Hospital that Saved Her

Brooke Smith
Welcome to MDF instruments Crafting Wellness Podcast. Today I am so excited to introduce you to graduate nurse Molly Pratt. She has a really interesting and inspiring story on how she got into nursing and why she got into nursing. So we're here to meet her.

Molly Pratt
I'm Molly Pratt, I am from Ermita, Michigan. I live around Shelby Township. Currently, I'm working at Beaumont Children's Hospital. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. I was a junior in high school,

Brooke Smith
Can you talk a little bit about how you got diagnosed with cancer, what that process was, like for you how you even came to find out that you had cancer at such a young age?

Molly Pratt
Yeah, um, so I actually had a lump on my neck. And it was there for months before I said anything to anybody. And I had no, like recognition of anatomy whatsoever, because I had no interest in the health field. And I asked my sister, I was like, Do you have a lump on your neck? And I was like, kind of comparing now like, well, it's okay. She got her tonsils out. But I had no idea your tonsils. Were in your mouth, not down here on your like clavicle. And so I was like, oh, okay, well, this is kind of odd, and probably not normal. And so I just kind of continued to see if it would go away. And it never did. It just kept growing. So then I finally mentioned something a couple of months after to my parents, and then we went and got it checked out. And it was so quick, like Everything happened so quickly. I went to my doctors, they got bloodwork, my blood work was fine, which is odd. And then I went and got a biopsy done on it. And like within that week, I had gotten a port placed and like started chemo and it was just like insane. Everything came at you so quickly. Wow. So did you have other than a lump there? Did you have any other symptoms? Were you feeling sick? Or did you have any other like fatigue or any other kind of symptoms that would go along with cancer? Not really No, I was just kind of living my normal life. And the only thing that really was different was I just I had this lump on my neck and it was there for a while. And I decided I just I guess I should get it checked out. But other than that I was living life, like like any other high school student would be. I understand that you you went through a lot of fighting for this to get rid of the cancer. Can you talk a little bit about experience was like for you? Well, at the beginning, it was really hard. I had just lost my grandma to cancer like two years prior not even. And so it was very challenging. Because when you hear that cancer diagnosis, I didn't know anything about it. I just you have that stereotype where like, most people don't make it through cancer to have like been going through treatment, I realized how not true that thought it only people actually are cancer survivors. But as far as like chemo treatments and everything it was it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be versus telling you all the side effects. The doctors tell you everything that kind of what it's going to look like. And I was like thinking of the worst. And I was going to have like all these symptoms and like all that it would be the worst thing ever. I even had like social work come and tell me that I might not be able to like go to school, because of my immune system and just I'll be missing a lot of school.And I was like a rare case because I didn't like I was fine. Like my school worked with me so well. I didn't miss any school. I mean, I did but like just for treatment, and I would go get home and go to school the next day. And then I really the major side effect was losing my hair.And I had like some nausea once in a while. But like I just the doctors were in awe and like the nurses were like amazed with how well I did with my treatments through it all and then so the first time I was cleared, I was almost a year without treatments and then it came back again. And like going through those like getting a PET scan or just doing scans in general or like checkups. That is so nerve wracking every time because you don't know what you're going to see. Like before I ever had a cancer diagnosis. I would have never thought that the cancer diagnosis was what I was going to receive. Like that's not what any normal 16 year old is thinking of.So, now that I've hadout cancer every time I have a headache, or every time I had a test done like that, that's what's going through my mind. I'm like, oh my goodness, I have cancer like it's come back like it's, it's an almost unsettling.

