Snitchin

Episode 67: The One Where We Learn to Go For It With Maria

• Kristen and Brittany

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We sit down with our friend Maria to talk about her nursing career and her experience working everywhere from the ICU, to VIP medical-surgical care, to labor and delivery, to aesthetics. We hear about the pros and cons of those roles, common misconceptions about aesthetic procedures like botox and filler, and why it's more important than ever to support women's health initiatives and local labor and delivery units. We also learn about how she turned her passion for photography into a full-fledged business, and what advice she'd give to someone looking to go out on their own. We end with a little talk about motherhood and, of course, Taylor Swift. We hope everyone is as empowered to go for their goals and chase their passions as we were after sitting down with Maria. 

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SPEAKER_01:

Ready? Ready.

SPEAKER_03:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the latest episode of Snitchen. It's your host, Kristen.

SPEAKER_01:

And Brittany, get ready for the best part of your day.

SPEAKER_03:

It's Wednesday. You know what that means. We're back with a guest episode, and we are so excited to have this guest with us. Um, she is our one of our favorite nurses in our lives. Uh, the one and only Miss Maria. Welcome to the pod. Yay.

SPEAKER_00:

I know I never realized how many nurses are actually in our group of friends. It's kind of crazy. I know, right?

SPEAKER_03:

We do have a good amount. Um, but yes, nursing is something that we are going to be talking about a lot this episode. Maria is a nurse at Newport Hospital, labor and delivery nurse for what about a year now? Yep, about a year. But I feel like you've lived a million nursing lives. So we're gonna get into all of that. Um, she also is someone who started out on her own career path with a photography business. I'm really curious to hear about that journey. And she's also a mom to such a cute little nugget two-year-old named Mac. Um, so we're gonna talk a little bit about motherhood as well. But first, I was just saying to Maria before we came on here, Britt, I can't remember like when we first met.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I honestly can't either. A while ago. It was like around 20. We've almost known each other for like 15 years now. Because I'm not one of the OG. I got adopted into the Canton circle, luckily, but I am not from Canton. I'm from We're very welcoming, I would say.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. Where are you from? Like, what's your background? Let's get a little intro.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I'm from West Roxbury. I grew up there, which is like right next to Dedham, technically a part of Boston. Um, so I went to high school in Dorchester, then went to college in Salem, then I got a job as a tech while I was in nursing school in the ICU at MGH, and that's where I met Casey, our friend. Our birthdays were only about a month apart, and we had both um just turned 21, I think that past fall. And I basically bullied her into being my friend. I was like, no, we're going out after work. Like we would work 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I'd be like, let's go out. Um, and I think we would like meet up with you guys. Um, I know there were a couple times we were out in like Brighton and stuff. I can't remember that bar that would play like do all like the 90s stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, common ground? Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Shout out to those were like really fun nights that I remember with you guys. So I think that's pretty much where it all started. And then when she had met Colby, um, she said, Well, which friend would be crazy enough to go camping with me and a bunch of guys that we're gonna do. Oh, I remember this. And it was me. Yes, I was the choice, which she was right. We went. And remember, that started as like, you know, probably 10 of us, and then it grew to what 3540 by the end by the time we stopped doing it. So that was wild.

SPEAKER_03:

You know what? Now that we're talking about it, the Sacco camping trips, that actually might be one of my first early memories of you, Maria, because the camping trip was so much fun. So for anyone who doesn't know, you go up to this place Saco in Maine and you camp there, but they also have this river that you canoe down. It's an all-day event, you know, you're out there for the day, super, super fun. And I remember Maria shows up, and maybe we should set the stage too. Like 10 years ago, me, your girl wasn't like bringing anything to the table. Like I was bringing my alcohol and that's about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Actually, if it wasn't me, I think you would have been the person that would have been like totally cool with going camping with a bunch of people you didn't know, though. Like, I have to give that to you.

SPEAKER_03:

You'll just do whatever. Oh, yeah. No, I mean bringing to the table like actual physical goods.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I like you brought that. If Casey asked me to go to a camping trip with people I don't know, I would be like, hell fucking no.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, we were real good friends.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a favor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Camping is married, so we'll take it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I guess it worked out. But you showed up with like tequila infused watermelon, like baggies for everyone. She I remember being like, this girl is gonna be the best soccer mom that's ever existed. Like, she's got you know, snacks, water bottles, like anything you need, Maria had it.

SPEAKER_00:

And that was my going for a couple years. True. So I already knew like how we had nothing when we were there. I think was it like because it had started with just like a just me and Casey and the guys.

SPEAKER_01:

Still, though, I feel like you're like one of the best guests to bring on a trip. Thanks. That guac you make top notch. Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god, you brought guac. Yes, yes, Casey.

SPEAKER_00:

I was always every time I went to a cant thing, I always had to bring guac. It was like unspoken rule.

