Soyrizo

JustMe, I am doing well. I can honestly say that it wasn't the therapy or the self care that helped the most (and don't get me wrong, making sure to get enough sleep and talking about my life with a therapist are invaluable things) but it was simply reinforcing over and over again that my illness is CD and it will resolve eventually made the biggest difference. Every single time anxiety would pop up I would do simple cognitive behavioral techniques and remind myself that I have a disorder where my brain is sending erroneous messages because it can't handle stress the normal way, that I am not faking this for attention and it is real, that the misdiagnosis rate is 4%, etc. Eventually I shortened it to, "This is all in my head, knock it off." I also practiced guided mindfulness meditation, Jon Kabat Zinn is my favorite, and read Sarno's books over and over again until it stuck. It's been over 6 months and I don't have any symptoms. My doctor told me even after fully accepting the diagnosis it can take a while for it to take. I wish you luck, JustMe.

I don't see the issue. The woman is preparing for pregnancy with antivirals and sounds to be well educated on what to do, and will probably be compliant with the treatment needed during pregnancy. March of Dimes has done studies and found that it's 2% risk of passing on HIV in infected mothers versus a 50% risk on those who don't take antivirals and take other precautions. Pregnancy is a risk, having a child is a risk. In this scenario, the parents just know one of the risks beforehand.

I don't think you're down for the count yet, but you need to make taking care of yourself your first priority and that may mean you need to look for part time employment at an "easier" job. I had an illness earlier this year and I was convinced if I just worked really hard to get back to normal, it would work. Spectacular FAIL. Sometimes I think when we're struggling with illness and pressures in life, even though it's counterintuitive, the best thing to do is just let things come as they may and go with it. Your body, your mind is telling you it needs a break. Give it a break and maybe you'll find you're in an even better position as a nurse. Good luck.

Go to the interview, no question. Spend some time with your family afterwards to celebrate.

My fingerprints aren't very private. I leave them all over the place willy nilly daily. I have no shame. Joking aside, I've resigned myself to having to go the extra step to prove my identity already since I have a very common name, a la Jane Smith (and no, my name isn't Jane Smith.) I've had warrants served to me because of my name being the same as some of other local he**raiser, and it;s not very fun to explain "No, I am NOT that person, this is my birth date and drivers license, see how they don't match?"

I worked in a peds ER as a tech, I was a medic but most techs had on OTJ training. We did straight caths and phlebotomy regularly, and occasionally Foleys.

Okay, so now that I got all that out, how do I handle nursing school and being a nurse with CD never, ever happening again? No one has been able to answer me how I can successfully add more things to my plate and still balance it all, KWIM? I only ever get the generic self-care things like sleep, time management, etc. Plus, I am also really surprised about the lack of education and experience with CD I've experienced with counselors and psychologists. It's been like finding a needle in a haystack to find someone experienced in treating it!

I thought I could share my story, and also get some pointers on stress management in regards to pursuing a nursing career. I am a pre-nursing student, and would be starting the darn program by now if I hadn't developed this recent illness. Taking time off of school and letting go of my time line was not easy! I also did a search on conversion disorder, PNES/pseudoseizures is a common presentation, and was surprised about the general lack of knowledge and distinction vs malingering, so maybe in the future someone like me will come across it and it could help. My background is a I am a relatively healthy young woman, married with 3 wonderful children. My psych history is average, mild/moderate depression and anxiety well controlled with anti-depressants. No personality disorders, no constant dramatic issues with family or friends, never been arrested, never used drugs or abused alcohol, I don't visit the ER regularly, etc. I am quite boring, LOL. I do have a fair bit of external stress; 2 of my 3 children have significant special needs, my DH has a chronic illness, and there's never enough money to go around. I think my coping method for the last 6 years has been stuff it down, suck it up, and do what needs to be done. This spring I had some minor health issues and had surgery. The day after surgery I started stuttering, I assumed it was from the surgery, the pain meds, and just being exhausted. Instead it got worse, and my head and neck started twitching the next day. I saw my doctor, who had no idea but was concerned so he sent me to the ER. At the ER they had no idea either, and said it wasn't serious, it should go away. Fine with me. But instead of getting better, it got worse to the point I couldn't walk or talk. It was extremely odd. If I was laying quietly, I felt fine. If I tried to move, there was no pain or weakness, I simply couldn't get my muscles to receive the message, they either wouldn't move or they would wildly spasm. And all the while I kept having the feeling I *should* be able to control it but somehow wasn't able to. It's hard to explain. Have you ever had a cough, and you convince yourself you can control the coughing but occasionally there's a breakthrough cough that proves you wrong? It was like that feeling. My DH took me back to the ER, and they promptly admitted me. I spent a fun night being examined by the house residents who had no idea what to make of me, and then was woken up by a group of medical students wanting to see what was going on. I felt like sideshow attraction. I had an MRI, EEG, a whole battery of tests. Finally the neurologist showed up, examined me, and stated with a cheerful grin that nothing was wrong with me, I just have conversion disorder. GREAT, I am not going to die, yay! Wait, what's conversion disorder? I think his response was along the lines, "It's all in your head." Luckily, some doctors with him took up the slack for his poor bedside manner, and explained it better and more thoroughly. Later, my wonderful nurse also took time out of her busy day to talk with me about some educational printouts on conversion disorder and how I was feeling (in fact, all my nurses were wonderful!) The next day I went home after seeing a psychiatrist who confirmed it, and was told I needed to take better care of myself in stress management and go to therapy. Which I did, I threw myself into weekly therapy and read every self-help book I could get my hands on. And of course, I googled my heart out about it. What I found, between talking to my doctor and my research, is there isn't a lot of information out there for the average person like me but it's pretty common for doctors to see (conversion disorder=hysteria, or hysterical neurosis,) it's just generally not quite as dramatic as my case so it may take some time for a firm diagnosis to be made. All medical issues have to be ruled out first, and even after a diagnosis. I saw 3 neurologists and a couple of other specialists to confirm that nothing neurological or medical was wrong, as a CYA but also to convince my unconscious quite firmly that nothing was wrong. Here are some links. Conversion Disorder: eMedicine Emergency Medicine What's important to note is that you can't both have factitious disorder/malingering and conversion disorder. One of the key diagnostic criteria for CD is that it is involuntary. There may be some psychological gain, like having positive attention from caregivers, but it isn't a conscious manipulation as with malingering. The unconscious brain is telling the body to act out to get it, but the conscious brain is saying, "What is going on? I don't want this!" Progress in understanding conversion disorder What is interesting about the above link is the section on neurobiology of CD. What they're suggesting from imaging studies of patients is that possibly there are areas of the brain that are more sensitive to emotional stress and inhibits or influences those sections to produce symptoms of CD. I also learned that the vast majority of CD cases resolve once it's been diagnosed and the patient has accepted it. I took this to mean BAM! it's all gone like magic, but in my case it took 6 months for symptoms to stop popping up intermittently. Sometimes I still stutter or twitch, but it's very mild and not noticeable. 75% never have it again, and 25% have it longer but will eventually resolve, but only a smaller number have it for the long term. Up to half of patients have co-morbid mental illnesses and personality disorders. Rate of misdiagnosis is under 10%.

