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.

Seven years after everything changed, life didn’t go back to normal — it became something new.

In this episode, I talk honestly about what life looks like now: what I lost, what I gained, and what never went back to the way it was. We explore identity after change, the lingering grief, the slow acceptance, and what the “new normal” actually means when you stop trying to fit back into your old life.

This isn’t a story about fixing things or finding closure. It’s about learning how to live when life doesn’t go back — and realizing you’re not alone in the long after.

Leaving The Shepherd Center wasn’t the end of recovery — it was the beginning of learning how to live without structure.

This episode follows the return home: stepping away from a place built to hold you together and re-entering a world that didn’t slow down. I talk about the quiet shock of being back in familiar spaces, the pressure to be okay, and the long middle of healing — including months of outpatient therapy, slow progress, and learning to carry life forward without a system around you.

This isn’t about milestones or inspiration. It’s about endurance, persistence, and living between help and independence.

If you’ve ever left the place that kept you together and wondered how to live after it, this episode is for you.

This episode follows my arrival at The Shepherd Center, the place where survival gave way to rehabilitation, and the reality of long-term recovery set in. I talk about the early days there, starting therapy early, learning to navigate a new body, and the people who challenged me to stop feeling sorry for myself and start engaging with what was in front of me.

Shepard was focused on work, routine, and community, and I slowly realized that life wasn't over; it was just different.

If you have ever been told "this is where healing begins" before you were ready, this episode is for you.

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After the incident, I wasn't fully present in my own life.

This episode lives in that space- the days where time didn't feel real, decisions felt distant, and I didn't recognize myself or the world I was in.

I speak candidly about what it feels like to navigate moments without fully understanding what's happening or what comes next.

If you ever felt lost inside your own life after something changed everything, you'll recognize this place.

This is The New Normal- living while disoriented.

One ordinary day, everything changed.

This episode isn’t about answers or lessons learned. It’s about the moment life split into before and after — the shock, the fear, the loss of control, and the realization that nothing was going back to the way it was.

If you’ve ever had something happen that changed your life in an instant, you may recognize this space. The confusion. The waiting. The feeling of being suspended between what was and what comes next.

This is the beginning of my story, and the start of The New Normal.