SPEAKER_03:

But I I mean, I do think in general, I in my mind you're a very prepared gal, which I admire about you. And I'm curious if, you know, I don't know. I feel like nurses in general are like pretty on their stuff. Um, so let's take it back. Like, what starting with your nursing career, like what made you want to be a nurse in the first place? Do you remember? Was it something that you always were curious about?

SPEAKER_00:

My aunt's a nurse, so I think it was kind of like always in the family. My mom had wanted to become a nurse, but was a social worker instead. She didn't think she could pass some of the classes. So I think it was kind of just always in the back of my head. But my I don't know if you guys know this, but my mom has MS. Oh, I didn't know that. And like you would never know now. It's in remission, it's been in remission for a long time. But she got diagnosed when I was eight. Um so I think just and she was sick for a while. We went to St. Catharines actually at the time. So we were in Norwood. But we were my brother-in-law went there. Oh, that's funny. That's weird. We would have like depending on the day of the week, like somebody else would bring us home from school. Like it was like whichever family. So it was like very like my mom was in and out of the hospital, that kind of stuff. I don't really remember being in the hospital with her, but then I think that just kind of like set me on the track of like caregiver type of a thing. And when I was gonna go to college, I was deciding between like nursing, photography, and culinary. Those are like the three things that I wanted to do. And my parents were like, Well, go to nursing school, you can always like yeah get a real degree. Not that and like I'm like now. I'm looking back, I'm like, those other things are real, like right now get a culinary degree, but they're like, get a real quote unquote real job, and then you can do those other things after. Looking back, I would have never passed. Um I can't draw, I can't do other artistic things, so I'm glad I didn't try to go to art school. But yeah, I don't really know what else I would have done.

SPEAKER_01:

Nursing is like, I think the best job. I mean, I cannot be a nurse because I suck at science and I hate seeing blood and gore and all that. But I, if it wasn't for that, like a nurse is the best job, like being on your feet all day, you have different hours, you're helping people.

SPEAKER_00:

Unfortunately, now, like, and you like Brit, I'm sure you know, like mom's been more than dads a lot of the time. Sorry, guys, but like my schedule is a lot more flexible than my husband's. He works Monday through Friday, 8 to 4:30. So I'm working a weekend shift to offset like our child care type of thing, or I'm the one who thinks so it has its perks for sure. Yeah, because like I used to rip like six shifts shifts in a row and then go on vacation and not take any time off. So, like when I was younger and fun.

SPEAKER_01:

So but like nice that you can do that, you know, you have that option, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

And for me with nursing, as long as it's not happening to me, I'm totally fine. I'm a terrible patient, so like I pass out when I have my blood drawn, stuff like that. Oh wow, but I can take your blood, put an IV in notebook. That's so weird, yeah. It's almost like I know too much, and that's yeah, I guess that that that's true.

SPEAKER_03:

So you said you started as a tech at MGH, yeah, and the trauma transplant ICU with Casey. What was your because like you've been in some different departments, so like where have you worked, I guess, and what different roles have you been in as a so I left there because I didn't want to be an ICU nurse.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and that was kind of like the only option because I had worked in the ICU, nobody, no other floor. Every floor was kind of hiring their own PCAs, their own aides. I had worked on that floor and I didn't want to be in the ICU. I left and went to Good Sam in Brockton. Um, so they took 25 of us, new grads, and made us the float pool, which was actually insane. You'd walk like Melissa said, you walk in and they tell you where to go for the day.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's kind of crazy, like to not really know.

SPEAKER_00:

They had trained us for like a couple months and was like, good luck. Like when you walked in. So like I learned a lot, but looking back, I was like, that was crazy. So I lasted there for a year, and then I had always wanted to live in Florida. And actually, when I was in college, I wanted to transfer like my sophomore year, and school told me that my credits wouldn't transfer and just to go after. So I went to Florida for a couple years and lived in Deerfield Beach and worked in Boca Ratone. I forgot you lived in Florida, doesn't suck. Yeah, jealous. I've lived a hundred lives, I feel like you have. Then I was just kind of over it. I always say that people were as fake as their body parts down there. If you didn't go to high school or college with people, it was really hard to make friends. I was like 24, 25 at the time, and people really had like established friend groups. And my cousin lives there and it was great, but like she was going, she had two almost three kids, so she was hanging out with like all of her mom friends, and I just wasn't there. So I got a job again at back at MGH and worked in the Phillips house, which is like their VIP kind of medical surgical unit. Oh, any celebs? Um, yeah, there was like some uh like Celtics, Patriots players. We would either have like people who paid extra to stay there for the night, so people would come from Zaudi and pay for like extra. They come in with like literal suitcases full of cash and have to like and we'd be discharging to the Liberty Hotel for their extra PT kind of stay thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Or that's kind of crazy. Like you forget, I think some of the th one of the things that we forget living here and just growing up with such great health care is that MGH is one of the most like world-renowned hospitals, you know. Not I mean, definitely in the country, but when you're saying people are coming from Saudi, like in the world. So that's a really like unique position kind of to be in to have these VIPs who are coming for this care. Do you I mean, did you ever like did you ever forget that working there? Or were people always highly aware that that's the standard that everyone's held to?

