It was the first semester of my freshman year at Campbellsville University. I was full of hope, ambition and excitement for everything that was to come. I felt as though I was on top of the world. That is, until I had to take the second semester online.
At the time, the beginning of my freshman year truly felt like everything was going right. In many ways, it was. I began dating a girl named Kaylee, who is now my fiancée, and got randomly paired with a roommate named Isaac, who is now one of my best friends. On top of that, I was cast as a lead role in my first CU production and was beginning my career as Clawz the tiger. There really didn’t seem to be much standing in my way. At least nothing I was aware of at the time.
As the semester progressed, despite being consumed by everything I was involved in, nothing seemed wrong on the surface. That was until I began noticing signs of my health slowly declining. I was so sick during Thanksgiving break that I wasn’t able to travel to see extended family. The first visible sign of sickness I had was two distinct red spots on the back of my throat. This didn’t seem too out of the ordinary at first, but a later diagnosis had me questioning if I was really okay.
In the process of trying to find treatment, I received opinions from two different healthcare facilities that provided me with different prescriptions and each their own vastly different diagnoses. The craziest of which was being diagnosed as having scarlet fever, an illness that I had no idea still existed, let alone existed at all. Despite the uncertainty of my diagnosis, I pushed through to finals week. It was then that my symptoms really began to progress rapidly.
I had developed severe stomach pains alongside the worst case of hiccups I’ve ever had. My entire body would jolt from the intensity of these hiccups, and for some reason, they just wouldn’t stop. As bad as it was for me to endure this, I felt worse for my roommate, Isaac, who had to fall asleep to the sounds of me profusely hiccupping. That didn’t stop him from sticking by my side as things began to become unbearable.
After days of seeing me in this awful condition, Isaac brought me to his house so that I could be taken care of. Considering my family doesn’t live in Campbellsville, this was the closest I was going to get to any sort of at-home treatment. At this point, the main goal was to keep me hydrated and allow me to get some much-needed rest. Despite these efforts, I continued to experience unbearable stomach pains. No part of me was able to relax. After realizing they had done all they could do, Isaac and his mom drove me to the hospital to receive emergency care.
Once we arrived at the hospital on Dec. 5, 2022, I began to feel hope even in the midst of my pain. That feeling quickly faded after being consulted by the primary doctor. The first question I was asked after being examined was if I smoked marijuana. I was absolutely bewildered that this was the conclusion we were coming to. This marked the third healthcare facility that couldn’t pinpoint an accurate diagnosis. Nevertheless, they pumped me full of fluids to ensure I was hydrated and sent me on my way.
Luckily, that night I experienced the most relief I had felt in days. I was actually able to get a decent night’s rest. Unfortunately, it only took me a couple of days to begin feeling the exact same way again. To make matters worse, the end of the semester was near and finals’ week was approaching. Going between taking care of my physical health, while also worrying about my academic success was the most overwhelming thing imaginable. After so long, I was in so much pain that my academic success was the least of my concerns.
I can vividly remember the night I couldn’t handle the pain anymore. I was rolling around tirelessly all night just to get even an ounce of relief. I was so desperate, I even drew a bath in our shared dorm bathroom, thinking it might get my mind off things. Seeing that nothing was working, I decided to call my parents so that I could be picked up. Time after time, I called both of my parents, but no response. It was so late at night, I shouldn’t have expected them to answer. Regardless, I continued to call until I eventually got a response back early in the morning that one of my parents would be on their way.
As my mom was on her way, I woke Isaac up to let him know I was being picked up. I remember it being a cold, dark and rainy day. When she arrived, I got in the truck and laid down helplessly on the middle console. Somehow, she was able to keep it together while seeing me in this awful condition. In more ways than one, I was a completely different person than who she helped drop off in August for college. Even during one of the hardest moments in my life, she assured me I was going to be okay. In my awful condition, I left Kaylee and Isaac that morning with the hope it wouldn’t be too long before I’d see them again.
While at home, we immediately began scheduling doctors’ appointments, the first of which was with my primary care physician. After the examination, I was given a shot to help treat nausea and sent to get bloodwork done while also receiving a scan. From there, it was just a matter of time before we would get the results we needed to take further action. For me, those results couldn’t come soon enough.
I spent my first night back at home in the same gut-wrenching pain. I vividly remember being so thirsty, but I was limited on the amount of water I could drink because my stomach was so bloated. Even while experiencing this awful pain, my family did everything they could to comfort me. My triplet sister Grace even spent the first part of the night with me, just in case I needed anything.