Brooke Smith
Yeah, I can imagine especially is that such young age 16, when you're preparing to go to college and thinking about your future dances and homework, and just normal social high school day and day life, I can imagine that a diagnosis like that, at such a young age is really hardto process. But also, I think, when we're young to when we're lucky, we have such a resilience about us and a positivity because we feel invincible, you know, you're like, well, this, I'm young, I'm healthy, like I can do anything. And so I think on the flip side of it, there is a positive side of, of having that kind of young mentality of, hey, and my body is young, I'm not 80 years old, going through this, I'm young, I am strong. I can fight through it. And I kind of want to touch a little I mean, there's several things I want to touch base on here. But just to kind of go back a little bit to the high school process of it. Can you tell me a little bit about how long your chemo treatments were? Because I know that sometimes they can. You can go for three treatments in a week and then take a break for a couple of weeks and go back. Can you talk a little bit about what the chemo treatments were like for you.

Molly Pratt
So I had three different chemo regimens because it came back two different times after the original diagnosis. So the first time I had all outpatient treatments, I would come in,hang out with the outpatient clinic nurses for the day, which was so fun, and then get to go home, but then I would have to come back. I think it was like the day after. And then like, once a week, just to check on my accounts to make sure I was doing okay, and recovering well. And then the second time, I actually ended up having to be inpatient every time because it was a more intense treatment. So I was impatient for like four or five days at a time, which that can be hard at times. So it was really scary at first. And I almost like didn't know what to do. I was like, What am I supposed to do here for five days, I can't just sit around in my bed. And so that's when child life came into the whole picture. And they always kept me so busy during the week when I was there. And it was just so fun. They have a garden that you can go to. And it it's inside, there's not like anything that like we would get fresh air from but like, I don't know if it's the sunlight that comes in or what it is about it. But going into that room is like an escape from the hospital. Like it doesn't feel like you're in the hospital. So that was always my favorite spot to hang out in the hospital. It was a it was a challenge, because my hometown is about an hour from the hospital. And so it was a long commute. So I didn't really have a ton of people coming to visit me. So going through it and being in the hospital by yourself. I mean, my mom was always with me. So that was always nice. But it was it was hard because like you don't, and just being 16 All my friends have their license. And like it was hard because I never had my friends coming to visit me that very often in the hospital. But then the third time as well. It was inpatient as well for about four to five days as well.And the same kind of thing like it wasit didn't feel real at first. And I still haven't like processed it didn't feel like I had cancer. I don't know why.But I always tried to be so optimistic about everything that was going on. Because I like I always tell people like you don't get anywhere by like feeling bad for yourself. And I even have told patients that too. I'm like, I I don't feel like I got anywhere when I would feel bad about myself. The only thing that would make me feel down would be like myself, like I would feel sicker when I was like not depressed. But like I guess, for lack of a better term depressed almost. And so I realized at that point, like I just have to be optimistic and find the silver lining in everything that I'm doing and everything that's going on. And so that's where the nurses and the doctors and my care team came into play because every time they'd come into the room they they knew I love sarcasm, so they would always like crack a joke or like I love jokes. So every time I'd come, they'd always asked me for a joke. I had a little joke book that I would always bring to the hospital and I always read him a joke. So it's like little things like that. That would make it so much better. They're like such a bad thing like being in a hospital, so much more encouraging and inspiring that they get to know who you are. And so as crappy as it was to be in the hospital, you always had to find the little things to make it much better for you.

Brooke Smith
Yeah, and you're so incredibly resilient I, I would love to talk about how this journey and this challenge in your life, probably one of the most difficult things you've gone through personally, yourself, having to rise above that and stay strong and fight for your life.How that translated now into being a nurse at the very hospital that treated you, which is, I mean, you kind of just came full circle. So I really want to talk about how that inspiration set into you. Because I know, at 16, we don't always know, you know, who what we want to be or who we want to be or where we want to be. But sometimes things in life, life altering things happen to us that really put us on the path and go, Oh my gosh, in my heart, this is where I belong. And this is where I go. And I feel like you had that kind of moment or moments while you were in treatment. Can you talk a little bit about how you got inspired and tell tell everyone a little bit about where you are now, because of that inspiration?

