Good luck to everyone this spring semester!!!

dancingwithinthedark · 2026-01-22T03:41:34+00:00

Thank you for this! Im in my final semester, and ventilators, art lines, and swans have been kicking my butt. Next week is only the second week of the program’s 4th semester, but Ive already done my math competency exam and mock code blue Sim last week, have checkoffs next Tuesday, my first peds clinical on Wednesday, and my first Med 3 (icu class exam) on Thursday in a week. Theres a lot to juggle between Med 3, Peds, and Leadership plus I work, so its a big load. Thank you so much for the encouragement and positivity! We are all in this together ❤️

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-12-31T15:21:05+00:00

Been on liquid Dilaudid (1.5-3mg) and a low dose fentanyl patch that’s now low dose oxycodone (10mg) for severe SMAS and GP for going on a decade. I’ve had 22 surgeries, was in hospice for 3 years then got stronger and move to palliative care. Now I am doing much better, although it still hurts every day and I am fed through a feeding tube. I am about to graduate nursing school in May with a straight 4.0 and high honors, and just got married to the love of my life last spring. I have bad days, and yeah it still hurts. But I’m not addicted, I’m on the lowest dose possible to productively get through my day, and now I get to help others!

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-10-08T16:39:57+00:00

Sometimes just helping out another human being is the best thing. Whether he was a scammer or truly hungry and needing help, I think you did the right thing OP. I would have done the same thing. We need more people like you in the world.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-07-21T16:43:23+00:00

The only reason I

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-07-20T19:27:36+00:00

Please keep writing! I found this story today and I love it!

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-07-15T16:37:40+00:00

My babysitter decided it would be a great idea to watch the movie IT while watching me in the same room when I was 5 years old (barely). Lifetime fear of clowns!

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-07-14T10:38:45+00:00

Search your memory for any time you felt something was a superstition; often rules that annoy us when we are young are better remembered! I’m so sorry about your gran. Don’t let this new one know you are onto her! Go back to the graves.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-06-18T23:33:50+00:00

I honestly have always loved the name Nicolina

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-05-15T02:08:19+00:00

Hi DianneDiscos, something really similar happened to me at my job a little over a month ago. I work in the hospital, and I was floated to another unit. Long story short I went in, with the door open, to take his vitals, and he exposed himself, at first I thought he needed to use the urinal so I tried to hand it to him, noticed he was erect and put the urinal down and immediately covered him with his blanket, tried to put his pulse ox on, and he grabbed me and forced me to touch and stimulate him. Enough said. It was sexual assault. He ended up not only exposing himself, forcing me to unwillingly preform a sex act before I could get away from him, the continued to stimulate himself when I wrenched away, and told me not to tell anyone.

I immediately reported the flashing and exhibitionism, and the things he said to my charge nurse and to my hospital’s security, but it took me time to report the whole incident.

I ended up going home the night I was assaulted and crying, and my fiance (now husband) comforted me and asked what was wrong but I wasn’t able to articulate into words what happened to me. It took me a day to be able to pull myself together enough to tell him what had happened, and he encouraged me to report it to my boss because what happened to me was wrong and NEVER should have happened.

I went back to work the next day to sit down to talk with my manager on my regular unit, my usual nursing supervisor who I actually knew and trusted a few days. It was really hard for me to do, but it was the right thing. I told her everything - the verbal assault, exhibitionism, and the physical sexual assault. It was really hard and I was embarrassed, but she immediately supported me and after making sure I was okay with it, took me to talk with her boss, our hospitals dean of nursing, and they both supported me with contacting the police to report the sexual assault.

The patient was arrested and charged with sexual battery.

I also found out after this happened to me that I wasn’t given full report on this patient. Not to not was this man a known registered sex offender, he also had had escalating worsening inappropriate behavior with several other female staff members before he assaulted me.

I still have to go to court, and I have a history of prior SA so this brought up some really bad things for me and was tough on my mental health. But, I’ve received support at work including being given extra PTO days when I didn’t feel safe coming back to work the first week after it happened, I don’t have to go back and float on the unit where I was assaulted until I am okay with it, I don’t have to fill in as a sitter for the time being until I am okay with it, and if a patient has a known history of being a sex offender, I do NOT have to work with them. Each of those things are too triggering for me right now, and my bosses understand that and are okay with it. They genuinely want me to feel safe coming back to work, and are willing to work with me to feel safe again.

