Georgia nurse works at same cancer hospital where she was once a patient

NEWNAN, Ga. - Bridgette Wilson spends her days checking in with patients at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, or CTCA, in Newnan, Georgia.

As a nurse in the department of behavioral health and psychiatry, she  is here to help them navigate the mental and emotional challenges of cancer care, and get the support they need.

"It may be a new diagnosis," Wilson says.  "They may have been treating there for a while, and they have anxieties or depression."

Wilson, who has been a nurse for 39 years, understands what some of her patients might be feeling, because she's been there.

In 2013, she found a lump in her neck.

Bridget Wilson now works at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, the same center where she underwent cancer treatment in 2013.

Wilson and her husband were newly married and had just moved into their home.

She was working at another facility with Alzheimer's and dementia patients.

For a few months, she waited to see if it was a swollen gland and would go away on its own.

But, the lump remained, and it unsettled her, until she realized she needed to get it checked.

"I remember specifically at that moment, I was at work, and I said, 'I've got to find out what this is,'" Wilson says.

She was diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. 

That is how Wilson became a patient at CTCA.

Bridget Wilson now works at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, the same center where she underwent cancer treatment in 2013.

"Everything just went really fast," Wilson remembers.  "I started in November, the middle part of November and by the end of November, they already had a treatment plan for me.  And they asked me, 'Do you agree with this?'  Everything just fit."

There were some bumps.

Early on, she had bad reaction to her first chemotherapy medication.

"I just said, 'Okay, of hundreds of medications out there, this is just not the one for me,'" Wilson says.

But, with a lot of support, Wilson got into a routine.

"I was able to work, with my chemotherapy," she says.  "I didn't miss not one day of work."

In 2016, Wilson's cancer was in remission, and she started thinking about a career change.

She wanted to work at the same hospital that had treated her.

"I think everything was just connected," Wilson says.  "I think about that all the time.  Even just receiving the diagnosis of cancer, it was just all in the plan.  And it's about how I went through the plan, of course, to lead me where I am now."