Molly Pratt
Well, I was so inspired by all my nurses, and just my doctors and everybody that was around me that was caring for me. And I had so many people telling me, they're like, Oh, my goodness, you'd be such a great nurse. Oh, my clinic nurses were like, wow, I can see you being a really good nurse. And at this point in time, I did not like the healthcare. I was scared. Because anytime I would ever be in a hospital, it was for nothing ever good, but now I actually have the ability to work there. And I just I was so encouraged by all the nurses and I got to see more of what I just have, as a perspective outside of the healthcare as like a patient or just outside person coming in, I have more of a perspective on what nurses do now, after going through treatment, because I was always so curious on everything they would do for me. So I would always ask questions. What are you doing? Why are you doing this? What what is this. And so like cancer really sparked my interest on the medical field. And all the nurses, I can't like even express how much they helped me into showing me where my true calling was, I got to the point where they didn't even have, I didn't even have to ask any more, they would just start telling me what's going on. And tell me the procedures and what they're going to do. And I would have nurses like that would just come hang out in my room and just chat with me when they needed to like escape from what's going on. And I love that I even had like some aides, nursing aides come in and like play games with me. And it's just like little things like that, that made me feel more humanized as a patient. And it made me realize like, wow, this is also like an amazing field to help people and I love people, and then I realized that like, helping people is what I wanted to do. So then I started considering nursing more and more, and I originally wanted to be an agricultural engineer, which has really nothing to do with people, and I'm very glad to say the least that I am not an agricultural engineer now that I I love what I do. So then I decided to go to nursing school. And I just had graduated from nursing school this past December. And now I accepted my position on the pediatric floor at Beaumont children's. And it has been amazing being able to work side by side with like, my oncology team, I think has been so much fun. And being able to work with the nurses that had cared for me. One of the nurses that actually cared for me, Laurie, she was my preceptor that I got to follow around for a few shifts, which had been awesome. And I love being able to work with the mock patients that were like me like, and show them that there is like hope and like, I don't tell every patient my story because I feel like it's not necessary to but I had a patient the other day and he had just gotten diagnosed and he was having a really hard time. So I said, Hey, like you can get through this. Like there's hope at the other end of this because like I was in your spot just a few years ago, and it's just the expression on their face. Once I told them that, and even a family it was really, it was really neat to see that I'm now in the position to be telling people and helping people back to good health. And it just I don't know, it's really awesome. I love it. And it just it puts a smile on my face every time I get to talk about it.

Brooke Smith
Yeah, well, it puts a smile in my face hearing it. I feel like everyone, a lot of people in healthcare, they all have an origin story. You know, and I don't work in healthcare, but I have a nurse origin story. I mean, that's why I have such an affinity and love for nurses. It's kind of how I came into MDF. You know, when I was young, I had a chiropractor just me incorrectly and I didn't get better oxygen to my brain. So I lost vitals passed out, peed myself the whole thing. And I woke up in an ambulance on the way the hospital I was in California all by myself and didn't have any family around. And I had this nicest, kindest nurse, and he like put socks on my feet, and comforted me in such a way that I he took my fear away, and I went, wow. It's crazy how a stranger can bring so much comfort to you, and some of the scariest times of your lives, and you trust them because you can tell that they have this care and this kindness, and this desire to help you and heal you. But I think it's so incredible and awesome that you have come all the way through all through the holes, the whole circle of just being from being a patient and having cancer and knowing what that feels like and going through chemo and having the nausea and losing your hair. And it all the while being so young to in high school, I that's just, you know, a really hard thing to overcome, I think. And then to just say, Wow, I want to help people to I want to go, I want to do this, I want to show people that they can get better, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And that there is life that we can fight that we can do more. And that positivity and that inspiration. It's it's contagious. And it makes people go, You know what, you're right, I can beat this. And our brains are so powerful, that when we tell ourselves, we can do something, I think that we're way more likely to be able to do that. And I just I love I love your story. I'm so proud of you, I know that we just met but I, I was really moved by your story. And I think a lot of people are because you have such a positivity and a light that exudes you. And you can just really tell that you have an empathy. And maybe part of that empathy comes from the fact that you were there yourself. And so you know what it feels like. But on the other end, you also probably already naturally had an empathetic heart to begin with. And now that drew you into health care. And it really is beautiful. We touched base a little bit about how you were working alongside some of the people that were caring for you back in 2014 and forward as you fought. So anytime a little bit what those relationships like are like now and how proud they must feel of you.

