Hello and introduction

Hi,

I've been reading this forum for a few months, and now seems like a good time to jump in. My name is Kathi, I'm 34, married to a wonderful guy, and the mother of four terrific kids - ages 12, 10, 7, and 3. I live in Northwestern Michigan. I currently do home daycare for teachers, which has worked out great to let me be home with my kids, but I've really been thinking about nursing for a few years now, so I gave my daycare parents notice last week that I won't be back in the fall (which was NOT easy to do!).

My 10 year old daughter was treated for leukemia from 7/02 - 9/04, and I think that's what finally made the decision for me about nursing. Watching the wonderful nurses at her Peds Oncology clinic, giving her all her meds (felt like a pharmacist sometimes!), taking care of her central line (she had it for 8 months and had no infections!), and just learning everything I could about her disease. She's doing great now (1-1/2 years off-treatment), and I feel a great deal of satisfaction that I was part of her healing team.

I do have an Associates Degree in Business from a local private college from 10 years ago, so I do have all of my general pre-req's out of the way, with the exception of Algebra which I am taking this term. It was a little scary to go back - 10 years since I'd been in a classroom and over 17 since I'd had any math, but I'm holding a 98% right now and the other students are actually looking at me as the 'smart one' - I guess going back as an older student has its rewards! :)

Anyway, the school I mentioned above is in the process of getting a nursing program, which would start Fall of 07 or Winter of 08, and gives me time to take my pre-reqs one at a time and do very well (hopefully!) in them. I need to take A&P I and II and Microbiology. They do not have a waiting list, so I can just apply the term before they start and hope I can get in. I'm also planning on looking for a part-time job with our local hospital to give me some experience in the healthcare field, and possible tuition reimbursent once I start the nursing program.

Thanks for reading if you got this far - looking forward to getting to know you all better! I've already learned quite a bit from reading the posts over the last few months.

Kathi