We're Otis and Tricia. We live out of a suitcase by choice, work in hospitals we've never been to before, and call a new city home every 13 weeks. This is our life — and we wouldn't trade it for anything.
But it didn't start this way.
The Arizona Years
For years, we were career-track, benefits-having, same-parking-spot hospital employees in the Phoenix area. Otis built his MRI career at Banner Health and HonorHealth, working through nearly every scanner platform available — GE, Siemens, Toshiba — across 1.5T and 3T systems. Tricia logged close to three decades as a diagnostic medical sonographer, the kind of experience that makes her one of the most trusted people in any imaging department she walks into.
We had roots. Our home in Chandler — purchased in 2017 — became our base, our anchor. We were settled. And settled was good, for a long time.
Then we started paying attention to what travel healthcare travelers were making. And we started asking ourselves a question we couldn't stop asking: why are we still here?
The Decision
In 2023, we made the leap. We signed with AMN Healthcare, got our tax home documentation in order, kept the Chandler property (Tricia's niece lives there now, which keeps it active and our stipends legitimate), and hit the road together.
The non-negotiable from day one: we go together. Same facility. Same schedule. Same days off. Whatever it takes. Some people thought it was ambitious. We thought it was obvious. What's the point of this lifestyle if you're not actually sharing it?
The Road So Far
Ahoskie, NC
Eastern North Carolina. Quiet, unexpected, and the beginning of everything. Our first taste of what this life actually felt like — checking into a furnished rental together, learning a new facility, and realizing we'd made the right call.
Wilmington & Carolina Beach, NC
Our second North Carolina chapter, and one we'll always be grateful for. Sun, salt air, the sound of the Atlantic outside our windows. Otis at Novant Health New Hanover Regional. Tricia scanning down the coast. We made Carolina Beach feel like home.
St. Lucia — Otis Turns 50
Not a contract, but a milestone. Fourteen of our favorite people, Sandals Halcyon Beach, and a birthday worth celebrating. Full story in the blog.
New Bedford, MA & Fall River, MA
A black Jeep Wrangler, a road trip through Ohio, and a new chapter in New England. Otis and Tricia are both placed at Saint Anne's Hospital (Brown University Health). The ocean's still out the window. The accents have changed.
What Pixel & Pulse Is
We started this brand because we kept getting the same questions: How do you find contracts together? What do you actually make? How do you keep a tax home? Is it lonely? Is it worth it?
Pixel & Pulse is our honest answer to all of it. The pixel is the camera — we document everything, the beautiful moments and the complicated ones. The pulse is the healthcare — the reason we can afford to live this way, the work that gets us in the door everywhere we go.
We're not here to sell you a fantasy. We're here to show you that this life is real, possible, and genuinely good — for the right kind of people.
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