Episode 62 of the Hope4Med podcast features nurse practitioner Kizzy McCray-Sheppard. She is the Limitless Thought Leader and founder of Limitless Possibilities. Currently, she is a minister in addition to being a nurse practitioner, as well as an author, transformational speaker, and coach. She shares the life-threatening event that forced her to wake up and start listening to her body. Her purpose now is to inspire and encourage others to live limitlessly while focusing on self-care. NP McCray-Sheppard explains how learning our limits can allow us to learn how to become limitless. We discuss the importance of taking care of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health to continue caring for others.

Connect with our guest:
Website: https://limitlesspossibilitiesnow.com/

Transcript:
[00:00:00] Dr. JB: Welcome to Hope4Med.

[00:00:04] Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Hope4Med podcast. I am your host, Dr. JB and today’s featured guests is nurse practitioner Kizzy McCray Sheppard. She is the Limitless Thought Leader and founder of Limitless Possibilities. Now she is a minister, in addition to being a nurse practitioner, as well as an author and transformational speaker and coach. Her purpose is to inspire and encourage others to live limitlessly while focusing on self care. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:36] NP McCray-Sheppard: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:00:40] Dr. JB: So please share with my audience your origin story.

[00:00:45] NP McCray-Sheppard: For me, my origin story began when I– as a healthcare professional, as most of us as healthcare professionals, do we focus on taking care of our patients and everyone else and we often place ourselves last, or we forget about ourselves. And in doing that, we create an unexplainable level of stress in our lives, both physically and mentally, and that happened to me. And in that process, I began to have health issues that were unrecognized because I didn’t focus on me. And unfortunately my wake up didn’t come just because one day I woke up and said to myself, Kizzy, you need to get a hold of this, my wake up came when I was in the ER, fighting for my life. I had signs that something was wrong, but I didn’t listen to my body because I was so focused and running on that energy that we often have of taking care of others and just one day, my body gave out. Happily, they got me to the hospital in time, but come to find out I had internal bleeding and my blood pressure was fifties over thirties.

[00:02:06] Dr. JB: Oh, wow.

[00:02:10] NP McCray-Sheppard: I lost over half of the blood in my body, actually three liters. So I often contribute my life to being here, to be able to help other health care professionals and professionals and women alike to implement self-care practices because had I implemented the self-care practices, I would have reduced the level of stress and I would have answered when I had those signs that something was wrong and I wouldn’t be having to have massive blood transfusion to keep, to sustain my life. And then, so that’s what led to Limitless Possibilities now and me focusing in on self care, because I know if I’m like that, there’s others like that. I see it daily.

[00:02:54] Dr. JB: Wow. And so how long ago was that experience?

[00:02:57] NP McCray-Sheppard: It was at the beginning, at the peak of the pandemic, actually. So we know that and healthcare, all of our levels of stress increased with the pandemic. It, healthcare has not been the same. So at the peak of the pandemic, not only was, we had this change in healthcare where we’re concerned about how we’re going to save lives, how are we going to help families, how we’re going to help our family? It was complete change. Some of us became immediate teachers for our children because now everyone was virtual. So at that time, when I’m trying to manage that and juggle that and juggle my job, my body too was screaming I need help.

[00:03:35] Dr. JB: And so, so walk me through what happened that landed you in the ER, like, were you having symptoms that you just were not focusing on?

[00:03:45] NP McCray-Sheppard: Earlier that week, I felt a little dizzy, but I contributed it to being in the Florida sun ’cause it gets really hot in Florida, so I just thought I need some more, some more water to drink. So I constantly drink water. So I got in my car, I turned the AC on really high and just hydrated, and I said, okay, I’m okay. So from then, I felt okay. And I, then I had a couple areas where I had some pain and I just ignored it because I have a high level of pain, to the fact that I took care of a unit in labor, all day.

[00:04:24] And I contribute that to being in the military, I’m also a military veteran, so I, I handle my pain different. And I ignored it and like, oh, it’s just a little bit of pain. It’s nothing too serious. Well, take it to, that was that Monday, take it to that Friday at the end of the week, I go into the office and I hear all of a sudden, I felt like a heaviness fall over me. And I began to profusely sweat, and I’m like, what is going on? It’s like, my body was in that fight or flight, it was like, we’ve got to fight and I had no idea. And then I fell to my knees and my colleagues rushed over and I was taken off to the local trauma center, and at that point, that’s when it was discovered that something was seriously wrong with me.

