How did I get here?
Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
-Oscar Wilde
How did I get here
I sat down to write this post and couldn’t decide where to start...we could be here for days. So I decided to start with why I chose nursing. Why did I want to be a nurse, you ask? I’m here to tell you it’s not the traditional answer. I decided to pursue nursing because it’s all I knew. Nursing is a family business. My mother is a nurse, my older brother a nurse, my younger brother was a medic in the Army. We were raised around medicine and nursing. If my mom and my brother did it then I clearly had to do it too.
It took me a long time to finally become a registered nurse. I can’t seem to do anything traditional, maybe it was my way of rebelling. I finally made my way to RN about 7.5 years ago. I went from ADN to BSN to MSN in a matter of a few years, trying to make up lost time I guess.
About 2.5 years ago I decided I wanted to do something different with my career. I had met a couple of travelers that impacted my career more than I knew at the time. I decided travel nursing would be the most epic adventure of my life, so I got rid of my shit, over packed my car and hit the road. I never looked back.
While on an assignment in southern California, and I’m not sure how I decided this. After being on birth control since I was 18 I decided I had enough. I was using social media to follow women who were educating the public on women’s health and I found it empowering. At the time I was single-ish (another story in its self) and I had a Mirena IUD. This one was my second and I was tired of it making me feel like shit. Every time I talked to a GYN they would tell me the same things “maybe you should leave it in, especially since you don’t want kids!” Anyone that knows me, knows how that went over. So one day while I was at work my coworker went into the bathroom with me and we (by we I mean she) removed my IUD for me. Yep, we did that. It came right out, also turns out my cervix is real titled. So we did a thing and then we just moved on like most nursing events, it wasn’t a big deal.
I decided I was going to be birth control free, I wanted to fix my gut and my skin. I felt this was a much needed step in my healing process. That summer I also learned that dairy is not kind to my skin so I also cut that out of my diet. I hired a nutrition and hormone coach to help me. You know in nursing school we get one class on women’s health and they call it OB and it’s all about having babies so...not helpful for someone who doesn’t want babies or to work in OB.
I’ve been birth control free going on 1.5 years. I don’t have any babies. I also don’t want any babies. My skin is improving, I hyperpigment so it takes time to heal. My gut is way better, also I stopped eating like an asshole.
Wow that was a lot longer than I thought but I wanted to really give you a good picture. Hang with me, we’re almost there. The back story was necessary for this part. I realized as I was traveling around the country there was one common theme that my coworkers and I would discuss and that was birth control and hormone health. I get asked a lot why I’m not on birth control if I don’t want babies? Some people have told me I’m playing with fire. It’s always amazing to me that people are allowed to comment, as women, on our choices. There are lots of other birth control methods besides hormones. Conversations like this sparked my passion for hormone health. When these topics do come up, I do my best to do some education around the topic. The more you know, right? Half the women I talk to have no idea about the basics of a menstrual cycle and why it’s important.
I’m not anti-birth control, I think it has its purpose but I also think we lack education for women around hormone health. I’ve made it my mission to educate and empower women on hormone health so that each of you can make the best educated decision for yourself.
I'm excited to use this platform to educate and discuss all things hormone health. Stay tuned for all the education! Let's do this!
