How My Life-Threatening Diagnosis Turned Into a Life-Saving Career

Photo courtesy of Erica Cash Erica Cash, a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) at Texas Health Rockwall, has a story that epitomizes resilience, faith, and purpose. Her remarkable transition from being a patient to becoming a healthcare provider is a testament to her strength and dedication to serving others.  The Day Everything Changed Returning home from a relaxing cruise on April 30, Cash didn’t expect the life-changing events that would follow. Early the next morning, her husband found her seizing in bed. “I remember waking up going to the bathroom and praying to God to calm my spirit because I was stressing about how I was going to pay for nursing school and all the things that come with being in school full-time, working, and running a household,” Cash recalls.  Cash’s seizure was followed by an emergency room visit that revealed a shocking diagnosis: a tennis ball-sized meningioma, a type of brain tumor. The seizure was a critical sign of the tumor’s impact on her brain, including swelling and pressure, as explained by Yoo Joo Hwang, D.O., an emergency medicine physician at Texas Health Rockwall. “There are typically no symptoms of a meningioma until it gets too large,” Dr. Hwang says....