My Story

First, I would like to say that I am grateful for the overwhelming love and support that went out toward me when friends and family found out that I had been rushed to emergency on February 23rd 2015. 

  The Story Eight days before my doctor's appointment, I was living the life I loved. I was starring in a musical, managing a yarn shop, getting ready for the Yarn Crawl, and working on songs mixes for the release of my first album. The Sunday before I made my medical appointment I had one of those episodes. It was the day woke up feeling sad and I cried from the time I got dressed to the time I was to be to vocal rehearsal. I was late and had no energy barely making it two or three steps before I was out of breath again while walking down the street. I could not even sing my songs. The director was so concerned about me and made it very clear that I needed to go the doctor. I am glad I listened. I made my appointment which was surprisingly very soon. This time I only needed to wait seven days. I immediately took myself off  coffee and told myself that in between all that I was doing, I would just rest and go to sleep as early as I could. Again, I am glad I listen. The morning of my medical appointment was normal. I felt great and rested up having more energy than I normal. My brother picked me up and we headed off to the clinic. For two years I'd been researching all of my symptoms and finally narrowed it down feeling very sure that I had uterine fibroids and the main reason why I was going back to the clinic was for them to do a pelvic exam and schedule me for an ultrasound. What I didn't know was that I was EXTREMELY anemic. Over the two year's time that I had been losing weight I was also losing a lot of blood and when the nurse checked my blood pressure this particular morning the alarm went off. She decided to take some blood from my finger to check my hemoglobin and when it came back as 2, more alarms went off. Then the doctor came. They thought that maybe the machine was not working properly. The nurse tried warming my hand up so that she could take more blood. Now the reading came back as 2.3. I did not know that a good hemoglobin should be 11.6. That's a long way from 2, but they assured me that I was not in a good state and that I needed to go to emergency instantly.

I was freezing while laying in that bed in the emergency room. The two heated blankets, regular blanket and my feather jacket did the best they could. A one point I got really nervous because as I was looking up at the main bright light, I felt like my vision was starting to blur. I said "wait, I am going to breathe through this. I can see clear so let me focus, I am not checking out." See this is how I was with myself, commanding, not giving in. The nurses took blood to see what my blood type was but they still could not get a reading, so I was immediately given O until the test could read what my blood type was. I felt the surge of life come to me when that blood started entering my body. I had no clue that I was so dead while still alive. From that point I continued to receive blood, 7 units, pushing through a rough night of pain and being uncomfortable. The next day I was discharged from the hospital with new life but also with a new situation and challenge to overcome.

I am now preparing for surgery and most importantly I will need help with my recovery location and small medical bills. I've already applied for financial aid with my larger hospital bill and will find out the status of that application soon. Where I stay currently is not a proper place for me to recovery so I will be moving from this point on and while in recovery I will be applying for school and seeking student housing. At my recovery location I will have a handmade crafts table which you can donate to any time and then feel free to grab something you like off the table. In the side bar to the right you will also see Send A Meal. If you are not here in Los Angeles and would like to send food you can choose from these specific meals I've chosen. I will mainly be juicing and slowly getting myself back on food over the weeks and we also have CalFresh which will allow us to save tons of money on food. 

In conclusion, thank you for your tears, love and support. Please feel free to show your encouragement in the comment section and I look forward to continuing on this journey with all of you. 

 Yours Truly, Ren

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