SPEAKER_00:

Everybody's held to that standard, but I think some of the nurses that I worked with like would forget how good we had it as nurses almost because I had worked in Brockton, we had five to one ratios. And then in Florida, we had seven to one ratios.

SPEAKER_03:

And just to clarify, seven patients to one nurse. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a lot. Dang. And then after six months in Florida, because I had the most experience with a year and a half, which was crazy. I was in charge of 42 beds. Like on two beds. Like I was the charge nurse in charge of everybody, like who's coming, who's going. There's all these problems I have to solve, like all this stuff all day long. So I come back to Mass General, and the ratios on the floor I was on at night was five to one. Evenings was in days was like two to one, three to one. And people, oh, I'm so busy. I'm so like blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you don't even know what busy is. Like, I know who my patients are right now. I'm able to actually have a conversation with them, connect with them. Yeah. You're like, you know, I never really lost that perspective, but I and like everybody's held to that high standard. But I think sometimes people will be like, like lose sight of how good you are to care for people and actually be able to care for them.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, totally. That's pretty unique though, to have like a VIP um role. And so then after that, how what did you do from there?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was either VIP or we had the people like, and I would feel bad. We also had like people from the jail. Oh, because they needed a security guard with them all the time from the jail. Um and like they were handcuffed to the bed. Or like we would have people who needed a private room because they like had every single bug ever, like all the letters type of things that like they needed to take on precautions, and we were like discharging to the streets. So, like sometimes it was it was like either the top or the bottom, and sometimes in the middle, and it was definitely a good variety of everything.

SPEAKER_03:

I do think I that's one thing that's surprising to hear is like I mean, I think Britt from you and I, like corporate backgrounds, right? We go into our day knowing exactly like what meetings you have, kind of what you need to prep for. I think it's kind of create like unique about a nursing role if you are a floater and you literally don't know what you're gonna be dealing with that day. But then also just yeah, like the variety of patients. That's I think that's something I would enjoy. Because I think that's something that corporate life can get that's like a neg a little bit, is that, or at least in the roles I've had, it can be a little monotonous. Did you like that? Like having that variety.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there were definitely like I liked surgical patients more than medical patients. Obviously, I'm not gonna treat anybody differently, but like there's just things I liked more. So if my assignment was a little bit more surgical, background heavy on the patients, like I was a little more happy. If we were like doing 101 meds, I was like, oh man, but you know, it's fine. You just have to know a lot, like it all at the same time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but then I had met John, my now husband, and he lived in Rhode Island. So I took a job outpatient here in Rhode Island, which I now live in Rhode Island, and I took an outpatient job at a primary care doctor's office because I didn't want to go back to night shift. And I hated it because it was no patient care. I was sitting in like an office with a headset on and everybody was calling me. Oh yeah. You know, when you call your doctor's office and you I was triaging, you have to like talk to the nurse.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The nurse calls you back. Yeah. A lot of it turned into everybody yelling at me that their like Adderall prescription wasn't filled, but they didn't call me last week when it was almost out, and just stuff like that. That I was like, I'm just sick and tired of being yelled at. So with COVID, um, it was a lot of the same thing over and over again. So that obviously started in March, and I quit in July. I was like, I can't do this anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I quit. John wasn't really super happy with that because I didn't really ask him. I just kind of was like, Well, it's your life. Bye. Yeah, but I had I had sold at like my multifamily house, and I was like, Yeah, I'm done. I'm gonna figure this out. So I started my photography company then in 2020.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, in 2020. Okay. I mean, good for you, Glenn. We our girl Glenn would be so proud. She would untamed. You listen to your knowing. Yes. So you like it too.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of that, like I was meditating a lot at the time. I was doing a lot of like those types of things, and I was like, what am I doing? I don't want to be a nurse anymore. I'm never going to be a nurse any and ever again. I need to recreate myself fully.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I like basically jumped off the cliff and was like, whatever happens. I am very much a person that's like, it'll work out. I don't know how. And it drives my husband crazy because he likes to know exactly how things are gonna work out, even though I'm a little more type A, but so brave.

SPEAKER_03:

