The Beginning: Part 2

Once we got to the hospital, we were directed to Clinic H where my parents and I were told to wait in a room for the doctor while the other's waited outside.  A few minutes later, the doctor came in and went straight to the point and explained what was going to happen.  I never had surgery before so that part didn't scare me but what made me cry was the thought of losing my hair.  That night I stayed at the hospital resting up for my first surgery the next morning.  Early that morning, while I was still in my bed, I was wheeled down to a waiting area where I saw a few other families waiting for their child to go into surgery.  I sat there as my parents talked to me, comforted me.  The next thing I knew, I was being rolled into the surgery room.  A woman came to my side, the anesthesiologist; she put a mask over my face and asked me to count down from ten.  I started to feel drowsy but I heard her ask me a question.  I  distinctly remember her asking me if I saw something flying.  My answer was slurred.  I couldn't even understand what I was saying, and within seconds I was out like a light.


When I woke up in the ICU ( Intensive Care Unit) I was obviously cranky and in pain.  I immediately got scared and asked where my family was.  The nurse told me they were there before but because I had been asleep for so long they decided to get some lunch.  After a while, the nurses thought I was ready to leave and I was brought to a room.  Man was it bad.  It was small, and the only thing you could see out the window was the building next door.  By the 8th I got to go home for the day, and when we got there, I just plopped myself down on the chair.  I remember looking around thinking everything in the house looked weird.

The Beginning: Part 1

IT all began in April 1996.  I woke up feeling sick one morning and ran to the bathroom to throw up.  The only problem was that I hadn't eaten anything yet so I had nothing to throw up.  I often found myself sitting in front of the toilet, my throat burning from the dry heaves.  Once that was over, I would get ready for school, thinking that I was just sick and it would pass.  But then I started to throw up every morning and I knew something was wrong.  By June, I started to get migraines.  When I told my mom, she just told me to take some Tylenol and lie down.  At that time neither of us knew it was more than a headache.  Not much after that, my vision became impaired.  I began to see doubles and everything was blurry.  During the school year, my sister and I played in the orchestra.  We decided that summer to take lessons to improve for the next year.  Reading the sheet music proved to be the hardest part.  The notes were so blurry that even squinting didn't help.  Once we got home I told my mom and she made an appointment for me with the eye doctor.


I went to  the doctor in July, and he performed the usual tests, looking at the chart consisting of numbers and letters through different lenses.  My eyes were dilated and that's when she noticed something; my optic nerve was inflamed.  The doctor then wrote a prescription and my mom and I headed to the optical center in the mall.  We dropped it off and looked at some frames.  Apparently, when we were at the eye doctor, my mother was told to take me to the pediatrician.  Once again my mom made the appointment and the next day we went to St.Nicholas for my check up.  The doctor did a standard check up: he listened to my heart, checked my blood pressure and reflexes, etc.  Unfortunately for me, when he hit my knee to find the reflexes in my legs, I didn't kick back.  He knew it was a bad sign and wanted me to go through an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) which was in a truck outside of the hospital.  I really didn't know what was going on I just wanted to get it done with and go home.  The 4th of July had approached and I couldn't wait for the festivities, starting with the parade.  I was enjoying the parade with my family when my parents told me we would have to leave for Milwaukee when it was over.  I was a little angry that we would miss frying out and hanging out with friends.  I just hoped we would be back in time for the fireworks.