I THOUGHT I WAS INVINCIBLE
I know it's cliché, but when I was 14 years old, I was one of those people who think they are invincible. I believed only other people went through hard times. When you're a teenager, you just start to live and slowly discover who you are and who you want to be. You know almost nothing about life and what it has in store for you.
Fortunately for me, I've always been a very active, vibrant young girl. I had just finished a basketball camp when my symptoms appeared. Up until then, I had always been very healthy. I didn't suffer from any disease and had never been hospitalized. I have to say that I was a bit scared of hospitals, since I had never been there since my birth in 1993! In short, my medical record probably contained 10 pages top.
My abdominal cramps suddenly appeared overnight. I was suprised at how well I was coping with pain. I didn't feel like I needed to go to the hospital, because I thought the pain would go away and felt like it probably was nothing. Weeks went by, and I was sleeping 30 minutes less every night. I had to sit, because I couldn't stand the pain when I was lying down. I was vomiting everything I would eat, and it severely impacted my quality of life. Then, one day, a distater happened: there was blood in the toilet bowl. Yes, blood - that had no business being there - was coming out of my rectum.
I'm sure you understand that, being 14 years old, I was freaking out! It's worrying, but I was mostly embarassed to tell my mother. She quickly learned about it on September 2, 2007, though. I was rushed to the hospital since I was extremely weakened; I was slowly dying. You know those portable toilets they give you at the hospital? The one with the little white basin underneath. My mom and the hospital staff were pretty surprised when I filled it with blood.
That's when we all understood that I really wasn't feeling well. That's also when I understood that it wouldn't all end as easily as I'd imagined. A long fight with complications, surgeries, and survival mode would ensue. Was I ready for it? I don't really think you can be. But I was 14 years old, and luckily I had an iron will! You'll understand when you know more about my story, and when I tell you how my life was in the hospital, a.k.a my second home.
Let me tell you that today my medical record has many more pages.