Welcome to My Blog
My Daily Life Consists of:
Negatives:
- Dealing with health conditions: Celiac Disease, Rhemotoid Arthritis, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.
- Being broke.
Postives:
- Finishing my BFA in Film Producing and Marketing and adventually finishing my theatre degree.
- Working on a career in the entertainment industry.
- Going to Compass College of Cinematic Arts
- Honored for being on the Presidential List at Compass College of Cinematic Arts for having a GPA of 39.6.
- Received a spot on the National Society of Leadership and Success where I received the 'excellence' award.
- In 2013, I became a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda for being the top 10% at my business college.
- Five years ago I was awarded with the Norma Brink Combined Theatre Award and Scholarship.
- For 13 years I have worked at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. While working there I assistant directed over 8 shows, crewed over 20 shows, was a light board operator on 3 shows.
- Crewed 4 shows at Circle Theatre and assistant directed two shows there too.
- Directed two one-acts at Cornerstone University.
- At Grand Rapids Civic Theatre I received two 700+ Volunteer award and two 500+ Volunteer award and two 250 Volunteer award.
HOBBY & INTERESTS:
- I love antiques!!
- I love going to thrift stores.
- Singing
- Piano
- Acting
- Scrapbooking- I won first place at the National Scrapbook Convention.
- Learning
MY LIFE GOALS:
- Work for Disney
- Direct a Musical on Broadway
- Bring more musicals to the movie screen.
- Work on a Television show.
- Start a fashion line for people with pain conditions.
- Develop and produce an amazing fun You Tube channel.
- Work in the casting department at a major talent agency.
- Make this blog entertaining and helpful!
- Make a documentary on Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ME:
- I help my mom run her estate sale business that we started five years ago.
- I was severly bullied in school. I was threaten by a group of girls with a knife to do their homework. After two years of dealing with it I told my mom who pulled me out of school and homeschooled me.
FAQ:
Q: How did you like being homeschooled?
A: I loved it because it gave me the opportunity to be in an All Girls Chior and spend everyday at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. I also got to take college classes in my freshman year of high school where most students don't do it till their senior year.
Q: What age was I when diagnosed with Celiac Disease?
A: Diagnosed at 14, but I should have been diagnosed a lot sooner because it already did a lot of damage to my health.
Q: Why did it take so long to get diagnosed?
A: Because my stupid ass doctor didn't want to deal with figuring out it so he just told my mom I was making up my symptoms so I didn't have to go to school. He just said I had IBS, which is not an actual condition. IBS is a health problem doctors give you when they don't want to figure out exactly what is wrong. He told me to eat all whole wheat. Then finally my doctor got really worried because I was loosing weight and I was already really thin for my age.
Q: How did they diagnose me?
A: A colonscopy and Endo and blood work. The gastro I say called me up two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003 telling me to get on the diet immediatly otherwise he would give me three years to live. I guess it was all that whole wheat I ate for IBS LOL.
Q: What types of complications from Celiac Disease?
A: I had fourteen surgeries so far in my life.
- PectusExcavatum surgery where they put a metal bar in my chest to pop out my chest bone because it sank in.
- Gallbladder, which took 1 year to diagnose it because I wasn't your textbook. I got down to 84 pounds.
- Hiatal Hernia
- Lung (wedge reduction, stapling holes in my lung)
- Back Surgery
- Three Sinus surgeries
- Appendix
In 2007, I got down to 54 pounds (no joke). I even died for couple of minutes.
Q: Did you see Heaven?
A: Yes. I got to see Heaven and my Great Grandma.
My parents saw proof because I had tons of bruises all over because of IVs and when I came back to life all of the bruises were gone.
Q: What was wrong to get you down to 54 pounds?
A: Gastric gland was overactive causing my body to not collect any nutritian or calories. Again doctors just kept thinking it was an eating disorder. I went to Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan and all they could think was eating disorder. Finally I ran into a doctor here where I live and he was 100% sure my Celiac Disease was causing a problem. And it was. He put me on some antacids and predisone medication I started putting on the weight within three weeks.
Q: What happened in 2008 with your health?
A: Wish I could say just dealing with Rhemtoid arthrits and Celiac Disease, but nope my life got worse.
Q: When did you get diagnosed with RSD?
A: In 2008 I had back surgery to help with my spinal curve.
