So I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog - so here we are. I don't know if there will be an exact "theme" yet...it'll probably just be things I've had on my mind or crazy pop culture things going on.
2019 has been a wild ride for me so far, so I'm excited to do some fun things for the remainder of the year. In case you missed it, I got very, VERY sick back in May-June. Let's unpack what happened.
I turned 27th on April 21st and almost immediately started having issues. Basically, I looked like I was smuggling a softball in the side of my neck. That was issue #1. I went and saw a ENT doc and he wanted to do a couple scans. This led to a biopsy. Which was a super scary time for me. (WebMD is not your friend peeps.) I was pretty convinced that I had some variation of lymphoma and it felt like everyone around me was trying really hard not to drop the C word - Cancer. I had the biopsy and was awaiting results when issue #2 popped up - fatigue.
Ya'll I am go, go, go 25/8. Your girl doesn't nap and needs very little sleep. That stopped in May. This wasn't just tired. This was can't get out of bed, can't go to work, can barely function as a person tired. We got the biopsy results...no Cancer, but it was clear there was something wrong with me. About 3 days after I got my results, I was in the ER. I could barely move and I had a fever of nearly 105. They did more scans, a couple ultrasounds, and a whole mess of bloodwork. At about 5am I finally had an answer that shocked all of us. At 27 years old, I was diagnosed with Mono.
Mono. Freakin' Mono. Kiss someone in high school and get sick Mono.
However, my doctors noted that the strain of Mono I had was atypical and was bascially destroying my body. My liver was in bad shape. My liver, gall bladder, and spleen were all scarily enlarged. The doctors released me and told me I needed to take it easy and sleep a lot. However, I was back in the ER in less than a week.
Issue #3 I turned yellow.
Ya'll I was yellow. Big bird yellow. Simpsons character yellow. My skin and eyes were yellow. My mom, bless her, took me back to the ER and I think I freaked a few people out. Turns out my liver was in WAYYY worse shape than we thought. In less than medically accurate terms - my liver enzymes needed to be around 100, mine we're in the 900s. They admitted me to the hospital for observation. I spent about 4 days in the hopspital where they checked my blood and pumped me full of fluids until I wasn't yellow anymore.
If you noticed I wasn't on the radio much in May or June you weren't imagining it. I'm finally getting back to normal. All my docs have cleared me to be a regular person. I'm just now starting to go back to the gym. I can enjoy a few glasses of wine without worrying I'll die. I'm not going to lie, I was scared. More scared for my life than I've ever been. It did make me realize a few things about myself that I want to work on, but that's a blog for another time.
Whew! That was a lot. If you're still reading - thank you! Not all of my blogs will be this serious, but I felt like I needed to publicly address what I went through this summer. I promise I'll get some fun things on here!
<3 Shelby
