RobInAlabama

Wow, This is for all that have learning disabilities. Does anyone know any famous people who had dyslexia? http://www.dyslexia.com/qafame.htm Albert Einstine, Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Woodrow Wilson, George Washington, Jay Leno just to name a few. My daughter has dyslexia also, and so bad she has trouble talking some times, she has been told she is too slow to ever hold down a job. Her Mom has a Petting farm with over 450 animals and I have seen her look down in the pasture and see a horse or goat or sheep ect. and say there is something wrong and go get the animal and put her hands on the animal and look at its feet and ears and eyes tap on its belly look in its mouth (remind you of something) and know what to do and what kind of medication and I have seen her go and make up a shot and give it to the animal. She has no formal training. I saw her do this when she was only 15. I learned to fly an airplane. I worked on planes in flight. Yet you say I could not work in a hospital during a life emergency. I have seen so many students with learning disabilities feel like giving up and I will always get after them to prove everybody wrong. And usually they do. It never hurts to give anyone a chance to learn. Even if they seem slow. Some of the best students have some problem. Rob

Hi folks, News Good? Maybe! :cheers: I have some people helping me on this one now. Just got off the phone. I have to be careful in what I say and who I say it to. I think they are refering to talking to the school. I am currently working the grievence process right now. :smiley_ab There is hope coming from the group of people who is helping me. One hurdle then another is what I am faced with at this point. I think the process will be a long one but I am hopeful of the outcome. If anyone from the school should read I am not going to give up. No matter what. I have the time. And the instructors at your school has taught me a lot of useful skills. Like how to write a letter, :typing Thanks. Sometimes that is all it takes along with who to send it to. I have recieved a lot of good ideas from some people here. Thanks:bowingpur Rob

hello again, and again, and again, where did all these people come from who think i am a dark and devilish character from the swamps? i wish it were not true that someone could be singled out like i was for something like taking a legal prescription but it did happen. there was nothing else to do with it ^ unless it was ^ now these facts are true. unless it was > i am a man who was at the time 45 years old. oldest guy in class. i do wear my hair a little long. i have worn a coat with usaf patches with pictures of airplanes blowing up things. i have been certified as having adhd and also dyslexia and my teachers are required to give me extra time on test. (i asked for answers to the test but they laughed at me). they also are required by ada to excuse me from class from time to time if i want to get up and go to the bathroom or if i just want to get up. that is the facts sgt friday, and if i can think of any murders i may have commited or if i robbed any trains i will get back to you. see you, rob-in-birmingham ps. please forgive me for all the nonsense but i am going a little nuts at this point, i dont get to go to school now to keep me out of trouble and these post i am reading get me going--but in a good way. i was totaly depressed at first but not now.

Hello, Trying to answer Buttons questions. I did not know the Board of Nursing would do anything. And how does the ADA represent anyone? I thought the ADA was only a law. ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Please help me contact anyone who would be able to help. If you do know anything I will contact them. If my situation is "Fishy" they will be in the position to know. I would give them all the information. The school has an ADA coordinator and she said that I did not follow up with my instructor and the school said I did not follow up with the ADA coordinator. The ADA coordinator is employed by the school. If you know more info about what I can ask the ADA cooridinator to do for me I would like to know. All I get from the school is "Mr. XXXXXX we understand you have a problem and we would like to help. We will help you find another course of study." I only need one math course to conplete and I will qualify for at least ten different Associate degrees. I need a RN degree to be a RN. An associatets in Criminal Justice or Economics or Elementary Education or ECT. ECT. will not qualify me to be a Nurse. That is the help the school wants to do for me. I will try to answer your questions but I don't think I will be able to convince you I am telling the truth. I promise you I would not spend as much time typing on this site if I was only making up stories. I always hated writing Essays in school. I was forced at Gun Point to attend English in high school just to get me to go. Well not really but Still.................... You know, I have never understood that saying "Pull the wool over someones eyes" It sounds to me like that would hurt. Im just a red neck country boy who is trying to make it in this Big Old world. I need a muffler on my old junker and a new set of tires. I don't want to hurt nobody. I can't make it as a hillbilly cause I aint got the heart to kill a Dear and I can't stands the taste of Squirrle. All the service stations aint hiring so's I guess I just go on and try to get my Nursing degree. If they-ins will let me. Thanks, Rob In Alabama