After 3 weeks from having back surgery my pain doctor thought a nerve block might help with the pain from the surgery.
Well it made it worse. I was getting it treated at my pain clinic until the weekend came. At that time I was the light board operator at my local theatre and needed to be there. I went to the ER. I told the doctor to call my pain doctor for the treatment, but instead he gave me attitude. He decided to give me a muscular injection with a muscle relaxer. I heard him tell the nurse in the hallway I was only at the hospital for the drugs which wasn't true at all. The nurse came in. She had me pull down my pants. A second later she stabbed the injection into the middle of my right thigh ( Not exaggerating). She didn't even clean the area. She told me to not come back. 15 minutes later the doctor came in to tell me he called my pain doctor.
The next day it looked like someone beat my thigh with a baseball bat. We went back to the ER. They didn't know what was going on. Everyday it got worse and worse. After 16 ER visits (2 months later) they finally sent me to the wound clinic. The wound doctor said I had MERSA. I ended up having surgery. They had to dig out all the bad tissue. I could see my bone and tendon it was so deep. 3 months I had to wear a wound vac. The wound wasn't getting better really fast, but my pain was getting worse and my legs started feeling like they were on fire. The pain and burning got so bad that even a lite breeze would make me cry. The scary part was not even the strongest pain meds touched it. I almost killed myself I was in so much pain. The crazy thing was my pain doctor was starting his own practice so I had a couple of months with no pain doctor. Finally four months later my pain doctor opened up his clinic. He gave me a Sympathetic Nerve Block and it took away my pain. He diagnosed me with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Because it took so long to diagnosed I was in the third stage to the worse stage. I had to get Sympathetic Nerve Blocks every week for 1 year. Then every other for 1 year and now I am at every 3 weeks.
Q: Out of all the health problems you dealt with, which is the worse?
A: 100% RSD. I would have all the surgeries 5 times if I could get rid of RSD.
Q: Does the RSD prevent you from living your life?
A: Yes and No. Yes because I have to be careful how much I push myself because if I get really exhausted it could cause bad flares. No because I am determine to not let it stop me from reaching my goals and dreams. I just have to do it different then everyone else.
OTHER THINGS
My Daily Life Consists of:
Negatives:
- Dealing with health conditions: Celiac Disease, Rhemotoid Arthritis, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.
- Being broke.
Postives:
- Finishing my BFA in Film Producing and Marketing and adventually finishing my theatre degree.
- Working on a career in the entertainment industry.
- Going to Compass College of Cinematic Arts
- Honored for being on the Presidential List at Compass College of Cinematic Arts for having a GPA of 39.6.
- Received a spot on the National Society of Leadership and Success where I received the 'excellence' award.
- In 2013, I became a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda for being the top 10% at my business college.
- Five years ago I was awarded with the Norma Brink Combined Theatre Award and Scholarship.
- For 13 years I have worked at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. While working there I assistant directed over 8 shows, crewed over 20 shows, was a light board operator on 3 shows.
- Crewed 4 shows at Circle Theatre and assistant directed two shows there too.
- Directed two one-acts at Cornerstone University.
- At Grand Rapids Civic Theatre I received two 700+ Volunteer award and two 500+ Volunteer award and two 250 Volunteer award.
HOBBY & INTERESTS:
- I love antiques!!
- I love going to thrift stores.
- Singing
- Piano
- Acting
- Scrapbooking- I won first place at the National Scrapbook Convention.
- Learning
MY LIFE GOALS:
- Work for Disney
- Direct a Musical on Broadway
- Bring more musicals to the movie screen.
- Work on a Television show.
- Start a fashion line for people with pain conditions.
- Develop and produce an amazing fun You Tube channel.
- Work in the casting department at a major talent agency.
- Make this blog entertaining and helpful!
- Make a documentary on Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy.
OTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ME:
- I help my mom run her estate sale business that we started five years ago.
- I was severly bullied in school. I was threaten by a group of girls with a knife to do their homework. After two years of dealing with it I told my mom who pulled me out of school and homeschooled me.
FAQ:
Q: How did you like being homeschooled?
A: I loved it because it gave me the opportunity to be in an All Girls Chior and spend everyday at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. I also got to take college classes in my freshman year of high school where most students don't do it till their senior year.
Q: What age was I when diagnosed with Celiac Disease?
