Kay Wagner

Kara's Courage: a Nurse's Story of Her Child's Experience with Cancer Viewed from "The Other Side of the Stretcher" Kay Wagner

It was one day in October that a family's life would be forever changed. Some could say for the better, while others may argue for the worse. Kay Wagner, a registered nurse since 1985, spent most of her professional career in critical care settings. Her love has been in caring for patients in the specialized area of neurology/neurosurgery, those with such disorders as strokes, back and spinal cord injuries, aneurysms, and brain tumors. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that such skills would be put to the test in her own personal life. Her oldest daughter Kara would be diagnosed with a brain cyst that was to be surgically treated with a shunt. Acting on her professional instincts as a nurse and more importantly on her gut instincts as a mother, she delves deeper into her daughter's diagnosis and finds that Kara had not only a cyst, but a rare malignant brain tumor. Kara's Courage is a heartwarming true story that will take you on a journey of uncertainty, fear, and humbleness as experienced by the author in her forever conflicting roles as a nurse and as a mother from "the other side of the stretcher."