Hello Everyone, I am glad to answer the questions posed by Buttons. I also want to thank Buttons for the opinion this member is asking. Not only am I seaking advice and I am getting a lot of wonderful advice, I am also seeking the opinion of all. I know before I go to the news media if this has to go to that level I want to know what kinds of feelings this story will generate. I know the first opinion most people have is a feeling of distaste. Please forgive me for my writing skills. Over the period of time I have been recovering from the accident that put me in this situation of constantly dealing with pain I have had friends and relatives voice heir non medical opinions. Because of the pain and the medications I have been prescribed these people have constantly been giving their opinions. Most people who I have had contact with have flatly told me I am nothing but a big baby who wants nothing more than to sit around and take my drugs and stay HIGH. Some others have focused more on the fact I have been on the "governmental dole" and they have told me their hard earned taxes are paying my bills. I harbor no ill feelings for anyone. One of the people who has been so harsh on me was my closest friend who I have a great deal of love and respect for. We grew up together and I have been close to his wife and parents and kids. One day a couple of years ago he called me and said he injured himself at work and he said he wanted to apoligize to me. He ownes his own business and until he got control of his pain and learned to change his life his business suffered to the point he told me he did not think he would be able keep his business. I have learned over the years I don't have time enough to "get emotional" I have to focus on what I can do and not how I can feel mad toward people. When the question is asked about the validity of this story all I can say is you have to trust my story or call the school. I felt I should not reviel the name of the school because of something I read about naming names on this site since it is a public site. I am not an attorney I am scared of making mistakes. If you post to me in private I will give you the name of the school as well as more personal information. I have answered questions to individuals who have sent me questions by way of private mail on this site. The question I think you may be wondering about is what kind of medication I tested pos+ for. The medication is an opiate type pain medication. I dont want to go farther. The situation that brought me to this point was that the nursing school says they are sticking to their opinion of their policy of expelling anyone who test pos+ for any of the drugs regardless of the fact someone may be prescribed the medication. One thing that was said in class from the instructor who initiated my expulsion was that if a student has to have dental work, that if the student chooses to take a pain med that is on the list they are taking a chance if they use the medication and come to class. She said if the person is sent for a random test and the medication is still in the students system the student will be dropped regardless if there is a prescription. The drugs on the drug policy are as follows. (1. Amphetamines (2. Barbiturates (3. Benzodiazepines (4. Cocaine (5. Marijuana (6. Methaqualone (7. Opiates (8. PCP (9. Propoxyphene (10. Methadone (11. Ethanol (12. OR OTHERS. The policy goes on to read "The fact that a student has a prescription for one or more of the classes of drugs which are legally prescribed by a healthcare practitioner does not necessarily, in and of itself, excuse the student from the effect of this policy." It also says "Prescription drugs prescribed to a student by an appropriate health care practitioner may nevertheless be subject to abuse and may give rise to reasonable suspicion testing or incident testing." I feel that they are reading their policy different than it is written. They would not even look at the prescription I have for the medication. They did not ask if I would give them proof I am not impared while on this medication. I was ready and willing to provide proof via a "Micro-cog" test along with statements from my doctors. I contend that if the school wants to know if I am a threat to abusing my medication or a threat to diverting medication I could show a 13 year history of following the doctors orders to the tee. In my pain clinic all of this is detailed in their records they even give drug test to make sure the patient is taking the medication so to rule out the medication from being diverted to someone who is not prescribed the medication. During my years of taking medication I have had to be careful not to let other know I am taking medication or what type. People who have found out I take pain meds and some of these people have begged me to share the med. Some times some have become hostle when I say no. I have had people actually cry and go into great detail about their condition and the reasons their doctors did not write the prescription. I have been very moved but I have said no. About the backlash to this school. I dont really understand what you are asking but the way I see the situation is they feel they have no reason to change from their opinion. I am only seeking for them to consider their obligation to me as a student who has spent my money and attended classes to get me to the point where I started the nursing school. I contend that because of their encouragement for me to attend their nursing school and the fact my advisor knew of my medication before I applied for the school and the fact they did not inform me of the stringent policy when I had time to apply to other schools who do not have this policy towards prescription medication that I am being cheated in some way. I feel I have a valid reason to protest I am just not sure of how to go about it. And the question about getting legal representation? Money and the fact as a disabled person since 1992 I have very little. Lawyer money - money lawyer. I hope Buttons can explain what you are refering to when you say that I am affecting the people on this site. If I am hurting someone here I want to understand and try to not let any harm come to any here. I am still working on resolution of this problem. I am taking all the advice I am given and thinking hard on it. Some advice has already been tried and some I have not been able to use at this time. I am very grateful for all the letters be they for or again me. Buttons, you said you were confused or lost about my post. Please believe me I feel the same way. I have never been in a situation I felt so lost or out of control. Even after I had a fusion of my spine I woke up to the feelings I could get better if I put my all in my recovery. Right now I feel like I am at other peoples mercy. I hate that feeling. Going into the REHAB thing I thought I could do what ever I wanted to do if I tried hard enough and studied hard enough. We will see, unless the group here would rather me say good by. Thanks All, Robert, in Alabama PS. All nurses are good.................except for that one who gave me that shot in my butt with the really big needle. Shame on you!

