March 10, 2003 I arrived at the Hospital at 7:00 AM dressed in comfortable blue scrubs and prepared to turn my life over to the balding doctor. Lead into a backroom by a nurse who had beautiful black hair and nearing the age 50, I began to quiver over the thought of lying on an operation table, unconscious, with five doctors who I don't know, determining my fate. She had me lie down on the bed, and told me "hold out your arm, this won't hurt too badly." Sure, I thought to myself. But by now I was use to needles, they didn't hurt anymore.
On the morning of September 29, 2000 the alarms annoying redundant sound blasted into my ear -drums at exactly 6:30 a.m. I slothfully struggle out of bed to turn the irritating thing off. I began my morning routine by sluggishly staggering to the bathroom to relieve my waters and suddenly I felt this intense, sharp pain in my upper stomach. Barely being able to walk, I quickly went to the bathroom and called my mom at work. She told me that I probably had a stomach- ache and to get something nutritional to eat. .
After seven hours of rolling around on the couch in excruciating pain my mom finally got home from work. By glancing at me she could tell that this was more than just a stomach - ache. She rushed me to the emergency room where they carried out many blood tests to figure out what was wrong. Four hours later a doctor came in and told me the problem was "Inflammation of the pancreas, or the medical term, Pancreatitis." I didn't even know that I had a pancreas. He then proceeded to tell me that enzymes inside the pancreas help to digest food. In a normal pancreas the enzyme count should be between 250 to 300 and in my case it was over 30,000. Without getting all the details I was rushed to Primary Children's Hospital where I was rapidly hooked up to an I.V. so I could get fluids and even more importantly, morphine. Nothing had ever felt so good, and I instantly feel asleep.
