Issue 22: Dystinct Journey of Starr Luna

My name is Starr, and I live in Casa Grande, Arizona. I'm 24 years old, and depending on the surgeon I'm working with, I'm a surgical technologist or an assistant surgeon. In 2009, I was formally diagnosed with dyslexia after showing symptoms in class. In 2022, I was formally diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, Depression, Anxiety and PTSD.

My biological father didn't want me to have an IEP or get help from the school I was attending because he didn't want his child to be "different". My mom wanted me to get help so I could succeed. A number of people have believed that my mental illnesses and learning difficulties were "not that bad" and that I was just lazy or didn't care about school. Not only did numbers and letters get flipped in my head, but my ADHD made it incredibly hard to focus. If I didn't have an interest in what was being taught, I wasn't going to remember it, no matter how many times I read it.

I'll never forget my sophomore year IEP meeting, where my English teacher told my mom I "didn't have the foundation to survive her class". She had also sent my mother a very hateful email that included some curse words that I won't go into. In college, I studied criminal psychology, and I remember getting an email from my college professor for English 102 that was sent in a group email with other students in my class, saying we all don't have what it takes to pass her class and even if we had all the scores to pass her class at that point she wouldn't pass us either way and that we should all just drop her class. I had sent that college professor an email in private saying I didn't appreciate the tone of her email or the fact that it was a mass email, to which she replied, "Good luck in the real world. I hope they understand you when you're trying to write".

While there have been more than a handful of teachers who had no problem singling me out for not being their neurotypical student, I'd much rather spend my time praising the ones who never gave up on me. My Choir teacher, Mr Flora (who is now an assistant principal); my agriculture teacher, Mr Dillard, who is still handing down his vast knowledge on all things that grow or have a heartbeat; my case manager, Mr Muench, who is sadly no longer sharing his teaching gifts due to teachers being criminally underpaid and my high school counselor Mr Baker. Despite my giving those three teachers and one counselor ample challenges, both academically and behaviorally, they still helped me succeed and never gave up on me. They even helped me graduate a year early.

So, after all of this struggle, how did I get into something like surgery? In 2018, I worked at a day care center, and a child walked up to me and told me that his lungs hurt. I remember listening to his lungs and thinking, "Asthma". when his mom came to pick him up, I told her I thought he had asthma, and she confirmed he did have that diagnosis, but they couldn't afford an inhaler. That night, my mom picked me up from work, and I told her that instead of studying psychology, I may want to be a medical doctor but didn't want to go to medical school because of math and writing. I didn't think I was smart enough to even get into medical school. I put the thought of medicine aside again until 2020, when COVID-19 hit, but at that point, I was the mother of a newborn; I started classes to be a medical assistant online while caring for my three-month-old daughter.

I didn't think I was smart enough to even get into medical school.

While going to school to be a medical assistant, I learned about two other roles: a surgical technologist and an assistant surgeon. After passing my national exam to be a CMA, I started school to be a surgical tech; I struggled with anatomy and ended up dropping out twice and switching programs to something that was more fast-paced. I learned specifically that I can't be in a gen ed class, and I also can't be in a class slowed down; my classes need to be sped up to keep my attention, so I found an accelerated program that worked for my learning style. In 2023, I finally graduated and earned my title as "surgical tech" I'll never forget the way it felt reading my graduation certificate; I almost cried, but I did it.

In September of 2022, I entered a surgery center with the title of Medical Assistant and left as a Surgical Tech. Also being one of the main people running the facility, I sat in meetings with lawyers, CEOs, and state officials.

I'll never forget the way it felt reading my graduation certificate; I almost cried, but I did it.

From 2022-2024, I have spent five days a week in the operating room, doing plastic surgery, eye surgery, biopsies, and vascular surgeries, and soon, I'll be implanting pacemakers and doing orthopedics. In March of 2024, I earned my long-awaited title and got my white coat as an Assistant Surgeon; being an Assistant Surgeon is as close as you can get to being a surgeon without going to medical school. I'm currently not certified, but I will be after being a surgical tech in a hospital for five more years, as is the requirement for the school I want to go to. However, my role at the ASC I work at includes being an assistant surgeon.

My end goal is to work in Trauma surgery or Oncology (cancer treatment). I no longer wish to attend medical school, not because I don't think I'm smart enough but because I want a better work-life balance. I did that as a dyslexic person with a long list of other mental health concerns; I did what most people can't even begin to dream of. As a neurodivergent person, my hands have helped cure blindness, they have helped beat cancer, they have made hearts beat, and they have stopped death itself.

I don't try to fit into what people tell me I should be; I am what I am, and I will find a path that works for me.

My ADHD has made me amazing at my job. My curse has become my blessing; what I thought was my worst quality has become my coworkers' and patients' favourite thing about me. I don't try to fit into what people tell me I should be; I am what I am, and I will find a path that works for me. My ADHD makes it so I can focus on the patient, the surgical instruments, the vitals, where we are in the surgery, any signs that something bad may happen and what needs to happen next. I know what a surgeon is going to need in an emergency surgery before they even know they need it because for a person with ADHD, anything outside the regular, no matter how small, will tip us off. I know when a routine surgery is going to turn into an emergency surgery before the surgeon does, without sounding cocky, I'm the person you want standing over you while you're under, but I hardly passed high school.

Starr Luna

Extracts from Dystinct Magazine