Brigitte Hall:  

For me to tell you my story, I have to also tell my husband's story as well. My husband, Brian and I met when we were 15 years old at the end of our sophomore year of high school. We were steadies until our marriage in August 1979. For the last 2 years of our courtship, we were separated by 3,000 miles. After high school Brian moved to Baltimore to attend college at Johns Hopkins University. I stayed behind in Fresno to attend the Registered Nursing Program at Fresno City College. (I was one of two of the youngest nurses to graduate from the program at age 19.) Brian and I married right after I took the nursing State Board exam, and I joined him in Baltimore. I easily found employment at a near-by hospital, and I worked full-time as a general medical-surgical staff nurse. Brian majored in philosophy at JHU and before graduating he realized that there wasn't a job out there for new grads who majored in philosophy. So, Brian applied to law school after finishing his undergraduate studies. Brian was accepted at Boalt Hall (ranked #5 in the nation at the time) at the University of California at Berkeley. So, we packed up and moved back to California. I began working in the NICU at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Oakland. When Brian was half finished with law school (and I was pregnant with our 1st child), he realized that he didn't really want to practice law. I made a deal with him and asked him to finish law school and then I would support him to change careers. Our daughter was born in November 1983 while Brian was still in law school. (Our daughter, Alyssa was our pride & joy, but life was hard. I continued to work full-time, share in the care of our infant, and I managed the household so my husband could focus on law school and pre-med courses.) -So after Brian obtained his J.D., he started medical school in 1986. By now we were getting a little worried about our increasing student loan debt. Brian decided to apply only to state schools for medical school (cheaper). I mentioned to a friend of our increasing student loan concern and our friend suggested that Brian look into the military. The military scholarship program pays 100% of tuition and all medical school related expenses with an agreement (contract) that the new grad physician will work for the military for 4 years in return ("pay back"). This was very enticing to us. So, Brian was commissioned into the air force, and we moved back to Maryland so he could attend University of MD Medical School. This time I decided to work at University of MD Hospital level III NICU. Our 2nd child, Jason was born in Baltimore in 1988 during Brian's 2nd year of medical school. This time I did not want to continue to work as a full-time nurse with a newborn and 4 year old at home. So, I started my own licensed home daycare. I worked Monday-Friday doing daycare, and one day of each weekend I continued to work at the hospital. I did this for 18 months. I'm not sure this was easier than working full-time in the hospital, but it was definitely better for our children. After Brian graduated from medical school in 1990, he started his residency in pediatrics at Wilford Hall Medical Center (WHMC), Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I also decided to work at WHMC as a nurse contractor. I worked full-time in the NICU and later on in the peds ICU. During Brian's 2nd year of residency, our 3rd child, Richard was born in 1992. Brian was finally earning an income when he started his residency program so I was able to cut back to part-time after our 3rd child was born. Nine months after Richard was born (January 1993) I became ill with what we now know was lupus (SLE). I thought I was just getting the flu, but it didn't progress like the flu. Bloo...Expand for more