking for a backup plan to this high stress job. I am hoping for some kind of emergency fund that could possibly pay for a different role within the hospital. Maybe radiology? I came across this therapy healing arts program that I’ve been wanting to try as well, but with many positions, they are wanting a bachelor’s degree for that. I currently have a Certificate of Completion for Phlebotomy Technician under my belt. I’ll attempt to post my art here but the site the files are too big. If you have Instagram, you can look me up visually_fine_artista. You will know you’re looking at the right person when Frida Kahlo Thank you for your time although I know this was a lot to read.