After bouncing around majors in college and raising a family, I found myself in my 40s before I realized what I wanted to be when I grew up. Medical transcription seemed to entail many things I enjoyed, from love of language and medicine to solving puzzles. It provided the security of a healthcare job without the mess. However, as the field morphs into less of a career and more of a low-wage production-based job, I've been left wondering if I'm in a viable spot and if not, what the alternatives might be. Life is all about the trip, not the destination, but I prefer to utilize the skills I already have instead of starting from scratch at this point-but how? I was left with a giant question mark as far as where I really felt I might really belong. 

Then late 2007, someone wrote a letter to Advance, telling how she'd found her MT skills transitioned easily into a terrific career as a cancer registrar. I've spent the ensuing months trying to learn what that is, how I might get into it,  and where to get the education I need to make it happen. The fact that my tale should be somehow blog-worthy is a testament to what little information is out there, so hopefully in sharing all the details of my trip I will somehow make it easier for those who might follow suit. 

My name is Jeanne Johnston, and I have been an acute care transcriptionist for a large national MTSO for almost six years. Living and working the virtual life of a graveyard-shift telecommuter has left me slightly eccentric and sheltered, increasingly yearning for a taste of “normalcy” and perhaps office mates who lack fur or feathers. The driving force in my life has almost become the adage that “failure is not an option.” Change means adventure, and that adrenaline is as much excitement as it is fear.