[00:05:12] And I was foaming out of the mouth, I couldn’t even speak. And when I went to go speak, I was foaming. So immediately, I’m like, what in the world is going on? I was like, am I having a stroke? What’s going on? Am I having a heart attack? All these things was rushing because I didn’t know what was going on, but I was having this excruciating pain and honestly, they thought that I was on drugs because I was foaming out of the mouth.

[00:05:35] Dr. JB: Whoa.

[00:05:36] NP McCray-Sheppard: That was the first thought. To God be the glory, they allowed my husband to come back and it was at the peak of the COVID, so I know, I often tell people that was just something that was divine. And so he was there to advocate for me, so I’m so thankful for that too. But when they realized, when they did the scans and realized that I had a abdomen full of fluid, they realized it was something totally different. And at that moment they scanned me, they realized I had a baby in my uterus and also I had a tube, one in my tube. And so that’s what actually happened, I had a ruptured tube.

[00:06:11] Dr. JB: You had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy?

[00:06:13] NP McCray-Sheppard: Ectopic pregnancy.

[00:06:15] Dr. JB: Wow.

[00:06:16] NP McCray-Sheppard: It was, what was so different was I, like I said, I knew that I was pregnant, but I also, so it was one and the uterus, so it was like a normal pregnancy and an abnormal pregnancy happened at the same time. So that’s what led to me nearly bleeding out.

[00:06:33] Dr. JB: And you were at, you went to work that whole week, not feeling well?

[00:06:37] NP McCray-Sheppard: Yes, I did the entire week, and the day prior I seen patients, I even went out to a patient’s home that was about three hours out, to go see a patient, to check in on this patient. And I was thinking this could have happened while driving, but it didn’t. So I’m so thankful that it didn’t. And I’m thankful for my colleagues been able to rush to my aid to see how serious it was, for me to get to the trauma center, for them to figure out what was going on. And I’m just altogether just thankful. And I often tell people, in this, I, I lost my baby, but my life was saved and my life was saved because I am here to be that seed planner to someone else, to let them know about the importance of self-care. Stress, the high levels of stress lead to all type of illnesses, where it leads to heart disease, it leads to strokes and cancers, and it leads to accidents and suicides, which make that the sixth leading cause of death because of the things that it leads to. So we need to be in tune with our bodies, not just the physical body, but the mind, the physical body, the soul, the entire, your holistic body, you need to be in tune with those things. And in order to do that, you have to focus in on your self-care.

[00:08:04] And I often tell people when they say, oh, I do, I get a massage, no self care is so much more than a massage. You need to be intentional, and that intentionality needs to happen in your emotional care, your physical care, your spiritual care, your social care, and your mental care. We often leave out that when we just think, oh, I went to get a massage, but no, it’s exercising, eating a well balanced diet, getting enough sleep, going to the regular doctor’s appointments. We’re healthcare professionals, but we don’t often go get ourselves checked. I mean, let’s be realistic. We take care of everyone else, but we forget about self.

[00:08:48] Dr. JB: They say we forget about patient number one.

[00:08:53] NP McCray-Sheppard: And that’s, that’s correct. We forget about patient number one and that, and I often tell people if you don’t focus in on you and take care of you, nothing else matters. And people always say, self-care is not self-care is not selfish, it’s selfless, but all actuality it’s both. You have to be selfish to take care of you, as you said, patient number one, in order to be selfless to take care of every one else. And it’s okay to go to counseling, to a counselor if need be. We also think it’s taboo, but it’s needed. It’s okay to, to journal that’s that part of that mental care, and then your emotional care to laugh a little, to dance, be kind, all those things. Speaking affirmations to yourself? That deals with your emotional care. And for me now that I have transitioned into the hospital side of things, I did that during, after I recovered, I did that during the COVID time as well, that now I’m intentional even more so that daily, I make myself go outside 15 minutes and soak up the sun because that changes your mindset. We’re in a building and how often did we get that natural sunlight in? And I, not that I have any depression, but what we’re dealing with, it can lead to that if we don’t find a way to implement that self care.