After another sleepless night with no helpful answers, my mom assured me that I wasn’t going to spend another night experiencing this terrible pain. So, we took matters into our own hands. With help from my primary care physician, we were admitted directly to a hospital in Lexington. Even with this privilege, we still had to wait a considerable amount of time to be seen. I remember sitting in the lobby with an IV stuck in my arm that wasn’t hooked to anything. I was in so much discomfort that I kept shifting around in my chair. Relief felt so far away, even though I was at the right place.
After what felt like hours of waiting, I finally got taken back, and my mom and I were placed in a temporary room. There, I tried finding comfort by lying on the medical examination bed until we were seen. When the doctor came in and I was examined, the decision was made that my stomach was full of fluid that needed to be drained. This required the use of a nasogastric tube that would be inserted through my nose and down into my stomach. If there was one experience I have trauma from, it would have to be this procedure. Mostly because I had to be fully awake for it to be successful. As you could imagine, it was extremely painful, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. Within just 10 minutes, they had drained more than a gallon of fluid from my body. Although I wasn’t immediately better, this procedure helped tremendously in easing the pain I was feeling. Having had all of that fluid built up, there was an immense amount of pressure on my pancreas. So even after my stomach was drained, I still needed to be kept and assessed to determine what was keeping this fluid from escaping. This required even more blood work and even more scans.
Thankfully, after this procedure, I was transferred to an actual hospital room. Before too long, I was visited by the rest of my family. Not exactly how I wanted to reunite with them after spending most of the semester apart. Nevertheless, they were there for me in that moment more than I was for any of them all semester. I only wish I had come to that realization sooner.
Most of my time at the hospital was spent on planning what I was going to do when I got out. I wanted to return to what had become my new normal. Living the life I had already established so well in Campbellsville. I couldn’t wait to be reunited with my girlfriend again and for everything to go back to the way it was. The truth of the matter is, everything didn’t need to go back to the way it was. While there was nothing wrong with the relationships I had built, there was everything wrong with how self-centered I had become. In doing so, I pushed aside the relationships I had with my family.
I spent a little over a week in the hospital. During that time, I became increasingly anxious. The unknown truly took a huge toll on my emotional and spiritual health. I remember breaking down one day because of how stuck I felt. For a large part of my stay at the hospital, I was hooked up to many different things. During the worst of it, I had an IV, PICC line, NG tube, a pulse oximeter and a heart monitor attached to me at all times. I felt humbled by how much I had to depend on other people when all semester I had relied on myself to get things done.
Even after having completed an endoscopy, there was no clear answer as to what was going on. At this point, my stomach had experienced so much turmoil that I was receiving all of my nutrition from an IV bag. There is no doubt my weight reflected this fact as I had lost close to 20 pounds. In order for my stomach to adjust to processing food again, I had to slowly work my way back up to a solid food diet. Another thing I never thought I’d have to do.
After so long, I truly became numb to all of the routine things that had to be done. For instance, every morning around five or six, I would be woken up to have my blood drawn. I also had my finger pricked so many times throughout the day that my fingertips began to bruise. Before and after my medication was delivered through my IV, the nurses would use a small amount of saline to clear the line. I remember this particular process always made me nauseous.
On Dec. 20, I was finally released from the hospital. Two gastrointestinal doctors concluded that what I had experienced was a form of gastroparesis. Thankfully, I was not diagnosed as having this syndrome chronically. I remember one of the doctors telling me it was like being struck by lightning. I was and am still grateful to the Lord for delivering me from the terrible disease. I’ll never forget the feeling of getting to leave the hospital that day. I was with my triplet brother, Layne, when they told me I was going to be able to go home. The very last thing that was tying me down to that dreadful place was the NG tube. As soon as that was taken out, I finally felt free.
I wish I could say that getting to go home was the happy ending to this traumatic story. As great as it was to spend that time with my family, I still wasn’t in the right mindset. I was still very selfish and only worried about when I would be able to get back to my life in Campbellsville. I faced a harsh reality when my parents sat me down near the end of my winter break.
Though I was later told it was one of the most difficult decisions they would have to make, my parents told me I would not be returning in-person for the spring semester. This absolutely devastated me. I could not imagine missing out on even more of my college experience than I already had. Although I would’ve never said it in that moment, I am extremely proud of my parents for making that decision for me. At that time, I was very irrational in my thinking and still not as focused on my health as I should’ve been.
Taking the spring semester of my freshman year online taught me a lot of things. For starters, it taught me how to manage my priorities. In doing so, I was able to repair broken family relationships and grow in my faith and dependence on God through any circumstance. This is a part of my testimony that has helped shape me into the man I am today. As much as I would like to forget some of the details of this traumatic story, I know that enduring those circumstances was all a part of God’s plan for my life. Understanding this gives me the hope that stories like mine can touch the lives of those around me, no matter what they might be going through.
