The bell rings at 2:00 every day. And every day the same thing happens. All the kids grab their books and run for the door as quickly as they can. Most have plans to hit the mall or see a movie. I, however, grab my books and make my way up to room 413 for extended math fun. Geometry has never been my best subject and this is the last place I want to be, especially with my head pounding and me barely holding down my lunch. After an hour of confusion and no help on proofs I plug in my headphones and wait for the bus to take me home. Like a dork I pull out my books and continue on my heap of work that will surely keep me up till midnight. But so far my mind is focused on the continuous worsening of my stomach. Three thirty comes and the bus picks me up and I ride for over an hour to get to my home that is only 2 miles away all the while barely staying awake. I get home and continue to do my homework until five o’clock. Time for me to make dinner. Tonight it’s pasta: my stomach hurts way too much to go fancy. An hour later I can barely move without the threat of vomiting and my father is describing me as green. But being a stubborn teenager I say I’m ok and continue my heap of work that is only slightly dented. I work until nine when my one joy of the week comes on, Grey’s Anatomy. I quit working on my math, deeming it hopeless and settle in for an hour of drama. But half way through the show it feels like someone is stabbing me in the gut. Hoping it will go away I lay down and relax but I am doubled over in pain and can hardly move. My sister quickly got my father and we were in the car on the way to the emergency room.
The ER is no place to be when you are in pain and a baby is screaming across the room from you. And as the minutes go on the pain is getting so bad I am ready to scream. Two hours and many bad thoughts of how to shut the baby up later I am finally brought in to see a doctor. Great! They shove me in the pediatric wing and I am in a room covered in fish. By now it is midnight and my father is falling asleep in a chair while I am curled in a ball on the gurney. Another two hours and the doctor finally arrived explaining that they are very far behind. Of course in my head I’m thinking gee we didn’t notice but what good would that do considering he is the one with the medication? My stomach feels like it is being ripped from my body but of course he insists on pushing on it and makes it ten times worse. He says its to high too be the appendix but the gallbladder is not ruled out and orders a cat scan. In the mean time I have the lovely job of drinking a quart of disgusting liquid that will make my stomach glow on film. Not only am I nauseous but every sip of this concoction is making my stomach turn. Finally once I have downed the liquid they give me pain medication. One giant shot of morphine later I am pain free but nearly knocked out. Thankfully the cat scan comes up clean and they are willing to discharge me. At 7:30 in the morning I am driving home no closer to an answer but way to drugged up to care. Once we reach the door we both head to bed to make up for the night before. Around three in the afternoon I wake up to a stabbing pain in my stomach. It is no better than last night and on top of that I jump from my bed and run to the bathroom losing the muffin I had stuffed in my mouth that morning (9 hours in a hospital with no food makes you willing to eat anything).
Eight o’clock and I am back at the ER with worsening stomach pain and I can’t keep any of my food down. It’s a different doctor than the one the day before but he is no more helpful. Again they give me morphine and I pass out cold. They re-run blood work while I am out and still find nothing. My dad shakes me awake four hours later to hear the doctors diagnosis. Basically he has no clue and is going to send me home again. Once again I am too out of it to even understand him but when I wake in the morning I know all to well anything he did gave no relief. My stomach is still killing me and walking only makes it worse.
I follow up with my doctor Monday who is equally stumped and saying it could all be cause by acid reflux. They take me off the pain medication which was the only thing getting me through the day and put me on acid reducers. Four painful days later I have no relief and I was certain that acid reflux is not a cause for this pain. Now we can fast forward to a week later. My pain has continued and I have been out of school for over a week. I haven’t been able to eat anything except toast and even that has begun to turn on me. Finally after waking my mom in the morning after getting sick yet again she has had enough,. She calls my doctor and he has me admitted into the hospital until they can find
out what is wrong.
I have never been one for needles and getting an IV is no exception. After three failed attempts she can finally get the line in and claims my vein was a “wiggle worm.” I am immediately put on a liquid diet and am informed that I am severely dehydrated . The first test to be done is a cat scan and again I am forced to drink the horrible liquid. Thankfully, my nurse flavors it with apple juice and I am able to drink it without retching. The first run through goes smoothly and they tell me they are going to inject contrast into my IV. Within 30 seconds a warm feeling spreads through my body which I was told was completely normal. But why was there a tickle in my throat? I remembered my nurse telling me that there was a slight chance of an allergic reaction but what are the odds of that? A second later my throat snaps shut and I can’t breath. The technicians realized I had turned white and I was ambushed by 12 different doctors trying to reverse the allergic reaction. Leave it to me to be the rarity that nearly get you killed. After a few minutes I could finally catch my breath and I am wrapped like a taco in warming blankets.
After my brush with death I return to my room and continue being poked constantly and having to get up every hour because I am so pumped full of liquids. My mother spends the night with me on a pullout bed that is as comfortable as sleeping on a rock. The day goes by with more tests and a lack of food that is making me snap at everyone within reach. I have basically lost hope for them finding out what is wrong and I have decided to try and get some sleep. Just as I get drowsy my doctor comes in. They know what is wrong. The doctor describes that all the lymph nodes in my stomach are severely infected and have been the whole time. It was something I had four years earlier but had never connected until the two cat scans were compared. My whole family is relieved and I am shocked to find something so simple was ruining my health. I am pumped full of antibiotics and feel immediate relief n my stomach.
The next day I am going home and I could not be happier. I have an answer and simple antibiotics will make me better, but there is still a long road ahead. I am susceptible to infection and the pain will take awhile to go away. But for now I am catching up on work and looking forward to getting back to my old life. Being so close to loosing every thing can teach you a life lesson. What that is I haven’t figured out yet but hopefully when I get back to my old life I will be able to .
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