The Adventures of Sicky McSickington

Thankfully I haven't been infected by Glenn and his weird cold that can be passed via computer/phone, so here's a fun recount of my past injuries and illnesses. But where to start?

How about 10th grade? That's when I broke my foot walking. In my defense they were like 4" heels and the floor was slippery, but it doesn't really lessen the embarrassment. Thankfully, I only had a plaster splint for about 3 days before they gave me a walking cast. However I waited about a day before I went to the hospital, just to make sure I thought it was broken, and when I finally went my mother parked on the other side of Shands (in Gainesville), and I had to limp my way down to ER. (While I was there this woman had a seizure in the waiting room - scary!) We were filming that great epic Ghost Pirate Hunt at the time, so filming had to stop while I healed. (Even though SOME people claimed we would start again as soon as I got a walking cast - like we were really worried about continuity).

The next thing doesn't really involve me, it's just kinda funny. While my church youth group was in NC on a retreat, I found out my mom had to go to the hospital because she was severely dehydrated. I told everyone in the group, and that evening we prayed and had to go around in a circle and say something aloud, and Amber prayed for my mom to become "moist".

My freshman year of college I was in a production of 1940's Radio Show, which involved a bit of swing dancing. Things were going well until we had to do a backflip - I tried a couple of times with help from Anthony, but wasn't quite making it. So we called the choreographer over, and I did it again, but this time I landed on my hand, and my ring finger on my right hand began to swell and turn purple. Of course I'm swearing up a storm and everyone's telling me "Oh it's just jammed", but when it was still twice it's normal size the next day, I decided to get it X-rayed. Shands (Lake Shore) said it wasn't broken and I should try to move it as much as possible.

Fast forward to a month or so later. I was in Gainesville having my knees looked at because they sounded like Rice Krispies whenever I bent them, and on a whim, I took my old Xrays of my hand. They redid it, and could see where it had healed, and so the doctor looked at the old one, and said "Yep, you can see it right there - it's a little hard to tell, but it showed up on the Xray." Thanks a lot Lake Shore! Oh - and I had to start going to physical therapy for my knees after that. The head doctor there looked like Kenneth Brannaugh.

My junior year of college I was sitting in my History of Animation class, when all of a sudden, I was having trouble breathing. I went to the clinic on campus, and saw the doctor who told me to eat only fruits (except bananas - too much sugar) and vegetables (because I also had a cold at the time) and oh - it was all in my head (Really? I would have never figured that out). That was it! So I waited a couple of weeks, everyday having the same problem - my throat would tighten as the day wore on, until I had problems breathing in the evening. I went to visit my grandmother, and she took me to the doctor, who said that I was having panic attacks and it was part of depression. (I was literally the last person in my family to start taking anti-depressants). He kept questioning me about what triggered it, and when I didn't know, told me that sometimes it's just a chemical imbalance. (But it wasn't - when I left town I was fine - coming back would start it all over again). Thankfully he gave me some medicine, and I was ok.

A few years ago I worked at a camp in TN for a couple of summers. Near the end of the second summer, the night before my birthday in fact, I got really sick. I spent my birthday lying in bed half the day with stomach pains, that is, until someone told me my friend (and boss) Java needed to see me. (I actually worked two jobs that summer. Java was my boss at the store of a rafting company). I came in and we talked, and then a rush of people came and she asked me to help. I did until I couldn't stand it anymore, and then had to go to the camp for an end-of-the-season party. I just laid my head on a table and sat there, then went home and drank some ginger ale and took some aspirin. The next day my stomach still hurt, but I was leaving the day after that, so I toughed it out.

It wasn't until I was back in Lake City (this is 5 days later) and still in pain that I went to the doctor. They did some tests, and after they finally did an ultrasound and saw air in my gall bladder that they figured out I had a really bad gall bladder attack. I had to stay in the hospital a week with an IV in my arm. The woman sharing my room had the same thing, and she was not the worst person I could have roomed with. However she was very country, she had just had a baby, and she had visitors CONSTANTLY. This is what I heard half the day (her talking to the baby in singsong voice): "Hey Zana! (pronounced like Dana, but with a "Z") What are you doing? What are you doing Zana? Zay-na!" I had to go back a few month later to have surgery to have my gall bladder removed. Fun.

Finally, almost a year ago I went to ER because I had this weird heart flutter that lasted all day. I've had it do that once every so often, but all day was really freaking me out, so I went to ER. They got me in right away and hooked me up to a monitor and did some tests. However I ended up having to sit there for 7 hours because the cardiologist they were calling to have a look at my monitor wasn't getting back to them. I ended up having to have an echocardiogram done, but nothing was wrong. They told me I just had to lay off the caffeine, and not stress out so much. I swear I really wasn't drinking that much caffeine though.

Awesome, right? *sigh* Well hopefully the stories were at least semi-entertaining.