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By Lisa Wheat Assistant News Editor
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It is not a- crutch. It is not an excuse. It is an obstacle to overcome. While pain is the reality of her everyday life, Suzanne Schoen from Carbondale, Ill., looks back on her Mur-ray State experience with th no regrets. She suffers from a rare disease called glycogen storage disease type B, which causes infections and makes even seemingly sim-ple tasks exhausting. Nevertheless, Schoen will graduate next week with a nursing degree. "I wanted to accomplish great things in my life and I want to make a contribution while I am here," Schoen said. "I don't ever want, to use the health condition as a crutch. I don't ever want people to see it before they see me." Nursing will be the second degree Schoen has earned. The first was in bio-logical sciences from Southern -Illinois University. About 200 people in the world are diagnosed with the hereditary disease Schoen has lived with since birth. At age 28, she is the second oldest of all the people in the world who have the disease. The disease affects her body two ways. It causes low blood sugar and a shortage of white blood cells. As a result, Schoen's body is highly prone to illness such as pneumonia, sore throats and sinus infections. These side effects have led to numerous hospitalizations |
and more than 53 surgeries throughout Schoen's lifetime
Several times Schoen has come close to death. After her 1989 high school graduation she developed adult respiratory distress syndrome and spent two months on a ventilator. While a student at Murray State the past three years, Schoen had four hospital stays. Time spent at the hospital .helped influence Schoen to enter the nursing profession. "I understand what it's like to be on the patient's side of it," she said. "I've been on both extremes and I hope that I can deliver the same kind of compassion and hope that I've received from the nurses who took care of me." Schoen adjusts to her disease by taking less than a full load of classes and planning her time wisely. She spends evenings studying and undergoing health treatments. She did, however, work as a White College resident adviser for two years. Throughout her time at Murray State, Schoen has made friends who accept her |
regardless of her disease. During Schoen's high school days, it was a different story. "People (in high school) weren't always patient or I didn't always get included because I couldn't keep up with them energy-wise to do the same activities," she said. "I have made life-long friends at Murray State."'
Schoen said earning a degree while conquering a disease requires nothing more than self determination and support from family and friends. Through it all, some' days are better than others. "Every day I wake up and think I can make it through the day," she said. "Some days you do and some days you don't. You just have to pull up your bootstraps and make it happen." Schoen's drive has impressed her professors at Murray State. "Because she has so much depth and maturity I think she'll be able to offer a truly humanistic approach to her care," Nursing Department Chair Marcia Hobbs said. "She sparkles. She truly does." |
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As of spring 2000, the Roads Scholars program aligned itself with the Nursing department and its students in the Nursing 404 class, Leadership and Management in Nursing, a project driven class required for last semester seniors which places the student in a commu-nity related leadership activity' where they promote the disci-pline of nursing. Past projects include developing educational brochures for the pediatric division of Lourdes hospital and searching for grant sources for geriatric projects.
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