Well after all of this chaos in October of my freshman year in high school, things weren't the same. I started getting intense pain in my feet and legs. Of course, being a runner, I thought it could be shin splints or something orthopedic. I went to several doctors, but they were clueless as to what was wrong. I went to a specialist and he recommended for me to be on crutches for awhile, thinking I did have shin splints. This was a mistake though. I began to have extreme and chronic lower back pain that ended up fixating itself throughout my entire back after some time. Being on crutches and having this pain was not helpful. So, of course I went to another specialist.
This time it was the back doctor. I had so many MRI's and CT scans done to see if there was anything physically wrong with me. After negative results on all of the tests, I was just a girl with lots of random pain. Then I was off to see a rheumatologist, oncologist (they found an abnormal MRI scan of my bone marrow one time, so they thought I had leukemia), plenty of neurologists, a few endocrinologists (since my hormones weren't cooperating and I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian disease), and I was referred to a few psychiatrists (since they thought my pain could be caused by depression...uh no!! Everyone who knows me knows that I am the furthest away from being depressed!). This all took roughly 3 years to complete. So yes, this means that much of my high school social life consisted of making friends with all of the doctors and nurses I saw! Ha Ha! I had to have a sense of humor through all of this. And yes, it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do after school or miss school for, but going to figure out this mystery diagnosis is what I had to do.
I'm not the type of student who enjoys missing a few classes here and there. No! I would much rather be in school learning...I do have to admit that I am a bit of a nerd in that sense :) So instead of missing school, I would usually be able to go after school to the doctors (key word: "usually"). By the time winter came around my sophomore year of high school, I had to quit running and I was not doing so well in my honors band at school. I had to take the normal courses at school too rather than the honors and AP courses so that if I didn't feel well or I had to miss class for doctors' appointments, I would not be too far behind. But, at least I was still able to go to school!!
I began to have extreme pains throughout my entire body. Literally from head to toe in pain. Intense headaches and pin-point pains on my head, pains and pressure behind my eyes, muscular pain throughout my body, joint pains mainly in my hands, knees, and back, and extreme fatigue. I was a cross-country runner. I used to run a minimum of 5 miles a day. But during the winter of my sophomore year after the cross-country season had ended, I was not even able to walk for 10 minutes straight. Things were very different.
Standing up became a challenge. I had palpitations for the first time, which are the strangest feelings ever! I also had a very weak body. It is so difficult to describe it other than I felt like an elderly person with arthritis or something. Barely able to walk. Had to use the elevator in school because I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without becoming very winded and lightheaded. There was just this exercise intolerance my body had. I had to get a note from my doctor saying that I could not perform in gym class, so I had a study hall in place of gym class. This was disappointing to me because gym was the most enjoyable class for me.
Sounds pretty depressing, doesn't it? But was I depressed...? HECK NO! I just kept going. I went to school when I probably shouldn't have gone because of the intense pains. I still went above and beyond all of my teachers' expectations, which landed me a 4.0 GPA. I was still achieving so much even with the chaos of an unpredictable and still rather unknown medical condition. As always, there were more struggles that I had to overcome in the following years. However, there were some very amazing times too. So don't be depressed with all of this. I have a very positive outlook on things. I never let POTS or anything get in my way of being happy :) I always have to live up to my nickname... "Smiles"!
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