Life really can change in a moment. And when it does, it can feel like everything you knew — and even who you were — got left behind.

In this episode, I’m not just sharing more of my story. I’m talking directly to you — the listener who knows what it feels like when life shifts and nothing feels the same anymore.

I talk about what people misunderstand about strength, why progress can feel invisible when you’re living inside it, what it’s like to grieve parts of the old you, and the night I realized peace doesn’t come when everything is fixed… it comes when you stop feeling alone. If you’ve ever felt like life changed and left you behind, I want you to hear this:

You didn’t get left behind.

You got changed.

And that doesn’t make you less — it means you’re still becoming.

In this episode of The New Normal, I share what it really looked like to step back into life after everything changed. Coming back didn’t happen all at once — it happened in layers.

From my first shift back in Central Sterile, to rebuilding confidence through Shed Hauling, to realizing I was still a nurse in PACU, each step showed me something I didn’t expect: I wasn’t as fragile as I thought.

Then came the moment I never knew if I’d experience again — walking back into the operating room for the first time since my stroke… and realizing the case in front of me was the same type I left in.

This episode is about identity, purpose, fear, faith, and what it feels like when you realize you’re not who you were before… but you’re still whole.

If your life looks different from how it used to be, this episode is for you.

In this episode, I share what happened medically — along with what I experienced in real time and what I understand now looking back.

This isn’t just my perspective, and it isn’t just the medical version. It’s both. I walk through what was happening to my body, what was happening around me, and what I remember experiencing as everything was unfolding.

I also talk about the things I didn’t understand then — and what I can only see now with time, distance, and processing. Including the people, timing, and moments that shaped my survival and recovery.

At the end of the episode, I reflect on how I now see God’s presence through parts of the experience that I couldn’t recognize in the moment.

If you’ve ever had life change in a way that didn’t make sense at first — this episode is for you.