To begin my return to the blogging world, I would like to share a story with you. In retrospect, the story is a bit funny in some ways, though going through it, it certainly was not.
It all started on New Years Day 2006. My family has this tradition on New Years Day : eating black-eyed peas for good luck for the new year. I do NOT like black-eyed peas, so I had never participated in this tradition before. As everyone sat around the table eating and enjoying each other's company and good conversation, my cousin and grandmother both asked me why I didn't have any black-eyed peas on my plate. I told them it was because I do not like them at all. Then they proceeded to try to convince me that I needed to eat just ONE black-eyed pea so that I would have good luck for the new year. Finally, I appeased them by eating just ONE pea.
The new year didn't seem to start out very great because I was having this weird back pain, but it only really hurt when I moved certain ways. It just felt like I had some sore muscles. I thought this wouldn't last long.
A few weeks into January, my dad came upstairs early one morning before work to check on my little brother. I remember hearing him and walking out of my room and telling him I was having some odd pain on my side. He said that I might have just slept on it wrong or that my brother may have kicked me when we were sleeping. (My brother was only 6 at the time and loved climbing into Sissy's bed in the middle of the night.) So I went back to sleep.
A few hours later, I awoke with a blinding pain in my lower back and side unlike any I had ever felt in my entire life. I went downstairs to tell my mom. I knew something was not right. It wasn't long before I became really sick because of the pain. My mom said that she thought I might have a kidney stone. "Oh, no!" I thought. I had grown up hearing about kidney stones. Kidney stones were not new to my family. I remember hearing about them as a child and thinking, "I hope this never happens to me!"
So, with bucket in hand, my mom drove me the 20-25 minutes to the ER. Oh the pain! My mom pulled up to the door. A man working there brought me a wheel chair and took me inside to begin registration while my mom parked the car.
Apparently, it wasn't such a good idea for them to get information from a person in as much pain as I was in because, though I didn't know it at the time, I didn't give them my fully correct social security number. They hurried me through the process, and I didn't have to wait too long for pain medication, thankfully! They ran a CT scan (breath in. hold your breath. breath out. so much fun...).
When the doctor finally came to my room (and I will never forget what he said), he said, "Miss Wheeless, you don't have a kidney stone." Pause. Well, what do I have, I was wondering. Then he continued, " You have THREE kidney stones." Oh my! Thanks, Doc...
I dealt with those kidney stones (and another one they found a few months later!) for my entire fourth semester of college. I missed a lot of school, but I was so blessed to have teachers that really worked with me.
The summer went on pretty uneventfully, and I thought that maybe I had gotten the worst of the year out of the way. I was excited about starting my Junior year! It was finally time for more than just survey classes and core classes.
It was pretty early in the semester, and I got this weird bump on my left eyelid. I thought it was a pimple at first. But a few days later, it started feeling like my skin was actually boiling right there. And it looked like it! It was painful. And it started to swell.
So I went to my family doctor. I actually see the Nurse Practitioner there. She's really good. She wasn't sure what to make of it. She called the Doctor in to look at it. He wasn't sure. She asked the doctor if it could be something like the Shingles. He said no. So they sent me to an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist.
I saw him on a Friday. He said it looked like some sort of skin infection. He gave me an antibiotic and said if it wasn't better by Monday that we should call and he would have me admitted to the hospital. Yikes!
It didn't get better over the weekend. In fact, it got worse and started to spread! This was especially scary because of how close to my eye it was. We called the ENT, and I went back in. They were planning on admitting me from their office. Another doctor had to see me when I got there because the other guy was busy. Man, am I glad he was! Because, finally, someone figured it out! She walked in, took one look, then said, "Oh, you have the shingles. No need to go to the hospital; you just need the right medication." Thank you!
The correct medicine started working. The shingles stopped spreading. They were still very painful for a few weeks (for those of you who don't know, shingles affect the nerves...so they were literally getting on my nerves! Haha!).
Seriously, what a year!
But it wasn't over yet...
A few days before Thanksgiving, I was at my Grandma Katie's hanging out by myself. I was exercising a bit. After a while, I got the silly urge to reminisce on my old cheerleading days by doing some of our jumps. They always told us how important it was to land with our legs together so our knees would be supported and not twist. So guess what I did? Yep, landed all wrong and twisted my right knee.
Pain. More doctors. I partially tore the ligament in my right knee. So crutches for me. They brought two sets of crutches in for me to try: an adult set and a kid set. My family and friends loved that! Just another thing to add to all the short jokes! Haha!
So I spent much time on crutches and going around in a wheel chair. Nothing like going to the beach for Christmas vacation and having to be pushed everywhere in a wheelchair. Wait, back up...Nothing like Christmas shopping while having to be in a wheel chair. Or being in the back of a store around Christmas when the electronic wheelchair breaks. So much fun was had that year. Despite the pain, there were many funny moments during the whole ordeal!
So, New Years Day 2007 came. Family, food, conversation, black-eyes peas. This year, the black-eyed pea conversation went like this:
"Holly, have some black-eyed peas for luck for the new year."
"Oh, yes, that one black-eyed pea y'all talked me into eating last year brought me sooooo much luck! I loved having my first four kidney stones, getting shingles, and messing up my knee all in one year!....."
"Well, that wouldn't have happened if you had eaten more than one. You just didn't get enough luck."
"If I had eaten more than one, I might be dead."
So I don't eat black-eyed peas anymore, especially on New Years Day.
