Graf 11: Research

A couple years ago I went to the doctor’s after being sick for a few weeks. Thinking I had a cold, I assumed I would just get some antibiotics or some other fix and be on my way. I had to have blood work done and received a call a few days later that there was something else going on.

I got sick again and ended up at the hospital and after having scans and ultrasounds I was told that I had somehow contracted Hepatitis B. I was also informed that I was in the stages of liver failure.

Never before had it seemed so important to get online and figure out what was going on inside my body. All the information was overwhelming.

I felt like the more I read the more my brain expanded and started to get tight inside my skull. I read and researched and studied and really freaked myself out.

I talked to people that knew other people who had the illness and the results were starting to stress me out. I had done research projects for school before and I remember thinking that there wasn’t nearly enough information about a particular subject. I felt so overwhelmed, I couldn’t make the information stop.

I researched all my treatment options and maybe knowing what they would entail made it that much worse. I went to the doctor’s several times a week for tests and blood work.

Several months later in a follow up visit with my specialist, I found out that I no longer had the virus in my system. I had acute Hepatitis B and am no longer sick. I do have a liver disease that is regularly monitored, but I do not have liver failure or a need for further treatment.

It was as though my brain shrunk after hearing the news. I could finally let go of all the information I had worked so hard to store. It was no longer necessary to keep all that information in my head, I no longer had to be concerned.