The story of my life, that changed everything.
It was spring 2021. Life was starting to get back to normal post-COVID. People were returning to the office, mask mandates were being lifted, and people were slowly emerging from homes that had begun to feel like a cell. This was also the time that the leaders of our country began pushing the COVID vaccine. It was such a strong push that, depending on your line of work, it almost felt like a complete mandate.
At that time, I was working as a paralegal in corporate and estate planning. A huge part of my day-to-day work was meeting with individuals to execute estate plans, and many of the people we served were in the group that could lose their lives if they contracted COVID. In April 2021, I did what I felt I had to do and got vaccinated.
Within eight weeks of receiving my second vaccination, I was having my left ovary removed in an emergency surgery. While small cysts were part of my history, one appeared so quickly and grew so large that, if it wasn’t removed, my ovary would likely rupture.
This is where it all began. Or so I thought.
What was supposed to be a short recovery turned into a three-month post-surgery hell. My body was doing everything it could to recover, but it wasn’t happening. The extremes ranged from my body not wanting to heal, to a horrific allergic reaction to the product used to close my incision, and finally to an anaphylactic reaction from a standard antibiotic I had taken many times throughout my life.
When I finally healed, I remember thinking, Finally. Now I can try to get back to life again.
Before 2021 came to a close, I found myself back in the emergency room. There was a pain radiating through my body near the incision site, a pain so severe it was crippling and one I would clearly associate with the pain of childbirth. While that ER visit resulted in nothing being found, it marked the beginning of a cycle of repeated pain.
That cycle eventually led me to jokingly, but not really, ask my primary care physician for an ultrasound to see if something had been left inside my body during surgery. My provider agreed that something seemed off and ordered both an MRI and a CT scan, only for them to come back with no answers.
And so it began.
Little did I know the twists and turns I would face over the next four years, or how they would affect not only me, but those closest to me.
This was only the beginning.
In Part II, I’ll share more of the roller coaster ride. My hope is that this finds its way to someone who is struggling through their own health journey. I hope that by sharing my story, you’ll come away with renewed hope, the courage to not give up, and a deeper faith, knowing that no matter what, God has you.
Part II coming soon, friends.
~ Stace
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