I have Crohn's Disease. I was diagnosed in 2007, and on Thanksgiving Eve (if that is considered a holiday!) of 2008 I was sent to the hospital by my doctor. The Crohn's had become so bad that it had eaten a hole in my colon, and my entire body had become septic. I had to have emergency surgery that night to remove 6 inches of my colon. The surgery also included a colostomy. The next morning the doctor came in and told me that the work they had done had not been enough and I would have to have another surgery. this time they removed a few more inches of colon (not sure how much; I was rather doped up by this point), and the took down the colostomy and gave me an ileostomy. I had to stay in the hospital for almost a month after this, and was released a few days before Christmas.
All of my doctors said that it would take between a year and two years for me to recover enough to begin getting my life back to normal. They told me to take it slow and not do too much, as I was very frail and could hurt myself very easily. Before getting sick in 2007, I weighed 217 pounds. When I was in the hospital, I weighed 100 pounds even. I looked like the people you see on the commercials about feeding the starving children in Africa. My father has a picture of my from the day that I got home from the hospital, and I refuse to look at to this day. By the time that I got out of the hospital, I weighed around 115 pounds, and had to alternate between a wheelchair and a walker to get around. And this was at age 28.
I knew that the doctor's had their timeline wrong. My thought was that they were used to seeing 80 year old women getting this sick, so they didn't know what they wee talking about with regards to a 28 year old. And I had played sports all my life, so I was used to pushing my body to its limit. I busted my butt harder than I ever have in my entire life, and by August of 2009, I was starting school (even with my outstanding progress, my doctor wouldn't let me go back to work, so I talked him into letting me go to school since I could stay home when I needed to).
It was very hard to readjust to being out in the real world, but I managed better than I expected. I missed a good bit of class in those first few years, but I eventually just said screw it and started going even when I was hurting. When the first year ended, I was amazed to see that I had a 3.75 GPA. When I left school the first time, it was with a 1.68 GPA. That's a HUGE difference!
Today, I have had 3 more surgeries and still maintain a 3.25 GPA. I have less than a year left until graduation, and I am working on a business that a professor suggested that I start, in addition to other opportunities.
My greatest accomplishment may not be as grand as some, but to me it has been the hardest, and greatest, 4 years of my life. At times I have had to fight off horrible feelings of inadequacy for not providing for my family, but I know that its for the best in the long run. I am very close to achieving my goal of graduating from college, and am in the process of starting a business with the knowledge that I acquired that will provide a great life for my family and help many people in the process.
All of my doctors said that it would take between a year and two years for me to recover enough to begin getting my life back to normal. They told me to take it slow and not do too much, as I was very frail and could hurt myself very easily. Before getting sick in 2007, I weighed 217 pounds. When I was in the hospital, I weighed 100 pounds even. I looked like the people you see on the commercials about feeding the starving children in Africa. My father has a picture of my from the day that I got home from the hospital, and I refuse to look at to this day. By the time that I got out of the hospital, I weighed around 115 pounds, and had to alternate between a wheelchair and a walker to get around. And this was at age 28.
I knew that the doctor's had their timeline wrong. My thought was that they were used to seeing 80 year old women getting this sick, so they didn't know what they wee talking about with regards to a 28 year old. And I had played sports all my life, so I was used to pushing my body to its limit. I busted my butt harder than I ever have in my entire life, and by August of 2009, I was starting school (even with my outstanding progress, my doctor wouldn't let me go back to work, so I talked him into letting me go to school since I could stay home when I needed to).
It was very hard to readjust to being out in the real world, but I managed better than I expected. I missed a good bit of class in those first few years, but I eventually just said screw it and started going even when I was hurting. When the first year ended, I was amazed to see that I had a 3.75 GPA. When I left school the first time, it was with a 1.68 GPA. That's a HUGE difference!
Today, I have had 3 more surgeries and still maintain a 3.25 GPA. I have less than a year left until graduation, and I am working on a business that a professor suggested that I start, in addition to other opportunities.
My greatest accomplishment may not be as grand as some, but to me it has been the hardest, and greatest, 4 years of my life. At times I have had to fight off horrible feelings of inadequacy for not providing for my family, but I know that its for the best in the long run. I am very close to achieving my goal of graduating from college, and am in the process of starting a business with the knowledge that I acquired that will provide a great life for my family and help many people in the process.
No comments:
Post a Comment