I also feel like you know, what you were saying before, like with your parents, you know, not wanting you to go to art school and getting the nursing degree, get the quote unquote real degree. That's very much like the time in which we grew up, right? Where you kind of are drilled in, it's drilled into you to get the job and you know, kind of follow the rules, follow the path. So I think that's something that like internally you'd probably be battling anyway, to like change course and jump ship. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, um, and I had I had had that food blog for a second when I lived in Florida. And so I did the food, I I think I did all the things that I set out originally to do. I didn't go to culinary school, but I explored the food food world a little bit that way. And then yeah. So I did my photography business, which was fine. Honestly, like I think one of your questions was like, what would you tell people that want to start their own business? It's like keep your day job or like have something else while you're building it. You need to be also like having an income. So I nanied for a little bit. It just like was enough to pay some bills and then I could work on this. But it was, I think I started like October-ish. And the funniest part is is like my busiest season is probably now, like August to November. Like, you're not gonna I basically started in the middle, like I started building stuff through the spring and then really started. But luckily, I had linked up with a contact of like John's friend's sister, was this great photographer in the area, and she had a second shooter at the time. And then so I DM'd her and was like, Hey, if you ever need a second shooter, because that's really how you get experience with photography. A lot of the time you link up with like another photographer mentor type of thing. And she finally had like an opening, had gotten rid of her second shooter in like January. So then I was able to luckily, like only three, four months into it, link up with her. Nice. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's a good first step. I I forgot about second shooters. So if yeah, just like if you're at a wedding, there's if there's two photographers, there's the one who's like the main you know, point of contact. And then second shooters are what doing like a lot of like candids, like just whatever you're basically told to shoot.

SPEAKER_00:

We usually go and like we'll split up and I'll do the groom prep and she'll be with the bride for the beginning part of the day.

SPEAKER_01:

Second is always with the groom.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good at wrangling the guys together. So usually that, and then I'll meet up with her for formals and get candids during those. The ceremony, I'm just shooting wherever she's not. The main goal is to like basically give a lot of variety throughout the album from different perspectives. I try to tackle a lot of like cocktail hour for her so she can take a break. But that's how like she and I work. We've been working together for a while. Oh, I didn't know so. You still do weddings? Just with her. I don't I only do like family and newborn and maternity stuff on my own now because I just that's too much editing for weddings. Um, interesting. But I just I'll do a couple with her a year.

SPEAKER_01:

Any like Bradzilla's bad stories?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it was one girl at Castle Hill in 2021 where it was like May, it was like this, honestly, it was freezing outside. Everybody's sitting outside waiting. She made the makeup artist redo her makeup like four times, and everybody's sitting outside. Oh my god. And then she came up to me during it and she's like, Do you have a needle and thread? And I was like, No, why? And she and I'm not a wedding planner, like you should be asking your wedding planner. Yeah. And she's like, I ripped my dress and I look at it, it's tool. I was like, Ain't happening. I go, Do you have a second look you'd like to change into?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're like, I don't know, you're asking the wrong person here.

SPEAKER_03:

But I'm also like trying to like I knew she was nuts, so I was like, Weddings must be tough just because of the pressure of the day. I mean, that's what I would imagine. And I'm sure, yeah, there's some people that are you can't redo it.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, that's what I like, at least with family photos. If something if something's crazy or if I lose the files or something, which I always like double up on the files, so I never do, but you can always redo those, right? So even if it's a week later and I contacted you was like, I'm so sorry, we need to redo these. Totally, my bad. You could put the same outfits on, we could go to the same place. Yeah, totally. You can't redo a wedding.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But like I wouldn't sleep well before being the primary shooter. I'm just like, I'm just gonna second shoot them. Cause I still like love weddings. I love love, like that kind of stuff, and it's nice.

SPEAKER_03:

So um, I like what you said about like so piece of advice, you know, make sure that you keep your day job, have a stream of income while you pursue this. What would you say was the hardest part about really getting your business off the ground or like maybe something you didn't expect? If someone is going out and doing something along these lines and starting their own um business, like what was the hardest thing that you had to kind of handle?

SPEAKER_00:

Two things. One would have been getting your clients. I'm not from here, so I don't have a lot of like contacts, but luckily my husband is from here, so he did post a lot for me. So a lot of his the people he went to high school with um and stuff like that would hire me. And just like knowing your worth, I was not very confident in some of my like editing styles and stuff like that, which you find your way, but then like pricing yourself adequately with that is hard to do because you you're like, Well, is are people gonna want to pay for that?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do pe do you so do you really edit that much? Yeah, I have like six. That's what I have to do after this. I have like six or seven albums I need to get out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, what do you so what do you just like take out red eye and stuff?

SPEAKER_00:

No, so I actually like will adjust the colors and stuff like that. Um, and like delete bad ones, balance, exposure, contrast, like all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like photography is a job that looks so easy, but it's probably really not. Yeah, even like the shooting, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

The shooting itself, I think now that I have a toddler, I can relate a lot more to the moms because I used to leave and they'd be like, Oh my god, that was so horrible. I'm like, I have great, I can see right here, I have great photos. What are they talking about? But now after doing some shoots with my own toddler and be like, that was a disaster. Yeah. They always come out great. I'm like, I totally get where you're coming from. It's totally fine. Just need a couple. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03:

I feel like that's one of the things, and it was a similar theme we had with Owen when he was talking about real estate. It's like the actual job in and of itself, shooting, editing, all of that is one thing. But when you are, you know, building your book of business, it's a whole different level of skill set, like, or not level, but it's just a different skill set, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

And knowing who's not your client. So what do you mean? Like just people you're not vibing with people that don't you can tell kind of at the beginning. I'm sure it's the same in real estate, like you're kind of not lining up on things and being a little more difficult than it needs to be. Set them free. They're not your client, there's clients for everybody. Somebody else comes around.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you feel like so? I feel like Owen says that like he gets more nervous when he has like his friends, when he's like the realtor for his friends. Like, do you feel like that? If you're like shooting your friends, is that like more nerve-wracking or like less I would think less because I know they're kids, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, like for me, I'm like I can be a little more personable with their kids. Yeah. Like I shoot, I'll shoot Mike and Jules like yearly, usually, and that's easy with the girls. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

What is the most rewarding thing about the photography business?

