Billie's Story

Hello all, my name is Billie and I'm 24 years old. My story begins when I was 15.

I was in school one day and I was switching classes and this lady that helps one of my classmates because he is in a wheelchair went and told my teacher I had had an accident. Well, my teacher came to see me and I told her I had the runs. We tried to call my mom but got no answer so she sent a friend of mine to get my emergency numbers from the office. My friend came back and we called my dad's cell phone but got no answer there either so my teacher left a message. I was thinking "oh great, my dad is going to freak when he gets this message" because my teacher said 'Mr Morgan, Billie's had accident and we need someone to come get her' then she finally said she's fine, she's got her jacket wrapped around her because we could not find any thing to fit her. Then my teacher then hung up.

It was now time to go to lunch so I go to my next class and stay there during lunchtime and called both my mom and dad I bet about 300 times! Finally I got hold of my mom so she came up to get me and I went home.

Two days later I retuned back to school and boy did I get teased! Well again I had accident but only had to call once this time lol. I get back home and mom calls Dr Richmond. I go to the doctor and she puts me on some new medicine. She does this ten times then refers me to Doctor Gerber. Well he sends me for x-rays and a catscan - nothing shows up so he set up appointment for me to have the scope done. I go have the scope done and find out I have Ulcerative Colitis. He put me on 60 different medicines.

Well, in 1999 I got very very sick and went to the ER. They give me fluids then sent me home. They did this four times then on Christmas Eve I was so sick I could not even stand (had not eaten or drunk anything in 4 months) so my mom rushed me to the ER. At the ER they could not start an IV or get blood pressure so they ran a bunch of tests. Everything came back ok. After being in the ER eight hours they come tell me they're going to keep me and that I was very lucky - if I had waited ten more minutes I would had been dead. They finally get the IV in and send me up stairs where they gave me some medicine to put me to sleep for the night.

Well, after being there three days they put a feeding tube in and poor Nurse Eva! That night I told her I wanted that damn tube out and I want it out now! She was like "let me give you your medicine then in the morning you can have the doctor take it out" so I agreed. Next morning my mom went home to take a shower when the doctor came in to say "we're going do a scope on you down the throat and up the butt". They call to tell my mom that they're going do it then I called mom see if she would come to the hospital to be with me when I had the scope done. She's like "they're not doing it till tomorrow". I said "Mom, doctor said they're going down the throat today then the butt in the morning". We argued for 30 minutes. When she came to my room they were taking me to have the scope. I looked at her and said "told you so".

was ok in the throat so next morning they came to get me take me back again. They did the scope up the butt (I was awake for it) and they found that my ulcers had turned into colon cancer. After 7 days they said "we're sending you home and we're leaving the feeding tube in". I was like "cool". I was just so glad to be going home. They got everything set up except for the stuff to put in feeding tube. At this time I said the feeding tube had to come out. They told me I was crazy! Well, ten minutes later I sneezed so hard the tube went flying across the room and again said "told you so".

They left the feeding tube out so I could take a shower and eat breakfast then my doctor came in and said "what's the tube doing out?" I told him and he said "if I leave the tube out will you drink the stuff?" I said "yep" so I get home and three days later they bring the stuff I had to drink. That stuff was soooooooooooo gross - I had to make it into chocolate milk to drink it. I still didn't drink all that I was supposed to!

Well, I go in for my check up and everything was ok - everything was still low though . I went to see the surgeon then in February to set up the appointmentfor me to have sugery. On 12 of February 2000 I went and had my ileostomy done. I was in the hospital for seven days. The day I got to go home we were waiting for them to discharge me when I got up go to ladies room and my stomach split wide open so we call my surgeon down. He says "you still can go home" so I go home with my stomach open (you could see my insides) which took 6 months to get everything healed.

Everything went great till two weeks before Christmas 2002. On December 2nd, 2002 I went to a snow ball dance with my boyfriend. Well, everytime we danced I got sharp pains in my sides. We stay till 9pm which was when the dance was over and we came home and went to bed because we had to have my boyfriend at the bus station by 7 am the next morning. Doug (my boyfriend) came in that morning and got me up. I said bye and gave him hug. Mom made me stay home because she was going Christmas shopping afterwards so I go back to bed and sleep till 10:30am. When I woke up I had to get mom to come in because I could not get out of the bed. My back and side was soooooo sore it not funny! I got up and by Friday I started vomiting. My sister had an appointment that day so mom got the doctor to give me some stuff to help. Mom come home and the stuff didn't help.

Billie and Doug

Monday came along and I was so sick I went to the ER where they did x-rays and blood work. The x-rays came back ok but the blood work came back that my liver was very swollen. After being in the ER from 1.30pm till am they finally came in and said they was going to keep me overnight so I said fine. Well next morning they took more blood work and it came back fine so they took me for an ultrasound, it came back normal so they said we know we said we would only keep you in last night but you have got to stay one more night. I was like "ok". The next morning they took me for cat scan - that also came back normal so again they keep me another night. Thursday morning they took me to have papie test (4 hour long test that was suppose to be just 2) then they take me back to my room and 1 hour later they came in and said the test came back positive, you have gallstones.

Forty five minutes later they take me over to the theater and get me ready for surgery. Two hours later I woke up back in my room and in lot of pain so they give me 2 pain pills and 30 minutes later I was still in pain so they gave me shot of Demerol. Ten minutes later both pain meds kicked in and I was really out of it. I could not even feed myself my dad had to feed me. After I ate I went to sleep till 8.30am the next morning. I would have slept longer but my doctor came in to check on me. At 4 pm that afternoon my surgeon come in to say I could go home. I was like, " horrrrrrrrrrrrray". I went home and took it easy.

It been two weeks since my surgery and I'm feeling better than I ever have. I've included a picture of me and my boyfriend, Doug. Thanks for listening to my story and this picture was taken before we went to the dance.

love Billie

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