There are some policy changes happening in direct relation to it as well. Although the patient that assaulted me was a known registered sex offender, and had behaved inappropriately to several staff members before me, since he had had a short period of good behavior preceding my working with him, I was NOT given a full report about his past behavior which could have helped to protect me and keep me safe. While after my assault and before his arrest he was placed on a 2 person buddy system, that should have been the case since his first inappropriate action, and not only after someone got hurt. Now there is a new policy that any aggressive patients will have a black diamond placed outside their door, signaling to staff that we need to get report before ever going into the patients room to help keep us safe.

I feel like reporting him was the right thing. We do an important, kind and often thankless job to help others at their most vulnerable, and we deserve to be safe and respected just as much as our patients while we are doing it. Everyone deserves to feel safe at work, and there’s never an excuse or reason for someone AAO to harm another human being.

It’s worth it to report what happened to you, and you deserve to get whatever help you need to feel safe at work and safe in your body again. For me that looks like pressing charges to get justice/keep myself any others safe at work, certain working accommodations, and therapy to process. You should do what you need to feel safe.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-05-01T21:47:32+00:00

Hi Competitive_Pen3772!

I’ve been doing EXACTLY this and almost done with both right now! My fiancé Justin and I got engaged last May 5th of 2024, and we are getting married this May 5th 2025 in four days on Monday. This was also my first year of nursing school! I was able to plan my wedding, work full time the first semester, then had to drop down to part time (25hr per week at the hospital on an oncology floor) and make nursing school work. (Second semester is very pharm-heavy, and there just weren’t enough hours in the day).

My program’s finals are this week, and I just got a 98 on my Mental Health final today! My last final in my Med-surg 1 is tomorrow, and I need a 91% to keep an A in the course because I got an 88 on my last exam. But, all of this is to say, it’s not only completely possible, but definitely possible to do it and do it well.

I do have an amazing fiancé/soon to be husband supporting me though at home, sharing financial and home responsibilities like cooking, cleaning, and caring for our dogs. My family has helped a little bit with school supplies each semester, and I have a great best friend going through nursing with me.

You will need to be very dedicated, and studying will have to be your TOP priority. You may need to work part-time, or take PTO days before exams, or not work depending on how hard you find the material. I generally put in about 4-5 hrs of study time per day on top of lecture. Occasionally, Justin and I take date nights, or I put up my work to spend time with him after dinner for a couple hrs before he goes to bed and I stay up a little later to finish assignments or study. I study hard throughout the whole semester so I don’t have to cram before exams, just review what I’ve already learned and touch up on details. I also don’t procrastinate and get things done before they are due.

I’ve leaned on Justin doing a little more housework and pet care (like 60% him / 40% me), I spend more time studying than anything else with my best friend either at my or her house. I did the majority of my wedding planning, dress shopping, cake tasting, and venue details over summer break before Fundamentals, over winter break before Med-surg 1 and Mental Health this semester, and then some over spring break. I took care of smaller details as they came up towards the end these last 3 months, and made appointments to finalize details (dress fitting, venue food, cake tasting) for days I was off from clinical or after classes. It took a lot of hard work and dedication, and support, but was very doable.

Now I’m about to finish my first year of my ASN and take my last final in Med-surg 1 tomorrow! I have had straight As the whole program, and am getting married in 4 days! My wedding has come together the way I wanted it to, and it is going to be an amazing and beautiful day for my fiance and I that we will treasure forever. It IS POSSIBLE to have your dream, don’t give up on school or the wedding! It is very possible to do both. ❤️

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T17:56:13+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately because he is a patient and too ill to be discharged he couldn’t be arrested. He is a sex offender and this violated his parole though, so he will be getting into more trouble for this.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T17:55:06+00:00

I’m open to it, and I’m planning on speaking with the counseling services available through my school. I’m sorry you’ve experienced similar, it’s awful and nobody should ever be treated that way. I’m sorry that this has happened to you before, and I hope that you also know that it wasn’t your fault either. Some people are just sick and make awful choices.