SPEAKER_00:

I'd say like preserving some childhood a lot of the times, or like when we do extended extended family photos, the grandparents, like I'm giving you kind of a legacy, right? So you're gonna look back at these photos forever. Or, you know, you're gonna remember this time with your grandparents, or you know, I hate to say, like a lot of the times at weddings, I'll be like, you know, I always make sure I get extra grandma and grandpa and stuff like that. I think with the nursing too, I'm like definitely aware of like mortality and stuff like that, and that things can change. So I actually over-deliver a lot because I'm like, I'm not gonna, your kids running around. I took a bunch of candid photos, I'm not gonna gatekeep their childhood. Here's like all the photos, you know, like it's easy for me. People, you know, I guarantee 60 photos. I usually give a hundred because I'm like, whatever. If your eyes are open, you're getting them. Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_03:

So I like that mentality. Like, if I have the photos, might as well, you know, give them to you to use. They're gonna be more valuable for you. And I do love that about I mean, I'm a huge photo person. I have photos all over my house. I do photo books every year. Um, just for me personally. I love what you're saying about preserving a family's memories and their childhood. That's really special. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But you remember at the bar, I'd always be like, let's take a picture. So that's great.

SPEAKER_01:

I need people like that around me. Every year, my New Year's resolution is to take more pictures. It never happens.

SPEAKER_03:

Wait, can we tangent? Britt, do you remember this? I love the story about Brittany. I do take a lot of photos and I always would say to Britt, I'd be like, It's for the memories, Britt. It's not for like the gram or whatever. So we're in Vienna and she's like really getting behind this idea. She's like, Yeah, we need to preserve the memories. We need to preserve the memories. Ria, I swear to God, every time I would take a photo, Brittany would whip out her photo and take her phone and take the same exact photo. She'd be like, Oh yeah, photo, take the same exact photo.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you ever heard of a shared album? Well, no. So but then we would do a shared album and it would be like two in a row of the same picture. Just like literally the same exact pictures.

SPEAKER_03:

She would never do it on her own, like only when I would take my phone out. Just don't think of it. No, you really don't.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god, you should.

SPEAKER_03:

I have so many photos on my phone. That's funny. Um so okay, so definitely covered the photo business. And obviously, like we said, all of your different experiences as a nurse, but we haven't really tackled your kind of third, I guess, area of expertise. You were also an aesthetic nurse. And Brittany and I actually went to you for Botox, where you administered to us before. So when was this in all of you know, started the business for photography 2020? When did you, you know, go into that field?

SPEAKER_00:

So I gotten certified actually with Jules um in like 2019. I didn't know what it was gonna take to get into the field, but I was like, this is fun, I want to do this. So we got certified and then we both kind of hung out without jobs in it for a while. Because unless you know an owner of a med spa as an RN, you can't go out on your own and do it. You have to work under an NP or an MD, depending on like state laws.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you have to put in certain hours? Like, how's that tracked?

SPEAKER_00:

No, you just have to be hired by them. So you work under them. So you have to have like that, you work under their orders. So you have to have like an ordering provider. Okay, got it. And when I had this kind of continues along my nursing life, um, when I left outpatient, started photography, nanied, then in like I want to say November-ish of 2020, I linked up with a NP who I actually used to do primary care with. I like cold emailed her and was like, listen, I used to work with you in primary care. Like, you know, I'm a good nurse. Can I work at your med spa? You're so brave.

SPEAKER_03:

I she's such a hustler. I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

The worst thing people can say is no, whatever. Like you never see the people again then. It's true.

SPEAKER_03:

No, if people are taking something away from this episode, like what I'm taking away is just like go for it. Like, what's the worst that can happen? You'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. Maria, you're a badass. Okay, sorry, keep going.

