Missy Rock enjoys her job as a nurse manager on the oncology floor at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center.

She also can use her own experiences as a cancer patient, to help inspire those who are battling now.

17 years ago, when she was pregnant with her daughter, she was diagnosed with leukemia.

“I was scared for my baby, and scared for myself, because I had a young son,” she recalled.

But she was able to get through it all, thanks to her family, and a wonderful care team at Essentia.

And it was those people who helped motivate her to become a nurse herself. She had been a nutritionist.

“These people were amazing, and showed me how they can make a difference in people’s lives.”

So she went to school in Hibbing, and then got a job at Essentia. “The nurses who took care of me, were training me,” she remembered.

Rock has been the nurse manager for about 10 years. She just helped a new patient, Nim Sundaram, who was diagnosed around Thanksgiving.

“Missy walked in the room, and said, hey I had the same cancer, and look at me now,” he recalled. He’s grateful for all the care team, calling them, “unbelievable.”

This experience is making him reflect on what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

“There’s a lot of stuff cooking in my brain. You know, I’ve got all these things lined up on a chopping board, so to speak, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m gonna cook. And I’m really excited to see what happens with that, and hopefully, you know, why did I get cancer? And find the reason,” he said.

Rock shared that staying positive is important. “And we treat our patients like we would our family,” she said. “That’s the best part of working here.”