Kath23

I'm taking A&P I and a CNA course. M-Th 8-noon CNA, M 6-9:40 A&P lecture, T 6-8 A&P lab. This should work out well because my son will be in pre-school in the mornings M-Th as well, and my hubby will be home for the night classes. Nervous about starting my pre-req's! I already have all the computer/English done, as well as Algebra (I took it last winter - first class in 10 years!), so I just need the science pre-req's. Taking the CNA class to try to get a PT job at our local hospital for experience and tuition reimbursement.

As a parent with a child who had cancer I feel I can answer your question. From my understanding St. Jude's can be better for kids who have a rare cancer, or cancer not responding to regular treatments. For 'garden-variety' cancers, like childhood leukemia (which is what my daughter had), any facility with a dedicated PED-ONC center will use a treatment plan very similar to St. Jude's. You're right - St. Jude's does share information with other facilities/groups. Most hospitals in the US use COG (Children's Oncology Group) treatment protocols/Phase III trials, which are developed from looking at research from all hospitals, in the US and abroad. I belong to a list-serve of parents who have kids with ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), and the only ones on the list who are being treated at St. Jude's are the ones who either live in the area, or who have relapsed and other facilities have run out of options. HTH, Kathi PS - My daughter is two years off-treatment and doing very well! :)

Our local hospital will no longer be hiring LPN's - just CNA's and RN's. Something to think about - maybe check with local facilities and make sure they're going to still be hiring LPN's in the future.

Dont pysch yourself out too much. I also was horrible at math in high school, and hadn't taken any math in 17 years (I'm 34). My first class back last semester was Intro to Algebra. I was really really dreading it and was hoping to pull at least a C. To my HUGE surprise - I was good at it, and even ended up really enjoying the class! My instructor said that Algebra is one of those subjects that can be easier for an adult mind to grasp, and that since you tend to look at things more logically as an adult it can be easier than in high school. I finished the class with 105% - I had done some extra credit in case I did poorly on the final. My "C" ended up being a solid "A"! :-) The adults in my class that did not do well had the following things in common: did not attend all classes, did not do all homework or tried to do it right before class time, and did not review before coming to class (we had a quiz every week). I was at every class session, did my homework right away, and then did extra problems and went over my homework the day of the next class to be sure I remembered it. I know that's why I did so well in the class. Good luck, Kathi

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