Medical billing and coding externships usually take 200 hours to complete — for American Career College graduate and rheumatoid arthritis sufferer Lizeth Villanueva, it took four painful months.
Villanueva, now 30, first visited the ACC-Ontario campus after being laid off from her job at a bank. Two hours after stepping onto campus, she had enrolled in the medical billing and coding program.
After completing the classwork, Villanueva began her externship — but after a few weeks, she started to physically feel really bad. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis three years prior, Villanueva decided to see a doctor and soon learned she was having a full-blown flare-up. Her externship was put on-hold and Villanueva was placed on medical leave to receive treatment.
"During that whole time Naomi Routhieaux, the externship coordinator, was so supportive. She would email me, call me, see how I was doing, if I needed to go part-time or needed a day of rest. She knew that I was pushing through and that I wanted to succeed," Villanueva said. "There was never a moment where I felt like I was doing it alone or didn’t have a support system or someone I could turn to."
According to the Mayo Clinic, "rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that typically affects the small joints in your hands and feet." Unlike the wear-and-tear of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis attacks the lining of bone joints, causing painful swelling that can eventually result in bone erosion and joint deformity.
Villanueva previously had tried different therapies to combat the symptoms of her disease, including increasingly stronger and stronger doses of medicine and undergoing five-hour arthritis chemotherapy sessions. During her medical leave, Villanueva began seeing an out-of-state doctor who prescribed new eating habits, a new vitamin regimen and a new workout plan, with lots of yoga and stretching to increase flexibility. Villanueva's case ended up being so severe, her externship was delayed twice so she could deal with it.
Eventually the new methods began paying off and Villanueva now says she's "completely healthy." This February, she joined 1,100 other ACC graduates at a commencement ceremony in Ontario.
"I felt like (people at ACC) were there every step of the way and that my victories were their victories and my triumphs where their triumphs," Villanueva said. "As soon as I returned, Diana Bowen in Career Services had interviews lined up for me. She pushed me to get better so that I had something to look forward to, something to reach for, and because of that I will be eternally grateful to American Career College.
"I am successful because of them, because of the support that they give their students and making them feel like we’re not just not just students or a number — we’re people," she said.
