The Beginning

Health struggles are not a new concept in my life. From a young age, I remember getting sick a lot more than other children. I was diagnosed with bad asthma and a immune deficiency. This deficiency (paired along with my asthma) caused me to miss a lot of school. Eventually, I started these treatments to help raise my low immune levels, so I was able to be at school more than ever before. However, my sophomore year of high school, I got very sick. After several weeks of running different test, I was finally diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. This kept me away from school like never before. Complications from the ulcerative colitis kept me out of school (around 20 days each year) my junior and senior year (or so we thought –> now my doctors believe it was my pancreas that caused me so much trouble). I made it through this. The summer before I went to college, I started doing okay. I would have bad days here and there, but I was managing pretty good. I was extremely excited to feel like a normal girl my age. For a while, I got to do that. I went to date parties, swaps, bible study, and just hung out with friends (watching movies, eating lunch on the quad, and hung out in dorms). Most of all, I loved the freedom to discover who I was outside of being sick. However, at Christmas, I began to notice that my stomach pain was becoming unrelenting. From then on out, my energy levels began to drop dramatically and the pain only increased. At the end of February, everything became so unbearable, my parents came and got me from school. I went straight to the ER and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. This is where the hardest journey of my life began. Thank you for reading the start to my blog! The details of the journey will be coming soon!

 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11