The story continues....

These last few weeks have been crazy for me, a lot has happened and I've realized that it's hard that so many people I love and care for are so far away from me right now. I feel like people don't know what is going on in my life and that makes me sad. I have been reading my best friend's blog for a few months now and I love knowing what is going on with her and so I thought I would take a number from her book and do the same. I don't know how well I am going to be about keeping up with it but I'm going to try.

For those of you who know me well know that my life could be a lifetime movie. Well these past three weeks will only add to the storyline. I got back to Texas a few weeks ago after visiting some dear friends in Arkansas. The visit did not go as expected due to the untimely death of one of their pets. I'm glad that I was there to be able to help in the little ways but it was a somber time. It was so good to be with loved ones for those few days though. I came back to Texas ready to start school and begin to get back to normal life. Within a week my bike mysteriously broke (the shop said it looked as though someone had run it over) and my car got broken into. Both of these things put me back financially but it was ok.

Then on August 27th I started my second semester at UTA. I decided I am going to really like my classes this semester. Then on Wednesday morning I woke up and had a great pain in my side. I could barely move. I knew I needed to go to the doctor's office. They told me I had an infection and but me on the antibiotic Cipro. I went home and sleep most of the day. On Thursday I continued to get worse. The pain was moving and I began to vomit (a lot!) I knew something was not right. At 7:00 that evening I went back to the clinic. They ran some test and found my white blood count to be at 17,400 (normal is between 10,000-12,000). They told me I needed to go to the ER right away. After 7 hours in the ER they admitted me. On Friday a handful of doctors came into see me. I was told that my Kidneys were going into renal failure, and they could not figure out why. I laid there in pain and listened to these doctors tell me they had no idea what to do. All kinds of scary words were being thrown around and I was beginning to become very scared.

My roommate Holly was there with me this whole day. I love and appreciate that about her... She helped me clean up each time I vomited and was just there to love me. I couldn't keep anything down and they decided they needed to but a tube down my throat. This is the most miserable thing I have ever experienced. The next few days are a blur. I was getting morphine shots ever 3 hours and was still hurting so badly. I wasn't allowed to eat anything expect for ice chips. It was no fun at all.

Luckily the doctors figured out what was wrong... I had an allergic reaction to the Cipro. This is a VERY uncommon reaction, I was told 1 in a million. The Cipro attacked my Kidneys and made them shut down. I just needed to wait it out. So after 6 days in the Hospital I was allowed to go home.

Since being home I have been able to process many things about my time in the hospital.
1) Even though I don't have a great family (they never once called to check-up on me after being told what happened) I have AMAZING friends! They are truly my family. I know that I am loved. (My best friend was even looking into how to donate a kidney to me if I needed on) These people are my family!

2) I was closer to death then I have ever been... I was scared and yet I know that only by the Lord's grace I am better today. My life is precious and I can not take it for granted.

3) It has been 9 years since I've spoken to my dad. If something would have happened to me in that hospital he would never have known, and I hate that! I spent the day yesterday trying to get in touch with my dad. My uncle is getting a message to him that I want the lines of communication opened again. This is a BIG step! I pray that the Lord would guide me in it.


So anyhow that is what has been going on these past few weeks. I am feeling SO much better and feel back to normal. I went back to school on Thursday and believe that I will be able to catch up in all my classes. I go back to work tomorrow and will hopefully get back to normal life.

I hope to be good about keeping this up to date. Maybe it will make me a little less homesick!