She at all times needed to be a nurse, however that didn’t come till later in life. When she started therapy for leukemia, this affected person was capable of name on her profession as a social employee and as a nurse.
By IU Well being Senior Journalist, T.J. Banes, tfender1@iuhealth.org
She sits along with her left arm prolonged, hoping for a fast stick. When nurse Julie Critser hits the mark, Doreen Bailey smiles. She shares that Critser is often capable of get the blood flowing on the primary strive. A number of vials are crammed for testing and Bailey goes right into a room to attend for her IU Well being oncologist Dr. Sherif Farag.
Bailey, 68, has spent numerous hours at IU Well being Simon Most cancers Heart. On at the present time she is available in for her two-week examine up.
It’s somewhat completely different than her different visits which have resulted in days-long inpatient stays. On April 16, 2021, Bailey was identified with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a most cancers of the blood and bone marrow.
Her journey to IU Well being is much like her profession – a cease right here, and a cease there.
She grew up in Connecticut, the oldest little one of three. She has a youthful brother and a youthful sister nonetheless residing in New England. After highschool, Bailey joined the U.S. Military working in preventative drugs. She met her husband within the service they usually had a son, who’s now 44. The household of three moved to Indianapolis after their stint within the Military and Bailey pursued a profession in social work. Her job included roles with the Marion County Well being Division, environmental courtroom, and numerous non-profit housing applications.
After the breakup of her marriage, Bailey began nursing college. She earned her diploma on the age of 54 and started working as a triage nurse at a neighborhood hospital.
“My dad’s aunt raised him when his mother died of issues throughout childbirth. After I was a yr outdated, my aunt had a stroke and there have been nurses working 24 hours a day to look after her. I at all times thought they had been angels and I needed to be a type of who cared for others,” mentioned Bailey.
Her mom died in 1992 on the age of 61 of issues from breast most cancers. Her father died 5 years later.
“Sadly, most cancers was not unfamiliar to us,” mentioned Bailey. It was throughout a daily schedule at work {that a} nursing assistant instructed Bailey ought to get a chest x-ray.
“I had a cough that bought worse and worse. I couldn’t appear to shake it. I couldn’t say three phrases with out coughing and I may barely stroll throughout the room I used to be so weak. I had sinus surgical procedure years in the past so I simply thought it was one thing associated to that,” mentioned Bailey. She went to an ENT, and a pulmonary specialist earlier than getting x-rays.
The scans confirmed a 7-inch mass on the higher lobe of her lung. A biopsy adopted and he or she by no means left the hospital. She began chemotherapy at one other hospital and was referred to IU Well being for a bone marrow transplant.
It was her sister who was a 100 match for the transplant. The 2 have been finest mates since childhood – taking part in outdoors from solar as much as solar down. They lived close to a dairy farm and Bailey remembers swimming, fishing, and dangling their toes in a close-by artifical lake. To at the present time, they’re each avid gardeners.
And now they share one thing extra. Bailey obtained her bone marrow transplant on Sept. 8, 2021.
“The very best half about being a nurse is that I get to supply consolation and compassion at one of many worst instances in a affected person’s life. I realized that firsthand as a affected person. The nurses right here had been a Godsend,” mentioned Bailey. “I couldn’t have survived with out them. They work so arduous throughout essentially the most troublesome instances they usually hold displaying up and giving it their finest.”
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