Nurse Carey Lee wasn’t always a nurse. Her first career spanning over 15 years was in mortgage finance. Although successful, finance did not ignite the fire in her belly like nursing would. 20+ years after high school, marriage, three boys, and a dog named Cooper she took a leap of faith and went back to school to get her nursing degree. Her clinical experience ranges from emergency medicine, skilled nursing in LTAC, geriatric behavioral health & dementia, restorative nursing, and now her primary practice is holistic integrative nursing. “Nursing is my second career but my first love.”
Nurse Carey Lee also brings her perspective as a patient to the table. She has battled her own emotional health and has experienced incorrect diagnoses and pharmaceutical trauma. This led her on a journey to find ways of healing other than Western medicine’s first line of treatment-pharmaceuticals. She quickly discovered that getting back to the basics of self-care would become the foundation of healing & maintaining optimal health of mind, body, & spirit. She is passionate about educating patients of various healing modalities and showing them how to THRIVE by implementing a customized self-care plan she lovingly refers to as her Daily Five to Thrive. This self-care plan incorporates the basics: sleep hygiene, nutrition, functional exercise, sunshine, and mindfulness.
“Cannabis is one tool we can use to heal & maintain the health of our body, mind, and spirit.” Her own endocannabinoid system was depleted from all of the years of chronic stress that comes with complex post traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Thanks to medical cannabis and her daily five to thrive, her endocannabinoid system was replenished. She discovered that medical cannabis was the only way she found relief of the nightmares & terrors experienced most of her life. She also found relief from the chronic pain she battles thanks to Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy. The plant has also allowed Nurse Carey Lee to open up to explore and discover other healing modalities from Eastern medicine, mycology, reiki, energy healing, and holistic psychology.
She proudly represents The Green Nurse as Green Nurse Iowa, is a member of the Cannabis Nurses Network and the American Cannabis Nurses Association. Her cannabis nursing practice focuses on CannaWellness and empowerment through the education provided to patients, healthcare professionals, and wellness professionals about the endocannabinoid system, the safe therapeutic use of cannabis, and navigation through the medical card process. Essentially she is a bridge between Western and Eastern medicine and is passionate about showing others how to incorporate the best of both so they don’t just live, they THRIVE.