SPEAKER_00:

So then she turned out to be like a really terrible person, but I'm not gonna get into that. So but I worked for her for three years, um doing Botox, fillers, lasers. Um, and I really liked it because you were just kind of like building on somebody's confidence. Uh I would hate to see like people. There were some people who definitely came with some eye dysmorphia, which was super hard, and I'd have to like be like, no, I'm not doing any more filler on you. Oh, because they wanted too much. You can say that me, you don't think that I'm like overfilled or have anything in my face. And like I would always say that like nobody should know you come to me unless you want them to. Like, your my face, your face shouldn't be the calling card that like, ooh, that was great because it definitely like instilled some people's confidence after like some laser treatments or a little botox, and they were feeling great about themselves. So, like, I'm happy to help everybody with that. So, but after I had Mac, I just kind of realized I wasn't like lining up with kind of the morals and stuff of the woman I worked with. So then I left there and didn't much to again John's chagrin, I didn't work for a while. And then he told me I had to go back to work, and I was like, Are you sure? And I'm so glad I did because I was definitely going crazy, like being home all the time. I definitely should always have a part-time job, and that's just me, to be able to go and talk to adults and help people. So I said, you know, in nursing school I always wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse, and I'd always changed hospitals instead of changing into that. And at the time when I was a new grad, you had to work within a hospital to be to then move to a specialty, which you know, ICU, um, labor and delivery, just those kinds of things that people wanted to be in. Now you don't have to do that, they need nurses everywhere. So I applied to Newport Hospital and to Women and Infants because they were close to me, and I got both jobs. So I chose um Newport because they're LDRP, which is labor delivery, postpartum recovery. So we do it all. Wow, interesting. So like I had Mac at Women and Infants, and probably the same as you, Britt. Um, you have your baby, then you go to postpartum. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's different nurses and everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, no, we keep everybody, which I actually love. So that's part of the like you walk into different things every day. Like I Sunday I had a patient who we labored and she had her baby, and then the next day I got to keep her, and then I picked up another two postpartum patients, and I had postpartum for the day.

SPEAKER_01:

And like then you get to work with the babies because I remember like the postpartum nurses saying that.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So I don't think I would love just doing one or the other.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it seems like you kind of said before, too, like variety is something that you like in your job. So I could see why that, you know, would be like attractive.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, can we go back to the aesthetic for a second? I am curious. Well, first off, what you said, uh, and I think Britt, you said it like I didn't even realize that you were allowed to really deny a patient from additional treatment if you felt like it wasn't, you know, good for them, if they have too much stuff in their face already.

SPEAKER_00:

Um a lot of it that I would say no to was like Extra lip filler. And if if you can tell that their filler is like coming outside of the border their lips, that's like a contraindicated.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So there's like medical reason as to why, because the filler's gonna migrate into your out of the space and into your yeah. So like if you could tell it was like medically not indicated because of like there was gonna be problems if you did it. You know, you're over your overfilling cheeks and you're stretching, stretching, stretching, there can be a lot of problems like with laxity and stuff like that after for anyone who's listening, me and Brittany's face right now, like if it we're it's very much confirmed we could never do anything like this because we can't even handle that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um is there like besides well, I mean, I guess besides that a little bit, but like any um single biggest misconception that you encounter with people who are looking for Botox, like, or just something that maybe people aren't aware of if they want to get that done?

SPEAKER_00:

Probably the biggest misconception is that you like look crazy after.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So you should go to an injector that you like the look of their face. So if you see somebody who's super overfilled, super tight, their eyebrows are really crazy and you don't want that look, then don't go to them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

It's really like an it's kind of an art, right? Like crafting somebody's face. Yeah. And if that's the way that their painting and art is, then that's how they're gonna paint on you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

If that's what they think looks good, I have the same rule often with hairstylists. If there's a hairstylist where I'm like, oh, their hair looks maybe a little bleached or a little broken, probably not gonna be someone I go back to. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, same idea. I just think the other thing is that you have to like go all in and go all the time and all the stuff. Like you can, you know, I in my 20s I got it twice a year. In my 30s, you know, I get it sometimes twice a year. It's just from I'm trying to prevent the static lines from forming on my forehead. I'm fine with having wrinkles, I just don't want those deep set lines. Yeah, so if I do it twice a year to prevent instead of I'm really going for a frozen look, yeah. I think it can be used as prevention as opposed to like these treatments that people are doing. That's how I get the face looking super tight and plastic. I do it twice a year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I only did it the one time that we went down. I would totally do it again. I just honestly haven't really thought much about it. But um, I think the thing that surprised me the most, kind of to your point, about like I think I I thought it was a bigger deal than it was. I was shocked at how quick the whole thing is.

SPEAKER_00:

And then it wears off. Like it can be temporary. You do it once, it's like you're not committed to the bit, like it it wears off.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I feel like in general, the whole kind of um reputation of Botox has changed in the last 10 to 15 years. I think before, maybe like 15 years ago when people did it. I mean, it was just less common, I think. Do you think that's like accurate? I feel like now most people I know do do that, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm telling you, I think it's from Zoom. I think it's from people looking at themselves on the yeah. Yeah, I believe that.

SPEAKER_03:

From Zoom, I knew it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I have to stare at myself. I had a lot of that in 2020, 2021.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god, totally. Totally, totally.