Molly Pratt
I was actually inspired by like my clinic nurses, but also the four nurses. I'm in and when I graduated in December nursing does like a pinning ceremony type thing. And I actually had Karen, which is one of the nurse practitioners in the oncology clinic. Come pin me at my ceremony. Because she had been such a huge inspiration to me. Every time I'd go into the clinic, she would always give me a nursing book when I was going through school, because she just had so much knowledge and I I saw that she wanted to share it with me and share her knowledge and I and I love that, but it wasn't just her it was everyone else in the clinic, everyone off on the floor. They saw me and they always wanted to help me and they wanted to inspire me and it was just, it was awesome. I think it's so neat to be able to work side by side with them now in that all the knowledge that they have, and they're instilling that knowledge into me. And it makes me have hope when they when I hear people say that, like they need more nurses like me and it is it really is warming to my heart to hear that. Because sometimes I feel like I'm not going to be a good nurse. So when all the nurses see me they're like I literally saw you at your worst in the hospital. And you still inspired me to go throughout my day. So I'm like I know when you're not feeling your worst that you are still able to go through the day and help people even if you don't realize it. So many people have impacted my life and brought me to nursing but that's some of the best way I can explain it, I guess,

Brooke Smith
people may forget your name, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. It's something like that you know what I'm talking about. And not just in healthcare and nursing, but I think in life as well, we can maybe forget a lot of things. But we're never going to forget how someone made us feel how they were there for us or comforted us or inspired us or helped us get through some difficult thing that we didn't think we could get through. And it sounds to me that you were really lucky in the fact that you were surrounded by people who inspired you and moved you. And now you're doing that very same thing for other people. And it's, it's just so awesome to see in the world really needs more of stories like this. So Molly,I know that you're new, you just graduated last year. And this is the whole nursing career is you're still getting your feet wet, I'm sure. But do you have an idea of where you want to see yourself in the future five years from now or in the near future? I know that as a nurse, there's so many avenues you can take, especially as you can get into but do you feel like you're kind of have an idea of where you see yourself?

Molly Pratt
Yeah, um, that's a really good question. I would love to say that in five years, I'm still going to be here. I'm working at this hospital, and maybe eventually further down the line, being able to be a nurse in the clinic exactly where I was treated. But I really don't know. I'm just kind of taking it day by day and kind of seeing where my career leads me. But I definitely want to stay bedside with pediatrics, I, in the short amount of time that I've been working with pediatrics, I have fallen in love with it. And I just I want to be able to do this every day. I hope in my future, then I still am where I'm at today. But maybe in the clinic or something. Karen has high hopes that I'm going to take over when she retires. But we had is that? Yeah, so it's awesome.

Brooke Smith
So I want to ask you, because you've been through so much adversity at such a young age, and been through so much and come out on the other side. If you could go back and tell your younger self something, a piece of advice or something you wish you had known? Or any kind of advice or even people now, is there anything that comes to mind that you would want to say, Hey, this is something I wish I'd known or something I wish I could tell my younger self.