[00:10:25] I remember one day walking into the ICU and as I walked, I saw young person after young person after young person, ventilator, ventilator, ECMO, ventilator, ECMO. And as I walked in, and this was during the Delta variant, I walked in, I said, I just can’t do this today. I literally walked in and walked out, because all 24 beds were filled with COVID, young, and they were young. And then we also had the overflow ICU. I walked in and literally walked around and walked out and went outside because I knew I had to shift my mindset immediately– and I was just getting the work that day– in order to be able to go back in to take care of others, that I had to recognize that Kizzy, you have to put self first. And that’s what we have to do. We have to know our limits. In order to be limitless, you have to know what your limit is. And self-care, if you can focus in on that, yes, you can have limitless possibilities and they can be now.

[00:11:33] Dr. JB: So how do you discover your limits?

[00:11:36] NP McCray-Sheppard: For me, I don’t, honestly, for me, I don’t believe that in life we have limit, limits because we, we serve a God who says that we are, all things are possible in him. So I feel that he’s a God that’s not bound by space or time, so our limits are limitless. I do believe that, but in order to be limitless, you have to focus in on self care. And if you’re not focusing in on self care, you’re limiting yourself. That’s where the limit comes in. So if you focus in on self care practices, while doing everything else, your possibilities are limitless. So that means, as I said, we went over the emotional care, we went over the physical care part of it, we went over the mental care part of it, but also that social piece of it. That means hanging out with your friends, maybe taking a girls trip somewhere, having a family game night, having a date night. And I know, still we have the COVID going on, some people still go out the restaurant, some don’t, but you can create that oasis right in your own home with limited amount of money to do it. So it doesn’t take that much to create the atmosphere that you need for self care, to shift your mindset from one that goes from limited to limit lists, but you have to encompass that.

[00:12:57] And knowing that you have that spiritual care piece of it, to me, is the most important part of self care. That prayer, that meditation, that time, that intimate time with yourself, that intimate time with the higher power that helps you with self-discovery, so I, for me, I just think that that is the most important piece of the self-care piece, because if you know who you are and daily, you’re speaking to that person that you are in the inside, then that begins to display on the outside. You consistently have that smile. You consistently can speak life into yourself when you have those low moments.

[00:13:33] And being kind. My, my great uncle who recently passed, he transitioned, he was 99 and he always said, be kind, right or wrong. And I live by that. I can I go in, I speak, hi, how are you? Someone could look at me. They could not speak. They could, “ehh.” But that doesn’t change me. And even now, when I go in and the nurses, I say, Hey, how is your day? “It’s going, Ms. Kizzy” I said, uh-uh, your mindset is everything. And I began to just speak life into everyone I come into contact with because that is the key. Planting that seed, letting them know you don’t have to be changed by your atmosphere. You can change the atmosphere and it starts within.

[00:14:26] Dr. JB: That’s right. That’s right. So if you don’t mind us revisiting what you talked about in the very beginning in terms of what happened when you, that landed you in the hospital and completely changed your life.

[00:14:39] NP McCray-Sheppard: Yes.

[00:14:40] Dr. JB: That is a very tragic and traumatic experience, and I’m sorry for your loss.

[00:14:50] NP McCray-Sheppard: Thank you.

[00:14:53] Dr. JB: And so, if I heard you correctly, you lost both babies.

[00:15:01] NP McCray-Sheppard: Yes. I did, the doctor told my husband that he would do the best, he would do his best to save the baby in my uterus, but the goal was to save my life. And so my husband– sorry, I get a little emotional when I talk about this– my husband informed the doctor that if he had to choose between me and the child, that he would choose me every time. And he often tells me that now, and I get emotional about it because I have such desire to have another child, but I know that I am here to help someone else. And that life isn’t over. And if I never have another child, then I’m at peace knowing that I am a part of that change to help someone else individually within the community and even nationally to know the importance of self care and how it leads to the prevention of chronic illnesses. And so, and that it, my life was changed, but it made me listen to what I had been hearing God say for so long. And I started journaling even more, it even led to me going ahead and moving forward with my book, and a lot of things birthed from this. So from this I, God had been talking to me about limitless possibilities and self care for years and I didn’t move. It took this for me to move. So Limitless Possibilites was birth in, Limitless Possibilites Now was birthed through this. My book was birth through this, Be Limitless, Trust in God’s Plan was birthed from that experience. My coaching was birthed from that experience. I became an international speaker from that experience. So there was so many things that happened from that, and I am pouring into the lives of others even more. And it’s things that I was doing prior, but I wasn’t as effective in them as I am now because now I really focus in on intentionality.