SPEAKER_00:

I can't believe this is the way my face looks. And I'm like, what do you you what do you mean?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, no, that's a great call. Um, just another COVID outcome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure. Like, what else is an aesthetic what is it called? Uh aesthetic? Aesthetic nerve. Like what else do you do besides Botox?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, lasers, so laser hair removal or pigment removal on your face. I need the neck chest, stuff like that. Um we would do a lot of micro needling. Oh, like the that's like the eyebrows, right? Yeah. Well, no, that's micro-bleeding. I don't do that's like no micro needling is like a collagen induction, like uh you numb the face and then you use a pen basically on the face to micro damage. Think about you. Remember those rollers that came out? Yeah, yeah. No, don't use those, they're terrible. But it's kind of that idea of the like the micro damaging your skin to produce collagen there. Tell your body, like, hey, send collagen here. We've had just a tiny bit of damage. It helps to tighten, smooth, fine wrinkles, that kind of stuff. But we really stop producing so much collagen, you know, like as we age. So any kind of collagen induction is really helpful as we age.

SPEAKER_03:

Is there um something that you do or that you would recommend? Like um, maybe if someone's interested in, I don't know, having something. I guess it's all personal, right? Like whatever you want to have done. So that might be a sort of question.

SPEAKER_00:

Somebody would sit down in that my chair and be like, so and I'm like, no, what bothers you? Because I could look at somebody's face and see all these things I could do just from an aesthetic perspective. I don't need to do any of those. None of it's needed. Yeah, like what bothers you? Yeah. Yeah. What we need to treat.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I feel like you could. I mean, I would definitely be someone who would be offended if they were like, like, I was planning to get like Botox on my forehead, and they're like, Oh, well, your eyes could really use some argument. What?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I I actually had a couple of clients be like, I'm never going to that person again because they said that. I'm like, I would never say that to you. I would never say any, you know, if you were like, what else should we do? I might be like, Well, like, if we're doing your Botox, do you want your eyes done too? You have light eyes, it's summer, you'll squint, that kind of stuff. But I'm not gonna ever say you have this wrong with your face. Like, there's nothing wrong with anybody's faces. It's all about it's a scale.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So maybe if you are interested in doing having something done, like when you go to your aesthetician, you know, just let them know what you don't like, and they can you can go from there. Yeah, cool. Um, maybe to put a bow on the nursing piece, aesthetic and all. Any like what position would you say of the positions that you've held, did you maybe like the most, or like something that you really enjoyed, and then maybe something that you really didn't like about that role? Just like for people who might be curious about, you know, like different options in nursing.

SPEAKER_00:

Med surge. I definitely like would wake up and kind of dread going to work because I was either like so busy, overworked, and just like didn't know who my patients were, or I was like getting a walker thrown at me or something like that. Like some nursing can be a little violent. Um med surge, stuff like that. So I'm actually really happy to not be a part of that world anymore. Um the bet I think the most rewarding now is like after having my son, and just I mean, I went in on like a Friday and it was summer, and I always joke that like I came out on Monday and it was fall, and I was a completely different person after having him, which was like my whole world had changed. And it's really rewarding now to help people like through that whole like transition.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, totally. I I have a question, yeah, burning question. So, like, you did you work in labor and delivery before you had Mac? No. Oh, okay. Well, my question was gonna be like, does that make you more scared or less scared?

SPEAKER_03:

Less. It's a good question. Less, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I didn't like no, I think then I really had no idea what was going on, right? You go to your appointments and you just like hope for the best. Yeah. Now I think I know a lot of the things that could go wrong, and then like how they would treat them. And that really like a scheduled C-section isn't that big of a deal if your baby's breach and you're like that's what's safest for everybody. You know, like that would have set me over the edge before. I would have been like, I'm like, like, no, it's all fine. It's like we really the birth plan needs to be a healthy mom and a healthy baby. Yeah, that's it.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think it's given me a little bit more like perspective of how many things can go wrong and yeah, like how normal mine was in comparison.

SPEAKER_01:

Like literally every birth is different. Like, is that true?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, oh yeah, and even like your second time is different than your first.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's why it's like so scary. Half the reason.

SPEAKER_00:

I work in a place that like things can change on a dime. Like we could be pushing one second and rolling back to the OR because everybody's not okay, type of thing. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. To Brittany's point about, yeah, I feel like all of our friends have had different birth stories. And I think every single time someone gets pregnant, I feel like I learned something new about female bodies that is just so crazy. Like, I have a friend right now who's pregnant. She literally was just telling me she's three months away from giving birth. She's like, I'm starting to wake up in the middle of the night. My doctor told me it's just my body getting myself ready for when the baby comes because I'm gonna naturally have to wake up. And I was like, What?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, crazy stuff. Yeah, you like don't sleep at the end of pregnancy because it's like gonna happen to you anyways. Yeah, I always just had to wake up. I would pee like four times a night. I just actually like hated being pregnant. I I like am very lucky that I had a very benign, like medically pregnancy, but I had like too much relax and my pelvis fell apart, like I was just in a lot of pain all the time, and then I got pups, which is like you itch everywhere. No, I don't yeah, so it was just like I was just like not a happy camper, and I was healthy, my son was healthy, and like it's fine. Yeah, I didn't have to have anything extra happen, and I had a very like quick, not painless, but very quick delivery because I then I had back labor.