the americans with disabilities act was enacted to keep disabled persons from being held back because of the aspects of their disability and not because to person cannot perform. there are a number of people who can do a great job although they may have some sort of disability. i have a friend who when he was in his 20's had a stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side. he wanted to go to college and because the people who made the decisions said he was not a canidate because his brain was without o2 for a time "his words" they said he could not learn. he went on and took out college loans and he is within one semester of finishing law school. he had to drop out because he ran out of money. i have encouraged him to go back to voc. rehab. and request they help him. i think it is sad he wants to be a lawyer though, but i still will do my best to encourage him. if you knew him like i do you would want him to continue too. he has learned all the lawyer jokes and he loves to tell them. oh, although he cannot move his left side he has had a job ever since he was able to rise from his wheel chair. he drives too, but i will never ride with him again! i want to do things that will keep me from having another panic attack. i don't ride with my son anymore either. rob

Answer to questions. At my school all students are given a drug screen. Then after, there is random drug screens all through out the course. I think I was target for a random screen because I let the drug control officer know my medications and the medications were wrote on the consent page I signed. I was told that the reason this was not addressed at the beginning of the semester was because the department head said I had cheated. She said since I knew the drug test was coming and that I quit taking my medication until I gave the sample and that the first sample was clean. I contend that if my sample was indeed clean of the pain medication that all the samples from the other approx 225 students were flawed. I was taking the EXACT same dose on both days. What bothers me is that just about every person that had to give-it-up for the random was eather a friend of mine or one who I had lab with and three of them sat next to me in class. The school also has in the drug abuse policy that they can call a student in for a test who sleeps in class or is tardy. There are several students who would regulary sleep in class that were not on the random list. Another thing I can recall is some of the ones who were called for the random test were like me in the fact we would be the last to finish our test in class. I cant really say what caused my name or the others to be called for the drug test. I know there are some who will read this story and think it is so outlandish it can not be true. I still cannot believe the school did what they did. I cannot recall but one instructor who didn't like me, I was never a trouble maker and I let everyone at this school know I loved to be there. I don't drink. I take a bath at least once a month weather I actually need it or not. But you will have to make up your own mind if I am trying to slip one by you when I say this did happen and that I am not a scumbag cocaine snorter or if I regulary shoot up marigawanna (I am a bad speller though). I did smoke some Rabbit Tobacco when I was a kid. All the kids on my block did. I think back to then and I think what our dads were calling rabbit ta-bak-ee was some sort of milk weed in the back yard. It tasted like poop although I don't actully know what poop taste like. Thanks for all the interest, Rob

Hello Again, Again I want to thank all who have taken their time to respond to my post. The schools around have set their GPAs so high that for me to apply now to another school would be close to impossible since I will be given a grade of "F" in all my current classes for this semester. The GPA required at this time to qualify is around 3.5 so I guess that to apply to another school will set me back ay least one year. The school here has explained that not only would a person in my situation be impaired at work because of the medication also, the fact I am taking a pain medication would cause me to divert medications for my own use. He also said people in my situation who have chronic pain will always be searching for some relief of pain. I asked him if a nurse who suddenly developes a painful condition would not be more likely to fall into his scenario than I would? This was the "Drug Control Officer" who expained this ideology to me. I asked him why would I have need to divert medication when I have a physician who is prescribing me the medication needed to control my pain. He responded that I could only be useing the medication because of my addiction. I need to add that this man did not always have this view of my situation. At the time of the initial drug screen that all my fellow students were required to take (at the very beginning of the semester) this same man told me to write down all the medications I am prescribed and he even took the medication I had in his hand and looked at it. When I asked if there would be a problem he responded that they were looking for students who were abusing drugs. He said you don't need to worry that there were other people in my same situation. As I recall now I was in a group that included some of the clinical instructors. It seems someone in the Nursing School has changed his view of looking at the situation. Thanks again, Robert