[00:17:19] Dr. JB: And so, in those recovery days, what did you do to help you get through this experience?

[00:17:29] NP McCray-Sheppard: So for me in those recovery days, I, again, like I said, the spiritual care piece is so important for me because I literally got deeper into my word to get a greater understanding of things. Focus in on a lot about Hannah and others who are women in the Bible, did a lot of digging in that, focused on more on journaling. I talked about how I was feeling to my family. I did research even, I researched even more. I talked to God, I cried, I didn’t let it, I didn’t hold it in. And so many times we think that we have to be strong and I often contribute that to I, I call it that ancestral, it’s like I called the ancestral DNA, like something that we’ve identified with ourselves, from our ancestors, because we saw mama do it and grandma do it and great-grandma do it. They held, had everything on their backs. They held it together. They were strong and we thought that that was something that we had to do. But then I realized that in my weakness, I’m actually strong because God says that in your weakness, your strength is made, His strength is made perfect. So I realized that that’s my strength is say, Hey, I’m weak right now. Hey, I’m sad, I’m vulnerable. And letting releasing that, not holding all of that in.

[00:18:54] And I knew that I had so much access through my job. Made sure that my family had meals the entire time. That was something that, the took that worry off so that my husband would be able to focus on me and my mom would be able to focus in on me. And then because of the job that I do, we have bereavement counselors available. So I was able to get everything that I needed, whether I spoke to that counselor or I used EAP to speak to another counselor. I had those opportunities to do that, and so often we don’t, but it’s okay.

[00:19:35] Dr. JB: Yeah. So I think that that’s extremely important. It’s an, a very, very important point because it’s expected that there’s going to be a lot of emotional turmoil from an experience like that. And as healthcare professionals, often times we are like, oh, I’m just going to tough it out and I’m not going to address what I’m feeling. I’m just going to push it under the rug and keep going. And so, for you to get to where you are and to really change that experience into a building block for you to launch your business, it seemed like you actually processed that. And so that’s why I was asking that question, cause I wanted to know, like, did you receive any of any counseling or what or whatnot, and the other resources that you leaned on to really help you get through, cause you can’t do this alone.

[00:20:40] NP McCray-Sheppard: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:20:45] Dr. JB: So tell me a little bit more about Limitless Possibilities and what you offer.

[00:20:53] NP McCray-Sheppard: So with limitless possibilities, I, as I said before, my focus is on healthcare professionals, women, to focus in on the importance of that self care piece. How to reduce stress as professionals because it, because stress contributes to a number of things, but if I can help you create that strategic plan for whatever your goal is, whatever your dreams, whatever you’re trying to accomplish by helping you to reduce that stress level, implement the self-care, I feel that I’ve created the greatest change. I helped some people, individuals discover what their purpose is because some of us are just living life and we’re just doing it because we believe that we just have to do it, but then we’re not happy. And if you’re not happy and you’re dissatisfied, that can cause a level of stress as well to go into the same job everyday, hating it, it creates issues and it interrupts your self-care. So with Limitless Possibilities, I work on that, I help create that strategic plan for, a success plan. I call it the limitless plan. And also for those who desire to be authors, I get to know them and we have co-authorships that we help people to become authors with anthologies and just creating that legacy of love.

[00:22:23] And in addition to that weekly on Facebook, on Limitless Possibilities Now, every Saturday at 8:00 AM, we do a live and it’s titled Jesus and Coffee, where we talk about real world issues. People bring different topics they want us to discuss, we’re very authentic in that. My husband and I do that together and we encompassed the word into that. And on one, one Monday of every month, actually it’s the first Monday of every month at 8:00 PM, we also focus in on relationships with a covenant promise on the same channel. So we’re looking at every aspect of one’s life to deal with business, deal with parenting, we deal with relationships, we deal with health to know that if you encompass that self care piece into everything, you can have authentic relationships, you can be your best authentic self.

