Camden Balls
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-1A
27 February 2020
UC
I was as slow as a zombie. My mom by my side as I dragged myself to that terrible building I would never want to be in again.
It was March 2018 and I was at boy's state basketball with the band. I was having the best down time as we strode through the mall. The only problem I thought I had was wasting that $20 on terrible food just to throw it away. Boy was I wrong. Boys state was almost over and the band was completely drained from the past couple of days. But we were ready to do the best we could.
A couple days after state I became very sick.
“Mom?” I cried.
“What’s wrong?” She replied walking into my room.
“I don’t feel good.”
“Ok just stay home for today.”
A couple minutes later she walked in with water, Tylenol, a thermometer, and some saltines. The usual routine when I got sick. For the past couple of years, I would get sick out of nowhere. Stomach aches, Pounding headaches, and high fevers. I pretty much always had a stomach ache but they weren't bad enough to keep me from going to school. We assumed that this was like the rest and would go away soon. After a couple of days being bed ridden. We decided to go to urgent care. They told us everything we already knew and wouldn’t even send in labs to find out what was wrong. We assumed I had Ulcerative Colitis because my grandma has it and it was the same symptoms but they didn’t listen. We decided we needed to visit our primary physician. We finally got an appointment. We visited with our doctor and took labs. They didn’t listen to our assumptions either.
Days turned into weeks with no answers. Labs after labs were being taken. I was so weak and I could feel it. My parents were so worried. By this time, I couldn’t even make it out of bed without help. I couldn’t eat anything and had to be force fed. I could barely walk without passing out. I was throwing up and sleeping all the time. Finally, we got a call from the doctor. We needed to go to the ER. We found out that there had been a miscommunication and I should have been in the hospital two weeks prior to see a gastroenterologist. We gathered a few things and off my mom and I went.
I was as slow as a zombie. My mom by my side as I dragged myself to that terrible building I would never want to be in again. I sat down in one of the chairs while my mom checked me in. Some man came and took me in a wheel chair. He took me to the back where he checked all my vitals and my weight. In just one month of being sick I had lost 14 pounds. Not very good for a 12-year old. I was taken to another room where multiple people started putting in IV’s and trying to draw blood. People trying to get information down and distract me. When they got the blood, they put me on fluids that froze my entire body. They had to bring multiple blankets to keep me warm. After that I don’t remember much just that my dad had come but I was in the ER for 5 hours. I was given this iodine drink so that I could have a cat scan done. That night I had the cat scan and then went to bed. The next day I finally ate something for the first time.
“Hey,” Doctor Smith said walking in. My parents met him last night but I hadn't yet.
“Hi,” I replied.
“So, it looks like we found where most of the inflammation is. We need to have a colonoscopy to be sure and see what actions we need to take.”
“Ok, thank you,” I said weakly.
After my colonoscopy, I was put on a steroid and a ton of other medications to get my body back in control. I was in the hospital for 4 more days before I was released. I didn’t go back to school until after spring break. It affected me a lot. It changed my whole personality. I became majorly depressed and was supposed to go to a therapist or counselor. I never did I just didn't want to talk about it with anyone. I wanted it to go away. I wanted to be healthy. I didn’t know how it was going to affect me. I still don’t know.
Now I know better how to handle my disease. I've had to switch medications multiple times the past two years and we still can't quite figure out what medications are going to work. I still don’t know how it is going to affect me because I have the choice of surgery if the medication, I am on now doesn’t work. I've learned it's never going to be easy. I'm never going to be 100% again but I've learned to cope with it.
Personal Narrative Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete , grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
I started by brainstorming. What story should I tell? When I decided on what story I was going to write. I had to ask myself. When? What? Why? How? I wrote a short outline to clearly state my thought and then I wrote it into an essay. I revised parts of the story on my own until the story flowed for me. Then I turned it in.
2. What qualifies this paper as a narrative? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
This qualifies as a narrative because I included characters, settings, moral, and chronology. My characters were myself, my mom, and Doctor Smith. My setting was state football, my house, and the hospital. The moral was that I learned how to live with my disease. My chronology was telling the story in order and not jumping from places to place.
3. What is one part of your story that you think turned out really well? What do you like about that part?
I think that the summary/moral of the story turned out really well. I like it because it shows a part of me that I don't usually talk about and don't necessarily like to talk about.
