One Year Down
A year ago (as of February 3rd), I came down with something that started my health journey that I never thought would happen to me. I came down with a rash/swelling that was very painful that prevented me from walking, showering myself, and I was pretty much bed ridden for about a month and a half. This health stuff prevented me from finishing my Sophomore year of college and I had to wait until the Fall to join college again. After I was diagnosed with HSP (auto-immune disease), I allowed myself to start healing and taking off work and school for a little while. I was warned by Drs. to be careful because this disease could eventually attack my kidneys. So I was constantly watching out for my health. After that break, during the Summer I was able to start up work again. While I was working during the Summer, I started getting a ton of pain in my back to the point where it was getting hard to work. I continually pushed through and because I have a high pain tolerance... I just continued to work and ignored the pain that I was feeling. Eventually after about a month of ignoring these pains in my back, other really bad symptoms started showing... I finally brought it to my parents attention and my parents took me to the Dr. Little did we know that this was going to start another very long journey.
After many tests, the Drs. thought that I was having kidney issues... So I started seeing about 4 different specialists and trying to find out what was going on with my body. After a kidney biopsy and tons of blood work, we found out that I had IGA Nephropathy. I was diagnosed with this in about July of 2018. After this the Drs. decided that I would need to start Prednisone to control the inflammation that was going on in my body. It was a huge dose that they started me on the first week of September in 2018. I was only supposed to be on this high of a dose until I started Chemo which was supposed to be in the middle of September.
During the time that I started on Prednisone, I was in SO much pain from all of the symptoms that I was getting from these steroids... It was also pretty discouraging, because during the Summer of 2018 I lost 25+ pounds... and to just gain all of that plus more from the steroids was VERY discouraging. But my Dr. kept reminding me that it was more important to get my organs working and then work on weight later.
After one of my Drs. losing my paper work and miscommunicating a ton for a couple months, I finally started Chemo the week after Thanksgiving. Chemo was very interesting. The first time I received it, I had a really bad allergic reaction (my throat was closing). And then the next few times I got Chemo I just came out extremely exhausted and weak. I finally finished my last round of Chemo for awhile on December 27th.
Since then, my Kidney function has been showing through blood work that it is a lot better (at least for now). I am on a lower dose of Prednisone right now (was taking 100mg daily... Now I am down to 20mg a day).
This has been a long journey and I know it will continue to be... But I just wanted to share with you all some of what I have gone through this past year since it all started a year ago.
This has definitely been a crazy and long journey. Some days I wonder why God would allow this all in my life. But let me just tell you, I would not have wanted it any other way. God has really taught me a ton through all of this. Yes, there are days that it is extremely frustrating and depressing. But let me tell you, it has taught me so many things. A few things that it has taught me is:
After many tests, the Drs. thought that I was having kidney issues... So I started seeing about 4 different specialists and trying to find out what was going on with my body. After a kidney biopsy and tons of blood work, we found out that I had IGA Nephropathy. I was diagnosed with this in about July of 2018. After this the Drs. decided that I would need to start Prednisone to control the inflammation that was going on in my body. It was a huge dose that they started me on the first week of September in 2018. I was only supposed to be on this high of a dose until I started Chemo which was supposed to be in the middle of September.
During the time that I started on Prednisone, I was in SO much pain from all of the symptoms that I was getting from these steroids... It was also pretty discouraging, because during the Summer of 2018 I lost 25+ pounds... and to just gain all of that plus more from the steroids was VERY discouraging. But my Dr. kept reminding me that it was more important to get my organs working and then work on weight later.
After one of my Drs. losing my paper work and miscommunicating a ton for a couple months, I finally started Chemo the week after Thanksgiving. Chemo was very interesting. The first time I received it, I had a really bad allergic reaction (my throat was closing). And then the next few times I got Chemo I just came out extremely exhausted and weak. I finally finished my last round of Chemo for awhile on December 27th.
Since then, my Kidney function has been showing through blood work that it is a lot better (at least for now). I am on a lower dose of Prednisone right now (was taking 100mg daily... Now I am down to 20mg a day).
This has been a long journey and I know it will continue to be... But I just wanted to share with you all some of what I have gone through this past year since it all started a year ago.
This has definitely been a crazy and long journey. Some days I wonder why God would allow this all in my life. But let me just tell you, I would not have wanted it any other way. God has really taught me a ton through all of this. Yes, there are days that it is extremely frustrating and depressing. But let me tell you, it has taught me so many things. A few things that it has taught me is:
- It has taught me that when I am weak, God is strong.
- It has taught me to trust Him with my life and to surrender everything to Him (I am not perfect at this... I know that I constantly fail at this. But I am trying daily to give it to Him).
- It has taught me who is really here for me. Who I can trust to talk to when I am feeling down.
- It has taught me to allow people to help me when I need it. It has been VERY humbling... From having my mom to help bathe me when I couldn't bathe myself. From having people have to drive me to Dr appointments, or asking friends for prayer or to run to the store for me. Etc.
- It has taught me to be okay with what I look like on the outside... This has been very humbling for me as I really have been sensitive about my outer image. But God has been teaching me that the most important thing is my inner self and I should not be so focused on my outer being.
- It has taught me how important my relationship with God needs to be and how much prayer should be important in my life.
There are so many other things that God has taught me through this health experience. It has definitely drawn me so much closer to God and like I said, I would not ask God to take this out of my life. If this is what it takes to be closer to God, I will take these health issues.
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