Determination

I have learned from struggle with juvenile polyposis disorder that my life is not always easy, but worth living. I hope this blog can catch your attention and make you somehow understand what it’s like to be sick and how to deal with it.

All of it started back in 2006 when I was having excruciating stomach pains it felt like sharp pains almost like someone stabbing me with a sharp knife right around the lower part of my stomach, which most doctors call the lower right quadrant. The pain was to the point where I was curled up in a ball most of the time, and if I tried to walk the pain hurt so bad that I was just right back down in a ball. It was at that point that my mom decided to take me to the hospital and they admitted me and did a lot of tests.

They did an MRI, which is where I lay in this big machine similar to a C.A.T scan or x ray, but without radiation and includes more detail with the pictures. They also did an ultra sound which I’m sure most people should or have at least one time in their life heard about it however an ultra sound is just a machine using high frequency waves maps a detailed image of what’s inside a persons stomach. Also the doctors did a C.A.T scan, which is like an x- ray however you sometimes have to drink gross stuff which is a special fluid which helps outline the lining of your stomach, or you can have the fluid pumped into you through an IV. It basically lights up your insides and you go through this big circular dome and it takes pictures using radiation. Lastly they did blood work that is just basically like a shot and they pull blood out.

After all these tests, I felt as if nothing was getting resolved on why I was having this pain. Eventually the doctors got my pain under control but that was with help of the medicine. At the end of that hospital visit in October of 2006, nothing really got resolved, the doctors told me part of my pain was caused by I.B.S (Irritable bowel syndrome). After they got my pain resolved they sent me home with medicine and a follow up appointment with my doctor. So after that I kind of just went with it and figured it was what they said IBS.

I went through ups and downs through out the next year of having the pain come and go but nothing bad enough to put me in the hospital. Since I was still getting the pain every now and then the doctors decided to do what the call an endoscopy, which is where they put you to sleep and stick a camera and what I compare the biopsy collecter, to the things in an arcade where your trying to win a stuffed animal like those claw things which of course are smaller. But they stuck that and a camera tube down my throat. When they did that the doctors pulled out a few polyps but were very small and then sent them off to get a biopsy and they came back benign which means, the way I understand it the cancer cells that were pretty much dead.

It was in 2008 when I realized the pain was back and it was ten times worse. Once again I was taken to the hospital and yet again admitted. The doctors came in and talked to me and told me that after looking at my test results which were the same tests I took back in 2006, an MRI, C.A.T scan, ultra sound and blood work. This time the tests did not come back normal. This time the ultra sound was showing some inflammation, and blood work came back and was told I was anemic. Also with the medicine not controlling my pain the doctors decided to do another endoscopy and also a colonoscopy which I am sure everyone knows what that is, which is kind of embarrassing, however it’s what they have to do to try to figure out my problem. So once they did the necessary procedures they found more polyps and sent them out for biopsies again. The doctor’s main concern was why my body is producing these so fast. Once they got the biopsies back they told me that one of the polyps they had removed came out in fragments and was not benign they were very concerned with this so put me on medicine to try to stop the cancer cells from spreading. I was sent home and just pretty much lived on medicine every morning and night had to take like three pills was not fun at all.

In 2009 the pain was back, yet again the doctors did surgery and realized the cancer cells had spread and started producing more polyps on my colon and stomach. Since then I have been in and out of the hospital having the same procedures and being on the same medicine. It’s not fun having to deal with something like this and knowing that it is spreading through my body and half the time not knowing what’s going to happen.

Since these procedures I have learned that I need to just take one day at a time and deal with what comes my way. I know it could be worse but sometimes I feel like its only going to get worse but that’s just a wait and see I guess. With what has happened had made me really live by the quote take one day at a time step by step.