The Most Unexpected Toll On My Life
As I went back to school for my second semester of sophomore year, my body had such different plans for me.
When we get sick, we usually do not think much of it. We take our antibiotics, rest and drink fluids for a few days and are back in the swing of things very quickly. As I went back to school for my second semester of sophomore year, my body had such different plans for me.
My body has always had a weak immune system which usually just simply meant I get strep more than most kids, which I came to terms with very early in my life. Second semester of my sophomore year at Purdue was coming up and I had just dropped off my boyfriend at the airport for him to go back to Camp Pendleton for his second part of his Marines training. I was incredibly miserable this day as I woke up at 4 am and had a silent 30 minute ride to the airport with him because we were both not sure when the next time we were going to see each other was. I hadn't been feeling well for a few hours or maybe a day thinking it was because of this reason. I drove back up to Purdue and spent the rest of that Tuesday with my friends as they are now getting the hang of how to be there for me when my boyfriend leaves. That Wednesday I woke up not feeling amazing again but had the intentions of going out with my friends that night to get my mind of him going back to California. We walked downstairs for dinner around 5 and I was hardly walking right because of how awful my back was hurting. I was joking around telling my friends to give me a kidney because I was convinced I was in some kind of organ failure because of how much pain I was in. They jokingly told me I was being dramatic and to suck it up and I agreed. I napped before going out and suddenly woke up with a 102 degree fever. I made an appointment at the student health center in the morning and was not expecting to be sent to the hospital in an ambulance. The doctor their had told me that she thought my kidneys were failing and I immediately needed to go to the hospital. I had never been to the hospital for anything let alone been taken away in an ambulance. I called my mom and told her that she needed to meet me at the hospital in Lafayette as fast as she could. My dad was on a business trip and I had told him not to come home thinking it was just a small mishap. He had called his best friend that was a doctor and he had told my dad that everything should be under control and he would check in on me.
I got to the hospital and was released soon after with what they thought was simply a severe bladder infection. I was sent home and my mom took me back home to Indy. At this point, my fever was up to 103 on the edge of 104 and I was getting sudden chills that I wasn't aware of when happening. After 24 hours of being home and only getting worse, I went back to the hospital in Indy and was told that I was in septic shock. My blood pressure was bottoming out, my heart rate skyrocketing, and I was going in and out of consciousness. I had developed a kidney infection which traveled to my blood and was causing my organs to shut down. Sepsis is just as about as serious as it gets and should never be taken lightly. They admitted me for about a week and a half as I was absolutely miserable and do not exactly remember most of what happened during my hospital stay.
19 years old and I had developed a condition that most people die of when developing. I was so frustrated with why this was happening to me. My dads best friend that was the doctor called him 24 hours after telling him everything was under control. He said, "I know I told you that you do not need to come home but we are about 1 hour out from putting a tube down your daughter's throat so that she can breathe and you need to get home right now." My parents being worried as ever, my friends not knowing what to do as everyone is at college and is so confused why and how their best friend is suddenly in the hospital, and my poor boyfriend who did not have his phone through any of this and was told by someone else in the marines that his girlfriend was in the hospital for a severe case of sepsis.
I was watching this condition take such a toll on everyone in my life and on myself. I had never been that close to thinking, this could really be it. I could not be more thankful to say that with the help of many doctors, nurses, and people in my life I was out of the hospital a week and a half later but still weak as ever. The doctors had told me that if I would of came in simply a few hours later, I most likely would have had different outcomes and severe deficits. I was so angry with God at first thinking how could this happen to me. Almost 3 months later and after having to take the semester off school to recover and I can so clearly see that God wanted to make me stronger than ever. This was such an eye opener to me in a way that I never would of thought this would happen to me. God does not intend for these bad things in our life to long term affect us in a terrible way. He intends for them to help us grow and become a better and a stronger person all around. So a thank you, to everyone who has been by my side through this life changing experience. And to others that go through something that they did not plan and it has drastically taken a toll on their life, remember that its not supposed to be that way and that there is a bigger picture if you look at it. You are right where you are supposed to be for a reason that may still be unknown, but there is a reason.
Feminism Redefined
Pictured (left to right): Andrew Bartolome, Janis Manalang, Jon Melegrito, Kevin Nadal, and Austin ChavezPhoto by Lia Macadangdang
Quezon City, Philippines. 2003. 
