A career in medicine, nursing and teaching, put to work for you.

My path into health was not a straight line, and that turned out to be the point. Watching the show Emergency! as a young woman, I realized EMS was a calling, and I answered it. As a medic, I worked my way through nursing school, and as a new graduate I earned the Randal Stewart Cardiac Award on a progressive cardiac unit. Within ninety days I had completed ACLS and been given instructor potential by Dr. Kreth, and that year, 1988, I was named Nurse of the Year at Methodist Hospital.

After a year on the cardiac unit I transferred to the Emergency Room and stayed for thirty years, working along the way in the treadmill lab, the cardiac cath lab and the cardiovascular clinic. An invitation-only position with a prestigious cardiovascular group made me their hospital rounding nurse. Four nights a week I taught Emergency Medical Services medics and paramedics. My education continued alongside that life: a BSN from Union University and a master’s from the UT College of Nursing in Acute and Critical Care.

Along the way came three sons, now grown into military and police careers, homeschooled with Christian roots, alongside my husband, who retired as a police chief. Then, deep in a full life, I became ill. I developed an autoimmune disease, and the quality of my personal and professional life suffered. I took the traditional medication route and never improved. With time I learned a better way, and holistic and functional health became a passion. At sixty, I felt better than I had in my forties. I addressed the eight pathways, made major changes, and kept regaining health, defining a new normal as I went.

That work led me to found The Fatigue Clinic, where I spent years helping people untangle why they felt the way they did.

The next chapter returns to my roots: education and cardiovascular nursing. This chapter carries my knowledge, my experience and my ability to connect the dots within the scope of a nurse. It is where I started, and it is where I return to.