Once upon a time in a far away land, I attended university. It was
absolutely a dream! All the students were pursuing the same degree, and thus we
all had the same classes. It was amazing to be in the midst of individuals with
the same interests and with the same hopes and dreams. My first term was a
fairy tale. Everything that could go right did go right. My second term,
however, changed my life forever.
About a month into my second term, I
started developing lower left quadrant abdominal pain whenever food passed
through that part of my intestines. I was not worried at first. I thought it
perhaps was a GI flu. The pain grew worse and worse and was accompanied by
severe nausea. Two weeks before midterms, I could only eat liquids. All other
food made me severely ill. The week before midterms, I was so sick, I could not
attend classes. But determined to complete midterms, I put my nose to the
grindstone and ignored the pleas by my body to seek medical attention. I made a
promise to myself I would go to the clinic after midterms if I was still
severely sick. Despite being very malnourished, dehydrated and sleep-deprived,
I whizzed through my midterms with stellar grades! After the exams, my GI
symptoms slowly went away. In a few days, I was again able to eat solid foods.
In my deep pit of self-denial, I assured myself I was on the road to better
health.
I enjoyed about a month
of good health. I was able to eat food without any ill-repercussions and had
gained some strength back to hike up the hill to classes. Unfortunately, my
good health was short lived. Two weeks before finals, I again became terribly ill,
with the same symptoms I had had previously. I could eat no more than liquids.
I survived by drinking 4 glasses of Cadbury hot chocolate with milk and sugar,
which provided a generous 400 calories per glass. I soon was too weak and too
sick to attend classes. Again, my strong will to finish the term with my
classmates superseded all logic and common sense to go to the campus medical
clinic. Somehow, I managed to complete all my finals and achieved high marks in
my classes.
At 2 a.m. after my last final, I awoke from sleep with the worse
pain of my life! I could barely move and had no idea what was wrong with me or
what I should do. I managed to make my way to the bathroom where I threw up and
curled up in a ball from the intense pain. Over the next few hours, I managed
to make my way back to my room. By the time I got to my room, I was so
exhausted, I could only think about getting back in bed and getting back to
sleep. Knowing I was in bad health, I left my door to my room open, hoping in
the morning one of my roommates would see me and come into my room. I tried and
tried to go to sleep, but I couldn’t do anything to alleviate the pain. Any
direction I tried to lay on my bed, I nearly shrieked in pain. The more I
moved, the more nauseas I became, and the more I threw up. In the end, I
threw up about 7-8 times, with the last of my vomit being black--i.e., bile
from my intestines.
At around 11 a.m., my one roommate got up and seeing my door
open, checked in on me to see what I wanted to do for the day. I told her I
didn’t feel well and didn’t know what to do. After a brief discussion, the pain
was too much; I told her I needed to go to the clinic now! I could not get up
from my bed. So my roommate ran to the on-campus clinic. She arranged for a
campus van to pick me up and get me to the clinic. My two roommates carried me
down two flights of stairs and into the awaiting van. Upon arriving at the
clinic, I was able to be seen by a physician within about 2 minutes.
The nurse took my
vitals, which were impressive! My blood pressure was 240/150, my temperature
was 104.5, and my pulse was 140 beats per minute. I was extremely short of
breath and could barely speak. When the physician examined me, he tried to
dismiss all my symptoms as a bout of GI flu. I could sense he was trying to
push me out the door. Thankfully, this physician was the same physician I had
the semester before in my anatomy small discussion group. Suddenly, his lecture
on appendicitis ran through my brain. Moreover, in my head, a voice was screaming, "You
need to get to the hospital now!" I knew something was seriously wrong with me; I knew I needed urgent medical treatment.
In an instant, I started remembering everything I had ever learned about an appendicitis and
started acting like I had an appendicitis. Although the pain for the last 3
months had been on my left side, today the pain was on my right side. So, in
the spirit of not lying, I started complaining about my lower right abdominal
pain. I kept repeating words the physician had said during our small group
session. Very quickly, the doctor's ears pricked up, and he finally looked at
me! He then quickly started telling me he thought I had an appendicitis and needed to go to the hospital. (I was
praising God for the insight to feign an appendicitis. I was also grateful the
physician said I was going to be taken to the hospital. I knew once I got to the
hospital, I would get the medical attention I so desperately needed.)
(A side note: my
roommate said she could not believe the physician was going to send me home.
She said, all you had to do was look at me to see I was ashen gray in color and
in severe distress. My roommate said if I had not spoken up when I did, she
would have. Her words from so long ago still overflow my heart with abundant
gratitude and love. I am so grateful God arranged for us to be roommates. She
has been a blessing over and over again in my life!)
When I was loaded up
into the ambulance, a physician from the clinic, a nurse and my roommate
accompanied me. It was a long 30 minute drive to the hospital on very pot-hole
laden roads. The driver was trying to go fast, which caused the ambulance to bounce up and down as it hit a plethora of potholes. I was so grateful the nurse screamed at the
driver to slow down. "We are in a hurry, but for goodness sake, avoid the
potholes and slow down!!!"
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