[00:23:23] And so, also speaking engagements and facilitating. There’s so much that God has birthed with Limitless Possibilities Now, and I absolutely enjoy the change because it’s not about me. And I often tell people– I’ve been told, “oh, you shouldn’t, you should maybe shy away from the religious piece,” but that’s me. That’s who I was created to be. And whether I mention god, you’re going to know that I am a believer because I’m going to treat you in a way that you’re going to know that something is different about her. So that’s pretty much Limitless Possibilities in a nutshell.

[00:24:08] Dr. JB: Wow. That’s, that’s a lot that you’re doing. And then in addition to that, you are working as a nurse practitioner in the ICU?

[00:24:19] NP McCray-Sheppard: So what I do, I am consulted as a nurse practitioner throughout the hospital, but most of my consults actually come from the ICU. I work for community hospice and palliative care. And we’re contracted with the hospital. I am the palliative consultant. I don’t do– so, I am the palliative consultant for community hospice and palliative care, I don’t do the hospice piece. I go in, I talk to families, help them with goals of care, i, the patient with goals of care, symptom management, pain management, you name it. That’s what I do. So most of the times when I go in the ICU, unfortunately I know what that conversation and how that’s actually going to, to go. So I sit down with families and help them discover what their family member would have wanted, or they would not have wanted. And just, if I’m able to do a living will, healthcare surrogate with them because their decisional, I do that. But most of my patients in the ICU of course, are not decisioning. But I get consults throughout the hospital.

[00:25:29] And I also tell people that it’s not that the person’s dying, everyone needs a living well and healthcare surrogate, cause you never know at what point in your life that you may not be able to speak for yourself. And so that’s pretty much what I do, make recommendations on how to manage different levels of pain, whether it’s nausea, vomiting, whatever that symptom may be, that an individual is having. That’s that piece that I do. And if it is that they need hospice, we talk about what hospice is because most people believe that palliative and hospice are one in the same there. And I often have to tell them they’re not married, they’re separate, they’re sisters and brothers. That’s the best way I can describe it, they’re sisters and brothers. So I also do that with families, educate.

[00:26:19] Dr. JB: Okay. So tell me a little bit more about how their, the relationship.

[00:26:22] NP McCray-Sheppard: So the relationship, the differences, okay so palliative is strictly for someone who is continuous, going to continuous curative care. They want to continue a treatment, they just need symptoms managed, they need goals of care. They may, they need someone who’s that piece, that advocate piece, who’s going to collaborate with their entire team to make sure that they’re getting everything that they need. So that’s the palliative, piece and it only involves a nurse practitioner or a physician.

[00:26:56] And if you’re doing it outpatient, that nurse practitioner, physician, comes out to wherever you are and they see you once or twice a month just to check in on you. And if they notice something’s off, they’ll pick up the phone and collaborate with your team, the other healthcare professionals that are involved in your care to update them on things that they may be, they may see. And then they get the eyes on you and your natural state at home to know if you’re at that point where you need to transition to hospice, because most people who do palliative care, they do it– most are cancer patients. Let’s just say that a lot of them are, who are seeking treatment.

[00:27:42] And then you have the hospice piece. The hospice side of things is you still deal with the, you still deal with the goals of care, you still deal with the symptom management things, but with hospice, you get so much more. So with hospice, it covers all of your medications, your family. If you’re doing hospice at home, your family doesn’t have to worry about going to the pharmacy to pick up medications. The medications are delivered to the home. All your doable medical equipment is provided one of the hospice benefit. You get nursing assistants that come out to help with ADL’s and such three times a week, you get a nurse that comes out, you get a nurse practitioner and a physician on the team. The nurse practitioner or physician comes out to see you and that is done about once a month, unless there’s a need for something sooner, but the nurse goes out to see you and they will contact that physician or that nurse practitione and changes will be made to your medications. You also receive a chaplain and a social worker to help with different affairs and you get a volunteer that comes out to sit with you. Some people are lonely and don’t have that person, and that volunteer becomes your person. And in addition to that, if in the middle of the night, your family notices that something’s not right, there’s 24 hour access. So a nurse would come out to the home and doing. do an assessment. There’s always someone on call, whether it’s a physician or a nurse practitioner or both, to make sure that you’re getting everything that you need.

