Megan's motivation | The East Carolinian

By Rex Rose
September 27, 2012.

Chelsea Curry | The East Carolinian

Megan Pawtowski paused while she tied the shoelaces of her soccer cleats and closed her eyes. She pushed the guilt that she felt for not being at the hospital with her mom aside, as well as the thoughts of projects and assignments that she would be working on later that night.

As she took the field she looked down at the cleat she had just tied to make sure that her three ribbons were still attached.

There they were, the three cancer ribbons that represented three peoples fight with cancer. A green one for her teammate Rachel?s battle with lymphoma, a pink one for her mom?s breast cancer diagnosis and an orange one for Amanda?s death from leukemia.

Megan Pawtowski, an 18-year-old freshman nursing major originally from Ellicott, Maryland, knows all too well about the devastating effects of cancer. Watching her friends and mother struggle with different forms of cancer throughout her life made her look to the healthcare field for a career. That career aspiration caused her to choose ECU as the route to her becoming an oncology nurse.

Her first run in with the devastating disease was in seventh grade when her friend Amanda, which she had met the year before, was diagnosed with leukemia. After numerous treatments and time out of school, Amanda returned in eighth grade with the cancer under control. Then the girls lost touch during ninth grade year, the year of Amanda?s relapse, because they went to different high schools.

?Then I remember one day one of my friends texted me and was like, ?Did Amanda die,?? said Pawtowski. With extreme disbelief she said, no of course not. ?Then I went on her care page and read that she had passed away, and it was rough for a while.?

Cancer had taken one of her best friends. Time did not stop though, and Pawtowski eventually got over the initial loss and continued through her high school years at Glenelg High School.

During her senior year the cancer hit again. This time it took the form of breast cancer and lymphoma in her mom and teammate Rachel.

?I went to a school play and I was watching the school play and I get a text from my sister and she was like, ?You need to call mom. Something is wrong,?? said Pawtowski. ?After that I was like I can?t watch this play. I went outside and I called her. She was like, ?honey come home everything is ok? I was like, ?Stop lying to me I know something is wrong.? I just started crying after that, then she was like ?I?ve got breast cancer.??

This phone call changed the course of the next few months for Pawtowski. She became her mom?s caregiver during the three months of chemo that started in January and the radiation treatments that started around April.

Pawtowski?s life became a chaotic scene of working four to five days at Walgreens, going to school, playing soccer and taking her mom to and from doctor?s visits. This did not stop her from being a source of strength for her mom.

?Right after she was diagnosed and she had to shave her ahead I arranged a kind of a thing at my house. A bunch of my guy friends came over, we called it the Shave fest. And they shaved their heads for her,? said Pawtowski. ?It was probably about 15 of my guy friends. And seven of my girlfriends died a strip of their hair pink for her. I cut nine inches of my hair off.?

Also during her mom?s battle with cancer her teammate Rachel had to get her tonsils taken out because of lymphoma.

While all of this set the stage for her career decision, it was her memories of her mentorship at Howard County General Hospital that helped her decide for a career in oncology nursing.

?I was working in a post-surgery unit, just so I could get a feel for basic RNs,? said Pawtowski. ?I didn?t want to do nursing at first but through the mentorship and through all the diagnoses and all that stuff I realized I liked that the most. I don?t know what else I would do now at this point.?

With her mom back to her old self, and the cancer subsided, she is teaching kindergarten again. Pawtowski?s need to use her experiences to help others is something that is very meaningful to her.

?It is not just about the medical and just doing your job,? said Pawtowski. ?It is about going beyond, you know what I mean, just connecting with your patient and developing that relationship to the point that they feel absolutely cared for. Not just that their getting treatment done, you know, but that someone actually cares for them.?

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This writer can be contacted at lifestyles@theeastcarolinian.com.

Source: http://theeastcarolinian.com/?p=5852

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