Discovering the Dangers of Pre-Marital Sex through Nursing School

I was going through a box of old stuff and found an old flash drive.  Curious I popped it into the computer and discovered that it contains all of my Nursing School Journals.  For those who have never experienced the wonderful joy of Nursing School let me just explain how the journals work.  Each semester you are required to rotate through different areas of nursing.  Over the span of two years you experience every area of nursing so you are a well rounded experienced graduate.  It also gives you an idea of the type of nursing you prefer and want to further your career in.  Our teachers required us to journal our experiences through each rotation.  This particular journal I have decided to share again.  I will never forget this rotation and I hope it opens the eyes to many people of the dangers of sex outside of marriage and extra marital affairs. This took place at a medical clinic for contagious diseases. Specifically but not exclusively related to STDs. I rotated through the men's clinic and spent a few hours in the female clinic. The clinic diagnosis diseases and these men are required (some cases by law) to write down the names of all their sexual partners for a specific length of time. Those people are contacted by mail and notified that their presence is required at the clinic.  There are codes on the postcard that represent the different diseases they have been exposed to. Very seldom did the cards contain just one code.  The men that came through were of all ages and races. Some very young.  There were single, married, and homosexual men represented. This is just a very small sample of what goes on there every single day.   Here you go:

Thursday February 1, 2007:
 Today was the day that Amber lost her fear of the male body. I now consider myself somewhat of an expert.  I spent the day at  ******* clinic or as I like to call it: “My girl told me to come up here clinic” I have done things to a man that he would not even know to have nightmares about. I have swabbed, stuck, inspected, educated, consoled, demonstrated, administered, milked, and palpated enough for a lifetime. I use to be nervous around men and their no-no zones, but thanks to today I have conquered my fear of the no-no zone. I can now pretty much go up to any male patient, and do whatever needs to be done to them. Hesitation is not in my system anymore.

Today I had the extreme honor and privilege of administering a penicillin shot to an HIV patient who had contracted syphilis, and then later drawing his blood to run for further testing. Another student asked me if I had been nervous while drawing his blood. I asked her why I should be nervous and she said. “Cuz he has HIV!?!” I simply smiled and said.  “I have treated everyone of my patients like they had HIV, the only difference with this one was he really had it. So I have hypothetically stuck a patient with HIV a hundred times.”  Haha.

Needless to say, this experience today has taught me a lot about life and how the world is. Three nights ago God led me to the first and second chapters of Romans. For the life of me I could not understand why. After today it has been made clear to me.  I didn’t understand God’s message for me so he showed me by an example of how our world is. He also taught me not to judge homosexuals because their sin is not greater than my own. I am not to look down upon them. To be perfectly honest I walked into that clinic this morning in the mind-set that ‘these people should have known better’ and I almost dare to say that they deserve what they got and they should know to use protection.  I walked out of the clinic today with a broken heart and completely humbled before God. This was one of the hardest rotations I have been through yet. Physically it was not difficult at all but emotionally it was completely draining.
 
I saw man after man crying after they learned they were HIV positive. I saw marriages and relationships torn apart because of unfaithfulness. What has this world come to? There were young 13-14 year olds crying and clinging to their parents because of ‘one night’ of fun, or a series of bad choices that destroyed their lives forever.  I hugged a homosexual man after he learned that his ‘partner’ of ten years had transmitted HIV to him. I have seen first hand what sex and ‘sleeping around’ do to people. It destroys their lives. Yeah…. Some of them were lucky and only contracted Syphilis, Gonorrhea or Chlamydia infections that are curable, but when you’re injecting medicine into the butt of man and he cowers and screams on the floor cuz it burns like acid fire. You get to tell him he still has two more shots to go…I wonder…. Are they so lucky after all?? 

My friends. This is where the enemy has taken over. This is where he has gained the upper hand. He is a defeated foe but this battle he is winning.

In Christ,

Amber