And I should mention I have 3 small kids, so that factored in my answer.

I am next semester, but I've taken A+P and chemistry before (they've expired) and still remember a fair bit. If it was all new, I wouldn't.

I would do it because it's fun. :) I am a former paramedic, and my certification lapsed so I am taking an EMT class next spring.

I respectfully disagree. A well controlled bipolar patient does not have a history of recent hospitalizations or a very recent breakthrough manic period. If anything I would categorize it as moderately under control, and I would consider it very important to work with mental health care providers closely and consider all suggestions thoughtfully, which she was doing by asking about ADA accommodations and received negative and dismissive replies. Do you have any idea what it is like for every thought and mood to be suspect? To have limited control over it at times, and the end result is you just make everyone mad or irritated with you? If your blood pressure shoots up or your blood sugar dive bombs, no one blames you. But if you're so depressed you can barely talk one day, and the next you're talking up a storm and bubbling with mania, there's all sorts of judgement to go around, and it always comes back to the person just needs to work harder to get it under control. I took the wanting to have Sundays off as she wrote it, to demonstrate the retaliatory nature of the management for requests. And my impression was that people are very uninformed about bipolar. It is not like other chronic issues. It's not even like depression. And I am really disappointed with the basic idea that since everyone else has issues or struggles, it wouldn't be fair for this person to get any special consideration. Fairness isn't everyone getting the same thing, fairness is everyone getting what they need in order to succeed. To the OP, I think unfortunately you're stuck with dealing with an uncooperative management right now. But not all places are like that, my spouse has bipolar and works in an ER, and they have been very accommodating without an issue. He doesn't work a strict set schedule, but its close, generally every 2 weeks is the same. I hope you can find what you need.

I think cultural sensitivity is important to a point, and that point is when it interferes with the effectiveness of doing your job properly which is safely caring for your patients. So I agree with you, I wouldn't change my behavior and continue to do what needs to be done. And really what can the administration do if the doctor pushes it? Granted, I am a pre-nursing student with moderate experience working in hospitals, but they can't discipline you for this, it would be gender bias and more importantly not doing your job. As I understand it BoN and malpractice lawyers aren't going to say "oh, okay then," if you fail to advocate and contact the doctor when needed because the doctor said he doesn't like women asking him things. It's not about being an American as much it's not worth your license to listen to a sexist idiot.

I do live in a major metro area, not major major like New York City or Washington DC, but concentrated enough. And ADN's do very well here because the BSN programs are fewer and do not have the same resources as the community colleges that have close ties to major medical institutions. I know it's not the same everywhere, I am not insinuating ADN is better than BSN or anything, it's just what holds in this particular area.

I am not against student loans, but I do tell people they should be cautious. Student loans are "good debt" to have, but it comes with a high amount of responsibility in return. You will always have to pay it back, there are programs to help, but for the most part the responsibility to pay it back falls on the borrower. To maintain that "good debt" you have to pay it back on time every month. And it is more than reasonable, but sometimes things go south in life and large student loans can complicate it. What if you can't get a job like many new grads currently? You can only defer for so long or receive so much forebearance. What if you become disabled and cannot work? What if you have kids and want to work part-time or not at all? What if you really hate nursing or become burned out? What if something happens and you have large amounts of other debt that need to be addressed, like medical bills? I think people should always keep the possibilities of the future mind when considering large student loans. $75k may seem like a lot before you're working, but it goes quick when you also have a mortgage, car payment and insurance, medical needs, children, and so on. You may not be able to do things you love like traveling or taking time off to medical mission work because you have to keep working to pay the bills, including student loans. If things happen and you can't afford your house, you have options like selling it, renting it, a short sale, or even bankruptcy. If you can't afford your car, you can sell it or even have it repo'ed and rebuild your credit, and buy a cheap beater. But you can't sell your education and downgrade to get through the tough times. Again, I am not against student loans, I am just cautious.