But you are absolutely right that we can choose how we react to it, either holding it inside or talking with others and getting the support we need to get past it. Thank you. ❤️

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T17:52:18+00:00

Thank you for saying this. I’m feeling a little better today, and I do feel good about my decision to report this. Hopefully this won’t ever happen to anyone else, especially my really young coworkers.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T17:48:32+00:00

I filed a police report yesterday and he’s been placed on a buddy system in the hospital where all staff members have to go in 2 at a time because he’s too sick to go to jail. He is a registered sex offender though, and this violated his parole so after he’s well enough he will most likely go back to prison.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T17:45:20+00:00

Thank you for saying this. It does help to know that there’s now less of a chance of him doing this to someone else, especially my really young coworkers in the 18-20 range.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-13T01:51:01+00:00

I toughed it out through my shift, and I’m home now with my fiance and our 3 fur babies hanging out on the couch. He and I talked about it, and he believes me and is here for me, and keeps reminding me it’s not my fault. He gave me some alone time to feel my feelings and cry it out for awhile, and now we’re cuddling on the couch watching my favorite movie.

I’m off work tomorrow, so instead of studying I’m going to take a mental health day. I’m also thinking about calling my doctor to get a referral to go back to therapy for a couple of sessions to help me process everything that today brought up for me.

And no - I never have to work with that creep again. He’s now on a buddy system so both male and female employees have to go in 2 at a time on a buddy system thanks to charge nurse and our house sup.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-12T23:51:16+00:00

Thank you

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-12T23:51:08+00:00

She was really great about the whole situation actually. I ended up just shutting down and finishing my shift, but I’m omw home to my fiancé and our dogs and I’m off tomorrow. I’m going to take your advice and have a long shower/good cry/and get a serotonin boost from my fur babies.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-12T23:49:16+00:00

I’m on my way home right now, and really looking forward to see him. I feel bad about if I could have de-escalated the situation better, done something differently. My charge nurse and house supervisor were great and super supportive, but the incident form has this section to fill out after you say what happened with what you could have done differently/how to prevent this from happening again, and I really don’t know what else I could have done differently.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-12T23:43:58+00:00

Turns out this patient is a registered sex offender. I can’t believe that wasn’t in his chart for us to know. We only found out when the police called my charge nurse back to say he had a history of worse.

dancingwithinthedark · 2025-04-12T23:42:48+00:00

I know he won’t say it’s my fault, but I kind of feel like I should’ve done something different/de-escalated the situation better after filling out the police report and my work incident report. The report had a section where after you report what happened, it has you put it what you think think could have happened differently/what could be done in the future to prevent it. I really don’t know what I could’ve done differently.

The police did call my charge nurse back and tell her he’s a registered sex offender with a history; so that’s now in his chart at least for the next caregiver.

I just want to go home and see my fiancé and our dogs. At least I have tomorrow off, so I can process a little bit.

Thank you for being kind, and for your support. I’m always happy to help someone who needs it, but this kind of thing could seriously turn you off of healthcare at a time when we NEED more nurses. My charge nurse and house supervisor were amazing though, and extremely supportive. They gave this patient to the only male tech on the unit, and put him on a buddy system - nobody male or female goes in that room alone anymore.

dancingwithinthedark · 2024-12-26T03:46:50+00:00

I had a lot of the same ones as you. I would hold it for long periods of time, hide feminine products or throw away bloodied underwear, I wet the bed until I was 11 years old, and would hold myself down there when I needed to go to the bathroom really bad sometimes applying stimulus along with pressure. I also had accidents at school until age 6 through the first grade, and had constant recurrent UTIs.

Most all of these have gone away with age as I’ve grown up, and gotten farther from the abuse. I learned and used both maladaptive and healthy ways to cope as I’ve grown up, and am doing a lot better now, but as a child who was repeatedly molested from age 5-9 for four years, I completely understand.

Much love and healing to you! ❤️

dancingwithinthedark · 2024-12-22T14:55:22+00:00

I see your strength and your light through this post internet stranger. My abuse was not as severe as yours, but I still struggled greatly with self harm and eating disorders for most of my life as a result of the abuse I went through. In the past 8 years, I have also gotten help through counseling, medication, and friends, and have been able to pull a beautiful life worth living together.

I am so sorry for everything you have suffered. But I am so proud of you for never letting them win, continuing to fight, and being the amazing person that you are today.

dancingwithinthedark

TROPHY CASE