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-1A
27 February 2020
UC
I was as slow as a zombie. My mom by my side as I dragged myself to that terrible building I would never want to be in again.
It was March 2018 and I was at boy's state basketball with the band. I was having the best down time as we strode through the mall. The only problem I thought I had was wasting that $20 on terrible food just to throw it away. Boy was I wrong. Boys state was almost over and the band was completely drained from the past couple of days. But we were ready to do the best we could.
A couple days after state I became very sick.
“Mom?” I cried.
“What’s wrong?” She replied walking into my room.
“I don’t feel good.”
“Ok just stay home for today.”
A couple minutes later she walked in with water, Tylenol, a thermometer, and some saltines. The usual routine when I got sick. For the past couple of years, I would get sick out of nowhere. Stomach aches, Pounding headaches, and high fevers. I pretty much always had a stomach ache but they weren't bad enough to keep me from going to school. We assumed that this was like the rest and would go away soon. After a couple of days being bed ridden. We decided to go to urgent care. They told us everything we already knew and wouldn’t even send in labs to find out what was wrong. We assumed I had Ulcerative Colitis because my grandma has it and it was the same symptoms but they didn’t listen. We decided we needed to visit our primary physician. We finally got an appointment. We visited with our doctor and took labs. They didn’t listen to our assumptions either.
Days turned into weeks with no answers. Labs after labs were being taken. I was so weak and I could feel it. My parents were so worried. By this time, I couldn’t even make it out of bed without help. I couldn’t eat anything and had to be force fed. I could barely walk without passing out. I was throwing up and sleeping all the time. Finally, we got a call from the doctor. We needed to go to the ER. We found out that there had been a miscommunication and I should have been in the hospital two weeks prior to see a gastroenterologist. We gathered a few things and off my mom and I went.
I was as slow as a zombie. My mom by my side as I dragged myself to that terrible building I would never want to be in again. I sat down in one of the chairs while my mom checked me in. Some man came and took me in a wheel chair. He took me to the back where he checked all my vitals and my weight. In just one month of being sick I had lost 14 pounds. Not very good for a 12-year old. I was taken to another room where multiple people started putting in IV’s and trying to draw blood. People trying to get information down and distract me. When they got the blood, they put me on fluids that froze my entire body. They had to bring multiple blankets to keep me warm. After that I don’t remember much just that my dad had come but I was in the ER for 5 hours. I was given this iodine drink so that I could have a cat scan done. That night I had the cat scan and then went to bed. The next day I finally ate something for the first time.
“Hey,” Doctor Smith said walking in. My parents met him last night but I hadn't yet.
“Hi,” I replied.
“So, it looks like we found where most of the inflammation is. We need to have a colonoscopy to be sure and see what actions we need to take.”
“Ok, thank you,” I said weakly.
After my colonoscopy, I was put on a steroid and a ton of other medications to get my body back in control. I was in the hospital for 4 more days before I was released. I didn’t go back to school until after spring break. It affected me a lot. It changed my whole personality. I became majorly depressed and was supposed to go to a therapist or counselor. I never did I just didn't want to talk about it with anyone. I wanted it to go away. I wanted to be healthy. I didn’t know how it was going to affect me. I still don’t know.
Now I know better how to handle my disease. I've had to switch medications multiple times the past two years and we still can't quite figure out what medications are going to work. I still don’t know how it is going to affect me because I have the choice of surgery if the medication, I am on now doesn’t work. I've learned it's never going to be easy. I'm never going to be 100% again but I've learned to cope with it.
Personal Narrative Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete , grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
I started by brainstorming. What story should I tell? When I decided on what story I was going to write. I had to ask myself. When? What? Why? How? I wrote a short outline to clearly state my thought and then I wrote it into an essay. I revised parts of the story on my own until the story flowed for me. Then I turned it in.
2. What qualifies this paper as a narrative? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
This qualifies as a narrative because I included characters, settings, moral, and chronology. My characters were myself, my mom, and Doctor Smith. My setting was state football, my house, and the hospital. The moral was that I learned how to live with my disease. My chronology was telling the story in order and not jumping from places to place.
3. What is one part of your story that you think turned out really well? What do you like about that part?
I think that the summary/moral of the story turned out really well. I like it because it shows a part of me that I don't usually talk about and don't necessarily like to talk about.