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The number of community members getting the COVID-19 vaccine are on the rise. This means, getting out during the summer months will be just a little more fun than last summer. (Ok A LOT more fun!) Please take note of these summer safety tips provided by one of the nurses at Labor of Love. P.S. Wear masks based on the current CDC guidelines.

“Oh what do you do in the summer time

When all the world is green?

Do you fish in a stream or lazily dream?

Or swing in a tree up high?

Is that what you do? So do I!”

When Sharon Lee awoke at 4:30am, she felt like everything was fine. When she awoke at 6:00am, she knew something was wrong. “My arm was weak and I had lost my balance on the right side of my body,” she says. “I could still walk, so I thought maybe it was my medicine.” It wasn’t Sharon’s medicine; she was having a stroke at the age of 50. Sharon still wanted to go to work and asked her daughter to drive her because her eyes were blurry, but her daughter insisted they go to the emergency room.

Studies have found that loving and nurturing fathers improve outcomes for children, families and communities. Children with involved and loving fathers are more likely to do well in school, have healthy self esteem, exhibit empathy and avoid risk-taking behaviors.

Each year, more than 320,000 people go into cardiac arrest when their heart suddenly stops sending blood to the body and brain. Survival depends on immediately receiving CPR. Yet, the majority of the time, people are not in the hospital when this happens. What if no one around them knows what to do?

Surviving a diagnosis that shakes you to your core is not as easy on the other side as many might think. The words, “You have cancer,” are branded into DNA from that moment on. Your life is forever changed. Being a survivor means the curtain has been drawn. That story is over. However, as survivors have shared, you are never quite sure if there’s another act. “We’re told that it might come back at any time,” shares a member of the Young Survivor Coalition support group that meets at Lovelace Women's Hospital.

Breast cancer patients and survivors often experience uncomfortable symptoms, such as fatigue, nausea, decreased range of motion due to scar tissue and weakness. These symptoms are often the result of cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, regular exercise has been shown to improve survival rates and reduce the risk of the cancer coming back. Research has shown that yoga has many physical and emotional benefits for cancer patients and survivors.

Michelle Amaya Schmidt welcomed her first child, a boy, Asher Hunter Schmidt on January 13, 2016. He was born at Lovelace Women’s Hospital after months of anticipation and preparation. Michelle joined the Lovelace Labor of Love program to learn more about what to expect during her first pregnancy, while taking advantage of every opportunity to give her baby the best start possible. “I was immediately drawn to the Labor of Love program,” she says.

“I knew nursing was my path,” shares Lovelace Regional Hospital – Roswell CEO Dawn Tschabrun, RN of her 31-year professional career and lifelong interest in nursing. It all began in her South Central Nebraska hometown, where Dawn was introduced to health care through her mother’s job as a materials management tech at their local community hospital. By high school, Dawn volunteered as a candy striper and met a charge nurse named Rita, who took her under her wing and opened her eyes to the field of nursing.

If you watch CBS Sunday Morning, you may have seen Kathy Bates share her story as a breast cancer survivor who experienced lymphedema after her mastectomy. As a spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education and Research Network, Ms. Bates has shared her journey with medical professionals and with the media.