[00:29:09] So that’s the difference, those are major differences. And with the, the hospice piece, if that nurse comes out and, and they look and they say, okay, I think Mr. John Doe needs to go to the emergency room or needs to go to the hospital for treatment, they can. People think that once someone is on hospice, that everything stops but in fact, if something needs to be taken care of, they can go into the hospital, get that taken care of, the hospital bill is paid for under the hospice benefit, and they get to go back home. We often tell people care doesn’t stop, and people think that that’s what it means that care stops. It means that you get quality of life at end of life. We don’t cut things off. We make sure that you’re comfortable. It’s about comfort and care. We even have some patients that are on tube feeds and they’re in hospice. We have patients that are in nursing homes that are on hospice. You can be at home on hospice. It’s where, that benefit goes wherever you go.

[00:30:14] Dr. JB: I’ve heard some patients say that when they come into the hospital, they were forced to be taken off of hospice. Is that not the case?

[00:30:22] NP McCray-Sheppard: So the only time that you, you come off of hospice, if you change your, your plan of care, because the patient is the driver of that. So that patient says I no longer want to be on hospice, I want to seek curative measures, for whatever it may be, that’s when you revoke hospice because they have changed their plan themselves. But you can go into the hospital, we have patients all the time that go in and they may need they said they might need a drain placed. They come in, go in to the hospital, they’re admitted. IR does whatever needs to be done to place that drain, they’re back home. They never stopped their hospice, and the hospice team actually goes in to see that patient while they’re in the hospital. It may be that patient fell, they still are under the hospice umbrella. So hospice takes care of that bill and they’re still being seen while they’re being taken care of in the hospital. It doesn’t stop their hospice.

[00:31:22] Dr. JB: Got it. So if somebody, somebody would be taken off of hospice, if they change their code status from DNR to full code, is that one of the reasons why one could be removed?

[00:31:33] NP McCray-Sheppard: Well, we have some patients in our hospice that are full code and eventually they switch, but that could be a reason that some hospices would because now you’re saying I don’t want, no longer want to be a DNR. I want everything done. I want it to be a full code. I want all curative measures. I want aggressive care. And then that would be, that would change it.

[00:31:59] Dr. JB: Okay. Or if you have like a bowel obstruction and you want it repaired, then would you be taken off of hospice to get that done?

[00:32:09] NP McCray-Sheppard: Now it, if certain things are in your, that falls up under what you were admitted on the hospice for, it will be taken care of. So if the bowel obstruction is a part of what your admit is, what you’re admitted under, it’s covered under the hospice, but then the attending, the hospice attending has to see if it’s something that will be covered up on the hospice. Now, if it’s something that they, that is considered an aggressive measure or curative measure, then it may not be. So say if that was the, one of the reasons why you came into hospice was something to do with your bowels and now all of a sudden, now you’re saying I have bowel obstruction, I want to get this taken care of, then that might. It’s, some things are sticky, but it’s not governed by the actual hospice, it’s governed by CMS. So whatever, however CMS looks at that piece, then that’s how you have to make adjustments.

[00:33:02] Dr. JB: That’s a little bit of gray, a gray area.

[00:33:04] NP McCray-Sheppard: It’s a little gray.

[00:33:06] Dr. JB: Yeah. So, and how long have you been working as a palliative care nurse?

[00:33:12] NP McCray-Sheppard: Well, I’ve been doing hospice and palliative care for a little over two years now.

[00:33:21] Dr. JB: And what made you decide to go down that path?

[00:33:26] NP McCray-Sheppard: Honestly, it goes back to being in tune with my heavenly father. It was something that God did for me because I left the VA. I didn’t know the, the importance of why I had to leave, but when I went for the interview and actually I never even applied for this position, a recruiter contacted me and I went for the interview. I said, okay, well, And I was like, okay, God, you need to let me know if this is what you have for me. And I like to think that everything we do in the medical field is ministry because it’s a type of ministry, whether– so as I left from that interview, I’m driving on the road, as soon as I say that, a bus passed by and it has on it “community hospice and palliative care.” I, I guess that’s your, that’s my sign. So, as I said before, so I’m working there, I know I’m making an impact. I make these connections in the community.

[00:34:29] I am, we build what we call east side health initiatives where we’re collaborating with the pastors and different leaders in the community to create change in the African American community because hospice is looked at as taboo. We’re educating, we’re talking to them more about what the importance of having a living will and different things like that. So then I know that I am actually where I need to be, because I’m able to connect with other individuals. I’m able to connect with community leaders, people that I already know who have an impact, that’s able to create change in my community, so I get to serve my community. So I knew I was where I needed to be by serving my community.

