Orlando Nursing Grad Knows \'What It\'s Like to Be in ICU and Scared\'

Tag : titanium rods

Brock, 21, of Orlando decided while attending Colonial High Schoolthat nursing was her calling. She dreamed of working with infantsin intensive care.
"I just love babies," Brock said. "That's where my heart is."
While training for a 5K run in March 2007, she began to notice painin her back. By fall the pain pushed her to seek treatment. Amedical scan showed a tumor growing along the bones in her spine.She had surgery in September at ORMC to remove a benign giant-celltumor. Such tumors are rare and can damage bones, so removal is thepreferred treatment.
Within six weeks of her surgery, the pain in her back returned.Scans showed a tumor larger than the first.
She was heartbroken, not just because the tumor had returned, butbecause the surgery would derail her plans to graduate with herclassmates in May.
In February, she had a nine-hour operation that required threeincisions to remove the tumor and reinforce bones in her spine andrib cage with titanium plates, rods and screws. Afterward, shefaced radiation treatments and physical therapy.
"I couldn't move at first," Brock said. "Every move was verypainful. I needed help just to roll over in bed."
Brock had seen plenty of patients in pain after surgery or anaccident. During her own ordeal, she had moments when she thoughtto herself, "Oh, man, so this is what my patients are goingthrough."
Now, she says, "I know what it's like to be in ICU and scared."
Her Christian faith and family support, she said, sustained herthrough moments of despair and worry. Gradually her pain subsided.She vowed to graduate this year.
"She never whined or said she wanted special attention," saidPatricia Leli, a degree coordinator for UCF's College of Nursing."Her commitment is astounding."
Brock's latest scans show the tumor has not returned.
She's engaged and busy planning a November wedding. And later thismonth, she will kick off her career in her dream job: the neonatalintensive-care unit at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies inOrlando.
Luis Zaragoza can be reached at lzaragoza@orlandosentinel.com or407-420-5718.
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Source: The Orlando Sentinel
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