A: Diagnosed at 14, but I should have been diagnosed a lot sooner because it already did a lot of damage to my health.
Q: Why did it take so long to get diagnosed?
A: Because my stupid ass doctor didn't want to deal with figuring out it so he just told my mom I was making up my symptoms so I didn't have to go to school. He just said I had IBS, which is not an actual condition. IBS is a health problem doctors give you when they don't want to figure out exactly what is wrong. He told me to eat all whole wheat. Then finally my doctor got really worried because I was loosing weight and I was already really thin for my age.
Q: How did they diagnose me?
A: A colonscopy and Endo and blood work. The gastro I say called me up two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003 telling me to get on the diet immediatly otherwise he would give me three years to live. I guess it was all that whole wheat I ate for IBS LOL.
Q: What types of complications from Celiac Disease?
A: I had fourteen surgeries so far in my life.
- PectusExcavatum surgery where they put a metal bar in my chest to pop out my chest bone because it sank in.
- Gallbladder, which took 1 year to diagnose it because I wasn't your textbook. I got down to 84 pounds.
- Hiatal Hernia
- Lung (wedge reduction, stapling holes in my lung)
- Back Surgery
- Three Sinus surgeries
- Appendix
In 2007, I got down to 54 pounds (no joke). I even died for couple of minutes.
Q: Did you see Heaven?
A: Yes. I got to see Heaven and my Great Grandma.
My parents saw proof because I had tons of bruises all over because of IVs and when I came back to life all of the bruises were gone.
Q: What was wrong to get you down to 54 pounds?
A: Gastric gland was overactive causing my body to not collect any nutritian or calories. Again doctors just kept thinking it was an eating disorder. I went to Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan and all they could think was eating disorder. Finally I ran into a doctor here where I live and he was 100% sure my Celiac Disease was causing a problem. And it was. He put me on some antacids and predisone medication I started putting on the weight within three weeks.
Q: What happened in 2008 with your health?
A: Wish I could say just dealing with Rhemtoid arthrits and Celiac Disease, but nope my life got worse.
Q: When did you get diagnosed with RSD?
A: In 2008 I had back surgery to help with my spinal curve.
After 3 weeks from having back surgery my pain doctor thought a nerve block might help with the pain from the surgery.
Well it made it worse. I was getting it treated at my pain clinic until the weekend came. At that time I was the light board operator at my local theatre and needed to be there. I went to the ER. I told the doctor to call my pain doctor for the treatment, but instead he gave me attitude. He decided to give me a muscular injection with a muscle relaxer. I heard him tell the nurse in the hallway I was only at the hospital for the drugs which wasn't true at all. The nurse came in. She had me pull down my pants. A second later she stabbed the injection into the middle of my right thigh ( Not exaggerating). She didn't even clean the area. She told me to not come back. 15 minutes later the doctor came in to tell me he called my pain doctor.
The next day it looked like someone beat my thigh with a baseball bat. We went back to the ER. They didn't know what was going on. Everyday it got worse and worse. After 16 ER visits (2 months later) they finally sent me to the wound clinic. The wound doctor said I had MERSA. I ended up having surgery. They had to dig out all the bad tissue. I could see my bone and tendon it was so deep. 3 months I had to wear a wound vac. The wound wasn't getting better really fast, but my pain was getting worse and my legs started feeling like they were on fire. The pain and burning got so bad that even a lite breeze would make me cry. The scary part was not even the strongest pain meds touched it. I almost killed myself I was in so much pain. The crazy thing was my pain doctor was starting his own practice so I had a couple of months with no pain doctor. Finally four months later my pain doctor opened up his clinic. He gave me a Sympathetic Nerve Block and it took away my pain. He diagnosed me with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Because it took so long to diagnosed I was in the third stage to the worse stage. I had to get Sympathetic Nerve Blocks every week for 1 year. Then every other for 1 year and now I am at every 3 weeks.
Q: Out of all the health problems you dealt with, which is the worse?
A: 100% RSD. I would have all the surgeries 5 times if I could get rid of RSD.
Q: Does the RSD prevent you from living your life?
A: Yes and No. Yes because I have to be careful how much I push myself because if I get really exhausted it could cause bad flares. No because I am determine to not let it stop me from reaching my goals and dreams. I just have to do it different then everyone else.
OTHER THINGS