[00:35:14] Then when the incident happened to me, when I was going into the office that day, and the way that they responded was like unexplainable. My director immediately yelled out and yelled bring my prayer blanket and my pillow from the office. Immediately, they’re taking care of me, taking my vitals, they’re doing everything. They are praying. I knew I was where I needed to be. And then this company was built on Christian values over 40 something years ago, about 43 years ago, a pastor along with some parishioners and a doctor, and they started this company. It was built on community values, providing for the community. So in that self, I knew that I was right where I needed to be. I don’t know how long God will keep me here, but I know that as I am here, I’m doing what I need to be doing. And to know that I received that immediate prayer when I needed to, that reassurance for me, it was important to know that. Meetings are started in the morning time, and when we have meetings, they begin in prayer. That was so important for me.

[00:36:32] I just didn’t know where he was taking me, but then when I all that happened to me, I was like, if I was still at the VA, I don’t– I was there for 10 years, in fact, I was involved in federal government for 10 years– I don’t, I would probably have one person that would make sure that my family was okay, but I wouldn’t have a whole entire organization making sure that I am okay and my family was okay. So everything in life is strategically done for just that moment, so I was placed right where I needed to be. So I’m affecting change for someone else and they impacted me and impacted change for my family.

[00:37:15] Dr. JB: And this incident where you ended up having to go to the hospital happened shortly after you started working there?

[00:37:21] NP McCray-Sheppard: Yeah. Yes, it did. March 27th, 2020. And I had only been there like a little over three months exactly. Yup. And it was just, like I said, it was absolutely amazing the response. My husband was there while I was in surgery and they were checking in on him and checking in on me, they were, really concerned about the wellbeing of myself, as well as my family, which was very important for me. And I often tell people that they’re my family, whether I remain there, where God moves me, they will still always be my family.

[00:38:03] Dr. JB: You were very, very fortunate, I’m so happy for you.

[00:38:07] NP McCray-Sheppard: Thank you. thank you. And, Dr. JB, I didn’t realize how, because in that moment, like I was fading out, so I, I would come to and I would go out. It was– you’ve seen it when your body’s just you can’t, I couldn’t, because your, your specialty is the emergency rooms, so you’ve seen it when you just can’t. And as they were rapidly transfuse me with the blood and then I got that little energy, the one thing that I do remember is a nurse, and this male nurse, and he began as they were transfusing me, he began to saying nothing but the blood of Jesus, and that gave me a peace. And that peace, when people say that peace, which the past is our understanding, I knew that I was going to be okay. And I needed that in that moment.

[00:39:00] And that next morning, when I found out when they were rounding that my, the lowest blood pressure was 50 over 30s and they had the A- line and all this stuff, and that I had actually lost, lost three liters of blood, it was at that moment I was like, oh my God, I’m a miracle because I know, being in the medical– I knew. And I’ve seen so many people with that that don’t make it. And I was like, okay, God, I’m listening. I’m moving forward. I’m not just going to partially act, I’m going to fully act on limitless possibilities now.

[00:39:41] Dr. JB: What a powerful, powerful story.

[00:39:44] NP McCray-Sheppard: Thank you. To God be the glory. Thank you for having me here today.

[00:39:51] Dr. JB: So if my audience wanted to learn more about what you do, how could they get in touch with you?

[00:39:57] NP McCray-Sheppard: Okay. I am available on all social media platforms as Kizzy McRay Sheppard, as well as Limitless Possibilities Now. I’m also able to be contact through my website, which is www.limitlesspossibilitiesnow.com.

[00:40:18] Dr. JB: And in closing, do you have any pearls of wisdom you would like to leave with my audience?

[00:40:24] NP McCray-Sheppard: Yes, I would. Actually one of my favorite quotes and it’s actually my quote that I often love– I have two, but the one I’m going to share today is beautiful things are born in uncomfortable and unforeseeable and unfamiliar places, but life is full of limitless possibilities. The world is waiting on you.

[00:40:59] Dr. JB: Yeah. Who says a doc can’t rap? D O C T O R J B. The greatest doctor to ever touch the mic. The greatest podcast ever broadcasted or prerecorded. Come learn some. Each one, teach one. I’m done.