Hello again, I went to the college associate dean today and I started the grievience procedure. At this school one can start by informally announcing that a grievence will be filed. The associate dean said the nursing school has full control over policies and their own interpertation of these policies. I let the college associate dean know I will carry this out as far as the appeal process will allow. I told her that I was not out to try to cause harm to the school but I had to stick to this because I felt my right to get the education I paid for was violated. Robert

hello again, one thing i failed to mention about the drug screen was that soon after being admitted into the program we all were given a drug test. i am taking the same dose of medication now that i did at the time of the initial drug screen, but the first screen i gave the "drug control officer" a list of my medications and he also took each prescription bottle in his hand and looked at it. he also told me not to worry about anything because i have a prescription for the drugs. i was not contacted about this drug screen so i assumed i could trust the "dco". they are telling me now that the first screen was negative and since it was negative they said they could not contact me and question anything. if the first screen was negative how many of the other 128 students were providing a pos screen and it did not show up as a pos. the school waits until my clinical's start and gives the random drug screen and tells all of us we are not allowed to attend any clinicals until the test comes back. one of the other students was given a pos+ result and after waiting two weeks have a retest through hair sample and told she is neg-. now that she has to make up for all her missed clinicals the school said to her that they know she was using but they just did not have enough to kick her out. i think this statement was to dissuade her from complaining if she fails to attend her clinicals in the prescribed time. she works full time along with nursing school and she also has a child under two years old. thanks for listening, robert

hello again, it is wonderful so many of you have taken time from your busy lives to write so many encouraging replies to my post. after all i have gone through i really need some reassurance. i would like the person who thought i may like to be in psyche nursing to know i have thought about that a lot. before i went into the air force i worked as a nursing assistant on an adult psych ward in birmingham. i loved my job. at that time i was at a crossroad and because my friends knew of my great interest in electronics and computers and aviation they had a hand in persuading me to do the flying thing. talk about crazy psych doctors, i was a student pilot and actually talked a couple of them to go along for some of my flying lessons. i never was able to get any of the pretty nurses to go along. i guess that goes to show nurses may actually be smarter than doctors. i even tried the "are you scared of flying" on them but they just said i "i dont go flying with nurses aids". now i am older and a veteran who has suffered over 2 years of agoraphobia which had me tied to the inside of my house and also suffered the injury that left be unable to move about i want so desperately to be able to not only "wipe the butts" and administer the medication but be there to give the much needed encouragement to the sick patient. please don't think that wiping butts is something i am looking forward to but i will not complain. everything was embarrassing for me when i was a patient in a hospital who had to let others do the things for me that i always did for my self. some people may be like me who did not want to use a bed pan so bad i thought i was going to burst hoping i would get better soon enough so i could go on my own. i don't know what i will be really good at when i become a nurse. i know i can fill some slot as long as i have passion for my job. i also know that there are a lot of jobs in a hospital i may never be really good at so i would leave them for the nurses who are. thanks again, robert

hello, i am or i was a nursing student until i was removed pending an appeal because i have a medical condition that requires i take a medication that is screened for in a random drug screen. i previously worked in the aircraft field. i am a usaf disabled vet who wants to work in the nursing field. by the way i was in the panama conflict (just cause) and the gulf war. i recieved several medals while on active duty and i am also listed in the national deans list. they removed me from my classes the day before veterans day. i was hoping i could find information about drug screening policies related to nursing jobs. i was told by the nursing staff at my college that all hospitals and clinics require that all nurses that have to take controlled substances at any dosage have to give up their jobs as nurses until they become free of any prescription that fall in the category of controlled substances that are in the classes that are screened for in a drug screen. i have been taking for close to 10 years a low dose of a medication for pain. i have been evaluated by my physicians and cleared to do all of the essential functions of a nurse. i have invested three years only to be told i should go into some other field of study. i know there are a number of nurses that feel pain medication is not the answer for chronic pain, but i have gone from being confined to a wheel chair to being able to keep up with my fellow nursing students because of a low dose of medication. i know pain can ruin lives and some people have lost their lives resulting from the use of medications, but each person is different. one reason i wanted to become a nurse was because of the encouragement of my pain clinic nurse to follow the treatment plan and never give up. if i loose my fight to become a nurse i can say the fact that i was spurred on to make something of my shattered life by this wonderful nurse i will still be a healthier and happier person because of the struggle. i know numerous pain patients who i have become friends with that have given up the fight to go on to be productive citizens because of the obstacles put up by some well meaning employers and educators. some of these people have lost their fight with pain and have to be continually dosed higher with pain medications just to be able to live. they also have to take numerous other medications because of the depression and the anxiety their condition causes. thank you for listening, rob