SPEAKER_03:

I've heard that's so painful, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They held me in the ER for 45 minutes because they didn't have a room for me and I wouldn't go back there. Because like now, looking at my work, so like you asked me about knowing that never happened that where I work now, you walk in and like there's always room for you, and there's always a bed. Okay, yeah, I feel like that should be the case. Like it can't be that hard to figure it out, right? So I just like much I feel much more secure about it if and when we do it again, like if we can, you know, having a baby at Newport over that. But they are like trying to figure out if my unit is even in the budget anymore because women's health stuff is being cut everywhere, so that's a whole nother. But yeah. So support your local um labor and delivery centers because you need us.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh yeah. Oh, honestly, like the more and more I feel like I hurt here about women's health, it's so under-researched. Like, I just read this article about how a woman went into a doctor and she was having chest pain. And because like women's heart attacks are different than men's heart attacks, like there's different symptoms, there's different things, but it's just not studied that the doctors like didn't they just didn't take her case like as seriously as they should have because they uh weren't looking for the right things.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm like, that's crazy to me that women are dismissed a lot, like, oh, you're they're just being dramatic, like with pain.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. I felt like I totally got that vibe when I was pregnant. I was talking to someone about this recently, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Or like when you're pregnant, oh, that's just pregnancy. I'm like, it's not.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm like, can you not? It's like when someone's like, like, if Chris is like, oh, you're at your period, that's why you're in a bad mood. And I'm like, no, it's not just my fucking period. And you know, it's like that. Why are you being nicer to me? Yeah. Yeah. So support your women's health providers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You definitely need those postpartum nurses and what is it, pre pre-partum? Pardom?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, anti-partum.

SPEAKER_01:

Anti-partum. Pre, pre-like, wait a second.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, maybe we should end talking a little bit about your son Mac. He just turned two. Um, any new skill or milestone that he's mastered that you're just super proud of him for recently?

SPEAKER_00:

I just feel like I can really see like all the dots connecting. You know, like he gets that this goes with this now, and it's really cute to watch. And just his personality is like really hilarious.

SPEAKER_03:

So love that. Yeah. Is there something that you miss about the baby stage? And then something that you're really loving about the toddler stage right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Going back to bed with a newborn at 7 or 8 a.m. Because now we're 7 a.m. we're rocking here. So I miss the naps um and the contact naps because he's just like loves to sleep in his own bed and everything, which is great. But I'm like, I miss my tiny baby. Yeah. Um, but yeah, he's just like really fun. So actually, I was laughing because I was Segua to Taylor real quick. My friend goes by with her nieces and nephews, goes by Auntie Kitty, so he'll call her that. And he was like in the car today. He's like, Kitty, kitty. I'm like, You want the kitty song? And he's like, Yeah, which is life of a showgirl.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice brainwashing.

SPEAKER_01:

We love to hear it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, my husband's got him on so much reggae. I'm like, I gotta bring it back to some Taylor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I was driving with um the boys earlier, so I'm my mom usually watched them Wednesday, it's Wednesday, and she's away. So I took the day off. I brought him to the children's museum, and on the way home, I was listening to Taylor. I think it was like honey came on, and Connor's like, I feel like I'm driving to school right now. Because I must listen to that every day on the way to school.

SPEAKER_03:

Let's establish that routine with him and Taylor. I love it. Um, well, Maria, this has been so much fun. Is there anything that we missed? Any last tidbit that you want to share or no?

SPEAKER_00:

I was just thinking about Taylor stuff earlier, and I know it has nothing to do with nursing stuff, but I was just remembering like the all too well Casey's bachelorette standing on the chairs and stuff. Like that was kind of one of my like big not introductions. I've been with you guys for a while, but that just is like a Taylor s little, and we all went to rep together, like just that kind of stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that. I think a lot I say that to people all the time when I'm like my Swifty hood is also a lot tied into my friends. Just there's, I mean, we've been fans for so long. There's so many experiences that are like kind of marked by Taylor. And yeah, Casey's Bachelorette, totally one of them. Singing on those chairs, so fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that is like classic us. Did you like Taylor before you met Casey? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Yeah. But I remember being like having to listen to all too well like quite a few times, being like, This is one of the songs for this group. Like, I gotta get my stuff together here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and how crazy is it that that all too well out the window, never listen to it again. It's right now that we have 10 minutes. It's like that one's just gone.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it's wild. Um, well, I hope everyone is as inspired as we are. You know, Maria, I love your attitude of, you know, it's all gonna work out and go for it. So thank you so much for coming on. We hope you had a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03:

And yeah, we'll be back with another episode on Friday.

SPEAKER_01:

Make sure to like us, follow us, comment at us, uh, tag us, whatever, at Snitch and Pod on TikTok and Instagram. Go to our website, snitch and podcast.com, and tell everyone you know about us. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Maria. Thanks, thanks, Maria. Bye.

unknown:

Bye.