Living Proof

Every fall it feels like a new start. Maybe it has to do with imprints of my past childhood when I started school every September, but this year it feels a bit different. This past summer was absolutely torturous, being in and out of the hospital with stomach bleeding and excruciating back pain. Finally, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My pain is very minimal, manageable and sometimes, not even present. My stomach feels as though it has healed nicely since I quit NSAIDs and had a therapy of stomach medications and antibiotics. I feel back to "me" again and I thank GOD for it. I even went out dancing the other night in three inch heels. (I know I know, that's pushing it, but damn it felt good!) I even ventured out to my friend's' BBQ, where all of our buddies from high school gathered around and had a blast. One friend commented, "Damn Deb! We haven't seen you since before the summer, glad you're finally here and not in your assign...

It never ever ends...so it seems. At this point, it's no longer an embarrassment so much as it is a joke now -- a very painful joke. Let me just start out by explaining my evening last Saturday night. My entire family got together for a BBQ. Everyone was having fun, I was limping around, but enjoying myself for once. I thought to myself, even with all the pain I'm in, life is still worth living if I can still spend time with my family, laugh, talk, share some wine with the people I love the most. Well, it was like God giving me a test. Later that night, I was getting ready to go to bed. As I was getting changed, I noticed something odd on my chest -- like an opened wound. I honestly did not feel anything. As I walked up closer to the mirror, I realized that the wound wasn't only huge, but it was severely infected with a red line traveling upward. I'm used to seeing a red line when my mother gets cellulitis. It's nothing to mess around with. So, off to the ER I go....