Molly Pratt
I feel like there's so many things that I would go back and tell myself, a big thing would be don't ever let anybody underestimate you. And I'm not saying anybody has, but I've been told that I can't do certain things. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to prove you wrong. So definitely, don't ever underestimate what you can do. Because you are your best advocate and you know what you can accomplish? You have James and you for a reason. Losing your hair, having weakness, like not being able to eat now as yet, I've only seen a little bit of how it's affecting my dad. But just to give a better understanding of exactly how hard this was for you. Losing my hair was really hard. The first time I actually shaved it off before I even could ever lose it. And then the second third time, I was trying to just kind of let it go and see how it went, but the third time I was really trying to hold out for Brom because I got I had started chemo a couple of weeks before prom, so I was like, man, like let's just wait until prom before I lose my hair. And it ended up being three days before prom where I started having my hair fall out. So at that point, I couldn't anymore. And I just ended up shaving. I called I called my lady up and I was like hey, can you can you shave my head?T hat was one of the hardest things to see was my hair like falling out in clumps and it's really hard to believe when they tell you like it's gonna come out in clumps, like you're gonna like be able to just like pull it off your hair. And I was like no way like that's just that's so weird. And that is so true. Like I my hair got matted and I was brushing a and it just like a comes out and like clumps and you wake up and it's just like in clumps on your bed and it's just that was a a huge challenge and the hardest challenge. The hardest challenge for me when I was going through my treatments after my bone marrow transplant, I ended up not being able to walk the maintenance chemo like I had my muscle weakness, it like debilitated me, II started going down and I started with a walker. And then I started that I progressed and I was in a wheelchair. Because I couldn't, I couldn't walk anymore. And that was the scariest thing ever, I would say I'm a pretty independent person, and so not being able to walk, and not being able to be home by myself, because I couldn't get out of bed by myself, I couldn't get up on the chair by myself, I couldn't even like, get to the bathroom by myself, or even take a shower by myself. It wasn't very, very hard at this time I was in college, I was at my community college. And having a walker, or wheelchair I don't think was bad. But the worst part was the walker. Having a walker, in college, walking the halls was I was so embarrassed, because I'm just like, wow, this is not normal for an 18 year old girl to be having a walker. And I had a very, like, very hard time with it. Like my mental health was not good going through all of that. And no one really understood what I was going through all my friends were like, Hey, let's hang out. And I'm like, No, I don't really want to hang out because like, I couldn't go places very easily, it was really hard for me to where I lived, I had like four steps to get up to my house, I couldn't walk up those. So I didn't want to ever go anywhere because I couldn't get up the steps by myself would never wish it upon anybody, but now I can understand a little more where like, where my when my grandma, when she had a walker, and when she needed more assistance, on how very hard for her to accept the assistance that we were trying to offer. Or even with my patients now it's, I understand, because I had a really, really hard time accepting help, even though I needed the help, because I was so independent, and it like, ripped my independence away from me, at the age where I am just starting to get that independence. Because I'm an adult, I'm going to college and off on my own. And it was just very, very hard. I don't even know how to really explain how I truly felt.

Brooke Smith
Yeah, it's hard when you have things that are out of your control, and you have to just accept them as the new normal until you can figure out how to change it. You know, and sometimes you can sometimes things are just so out of your control, there's really nothing you can do to change it. But I wonder, you know, do you How did you? How did you get through the mental health aspect? Like the challenges were you journaling writing? Were you talking to someone were you? Were you singing? Did you have some sort of outlet for your emotions that you were feeling as you were going through all of this, because it can be a very isolating feeling, I imagine, you know, because no one can truly understand unless they've been in your shoes.

Molly Pratt
I like I said earlier, I love people, people is like my out. I love hanging out with people. So when I was at my community college, I was involved with a group. It's called InterVarsity. It's like a Christian fellowship group. And they were so helpful to me. And like, they even offered to like, drive out to me and come to my house and hang out. And like, I surrounded myself by people that like wanted to help out. And it was hard for me still having that help. But after I accepted that I really needed this help. It was better .That people I was what helped me. And sarcasm is my coping mechanism through everything. Maybe altering it a little bit. So I would have more enjoyable time through it. So I don't like having them come over and have a game night at my house so I don't have to leave my house. And then my best friend. We ended up going on a mission trip actually. And we had signed up for it before I got super weak. I almost canceled my trip. And like I had my occupational therapist, she was telling me like, don't go on it. My parents didn't want me going on it. And I almost started to believe like, I shouldn't go on it. But then I took that stuff with faith and like I ended up going on it in the very first day I was out of my wheelchair was the day I was boarding the plane. So I was like, oh, but that was like what I said earlier like, don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. That's kind of where that's coming from. Because so many people around me were telling me that I couldn't do it. And then it wasn't a good idea. But doing that mission trip was the step for getting me better. Because when I came back, I like, recovered, like, I was not on, I was not in a wheelchair anymore, I was on a walker. And then like, within a couple of weeks, I was back to like, they're called long strands, which is kind of like the crutch. And then I was on a cane, and then I was like, almost back to normal within like, a couple months of coming back and it like, it really set a spark in me. But I actually can't accomplish these things, I just have to really put my mind into a really good mindset.

