I wake up at about 9. I’m not sure how I even willed myself to sleep with the amount of pain I was in from the headache. I call my mom and tell her I need her to come and take me to the hospital. Here’s the catch: My GI doctor is in Wilmington. Wilmington is two hours from Myrtle Beach. My parents are smack in the middle of Wilmington and Myrtle. My mom wanted to take me to Wilmington because my doctor is there but I was hesitant because it was so far. We argued via text, as I waited for her to arrive, about whether or not I could even make it the whole 2 hour drive to the hospital. In the end, we went to Wilmington.

This was the first of four hospital visits.  It was also the shortest. I explained what was going on to what felt like 75 different people. They blasted me with pain medicine and some fluids. I must admit after about an hour of some seriously strong medicine and some fluids the headache seemed to be subsiding. So, they sent me home. The ride home was a blur. I remember wondering why I was still in so much pain. I got home and got right into bed. That night was hell on earth. Hell.  My head felt like it was going to explode. My stomach was terrible. I couldn’t eat a thing. The bathroom in the bonus room in my parents house is connected to my bedroom. It is literally 10 feet from my bed. That night I ran back and forth to the bathroom at least 20 times. I threw up once. I was taking some strong pain medicine as often as I could, but I can assure you it was not helping. I started to get a fever which, at one point, got to as high as 103. I knew something was wrong. I needed to go back to the hospital. So we woke up Sunday morning and off we went. This time, though, we headed to a hospital a bit closer to my parents, only 20 minutes away. I hardly remember the drive or the wait in the ER. I barely opened my eyes because the light was too painful. I sat slouched over in a wheelchair and waited with my parents for someone to call me back. After I explained my story to another 50 ER nurses and doctors they started me on fluids and more pain medicine. Because of the headache and fever they thought it could be meningitis, and they wanted to be sure it wasn’t. A doctor told me he wanted to perform a lumbar puncture to test. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it seems much more scary than it actually was. A needle is stuck between two lumbar bones in your spine to retrieve cerebrospinal fluid. The procedure was quick and done right there in the ER. It was scary, but not as painful as I had anticipated. Luckily, it turned out I didn’t have meningitis. They ended up admitting me to the hospital.

I would spend the next week in the hospital. I’m not going to recount every minute of everyday. I’m going to summarize the visit. All the nurses were great and super nice. If I buzzed my call button for some pain medicine they’d bring it to me relatively quickly. If I buzzed my call button for some toilet paper, or a warm blanket, it would take three hours… go figure. For that week I was only being treated with pain medicine and IV fluids. On Wednesday my hemoglobin count was really low. I had to have my first blood transfusion. I think that helped and it gave me a little bit of life back.

I also have great friends. Thursday night three of my buddies came and kept me company. We stayed up until about 1AM playing cards, shooting the shit and watching March Madness. They brought beer. The nurse got a cooler of ice to keep them cold. Hospital visits have really changed in recent years. Anyway, the point is I felt better. Not 100%. Not even close. But it was nice to get my mind off the day to day and just sit, laugh, and hang out with close friends.

There’s one important detail I must add. This is where I was introduced to, who I now call, “Osty” (name credit goes to mom.) Osty is a sea turtle. A big, super soft sea turtle.

An extremely close friend, someone I’ve known since the third grade and lives up North where I am from, called down to the gift shop and asked what stuffed animals were there to buy. She is extremely thoughtful and I am absolutely, 100% positive she had (and still has) no idea how significant a role Osty would play in this whole ordeal. Since the day he arrived he never left my side. 98% of the nurses commented on him. A 27 year old dude and a stuffed animal, so what?

Saturday I left the hospital. I was feeling better than I did when I arrived but no where near okay. I’d say 50%. I had an appointment scheduled on Monday with my GI doctor in Wilmington. Bottom line was I needed to treat my colitis. There was nothing more the hospital I was at could do for me. So, Osty and I packed our bags and headed back to my parents. Saturday night at home was, once again, another night in hell. It was so bad in fact that I didn’t know if we’d make it to my Monday appointment in Wilmington. But we did and it wasn’t easy. More of the same. Bad headache. Trips to the bathroom. You know.

I met with my doctor on Monday morning. I knew, without question, that he would admit me to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington. So for the third time, we headed back to the hospital. This time though, serious. life changing decisions were to be made.