Brooke Smith
But like going on a mission trip, you're not focusing on you, right, you're not focusing on your cancer, you're not focusing on your health, like, this isn't about you, you're going to go help other people. And I think there's really something to that sometimes when we were You were talking a little bit about this about how, you know, if you start to have the victim mentality, and like feel bad for yourself and go inward and get depressed. It's, it's, it's harder, whereas you if you put that outward and focus on other things, and focus on helping people and kindness and doing that, all of a sudden, you're you're not focusing on that anymore. And look, look at how it changed. You know, and and I'm sure it had a lot to do with the science and all the things that you know, the treatment you were going through, but there is a huge mental element there, where I sometimes feel like when people get sick, we give them so much attention all the time and like, want to dote on them, that it can almost be too much. And sometimes people just need to feel normal. They just need to feel like they're helping and they're contributing, and they're going by their life normal as normal as they can in the moment.

Molly Pratt
No, it was actually really cool. Because I'm 100% agree with everything you just said about like, you just needed to be out of normal, you need to feel like you're not the victim anymore. And so when I was on that trip, it was really cool. Because I went to foster, I went to a foster home with little kids. And I went to Peru, so it was very different. And I don't think they've ever seen a walker before. So they were so fascinated with something that I was so insecure about. I was like, wow, they want like it was one of those four wheeled walker that have that little seat. So there was one girl that I would give Walker rides to and she had a blast for it. So they just thought it was like a little playground. It could really be beat. Yeah, yeah. So, um, that really encouraged me to do better. And I'm like, wow, you know, this is what I think of it as it's a hinder to my self. But other people, these little kids think it's a really cool playground. Like, I guess the perspective of a walker is so different for every single person. I just, I don't know, that those kids there were so inspiring to me. So it was amazing.

Brooke Smith
Yeah, and I think we, you know, are we are so self conscious sometimes about our own, like insecurities and things that we don't even understand that other people just don't see it. Because they're worried about their own insecurities, too. You know, we're all doing the best we can. We all have challenges. Some people can see our challenges. Some people can't sometimes they're internal, but we're all battling things. And we should all just be kind to each other. And try to also be kind to ourselves, I think it's really important to love yourself, the way you love other people. And I think just kind of hearing your story and hearing what you've been through and how much love you have for others and how much help you offer others. You know, it's good to remember to turn that inward because you deserve that too. And, and I think you know that but just a little nice reminder. We also want to be so supportive of the hospital, you're working out, obviously, they have incredible care and an incredible staff. So can you tell us the name of the hospital that has treated you and that you're currently working at now?

Molly Pratt
Of course. So it's Beaumont children's at horrible health? William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. All right, you heard it here. What a great hospital. Do you have any social media handles or anything if people want to come follow you or watch your story of your journey? Are you on Facebook? are you blogging? Are you doing anything where people can kind of catch up with you? My Instagram handle is Molly Pratt 18. So it's um M O L L Y P R A T T 1 8 the number one and the number eight

Brooke Smith
so if anybody wants to follow along her story or just go check her out or message her have any questions I'm sure she would love to, to chat with you, but you can find her there. Thank you so much for inspiring other people and for sharing your story.