Vegetarianism Found Me.

I wish I could say that, at 20, my medical history is a very brief and boring topic that I would only ever bother discussing with my physician. But, the truth is, what's happened to my body in the last several years has a lot to do with the struggles I'm facing now. When I was younger I never got sick, I got the typical childhood illnesses like chicken pox and a bout with stomach flu, but that was the worst of it. I did have some minor problems with my tonsils (they were chronically enlarged and the size of golf balls) but I didn't really have too many issues related to that. I could be outside in 90+ degree weather and barely break a sweat, even up until I was about 15. The summer between 9th and 10th grades is when everything changed. I had a very severe heat stroke. I can remember the day it hit me too. My mom was taking my best friend and I to a dinosaur park and museum, and right as I was opening the car door I was hit by this very intense, sharp, pain directly behind my right eye. It was so sudden and painful that I could barely breathe and nearly blacked out. So, instead of having a fun day at a museum, I was taken to the emergency room and promptly given a CT Scan. When your doctor comes into your room after something like that and says "We're going to have to get an MRI, the CT Scan was abnormal" your heart immediately drops to the floor. I was terrified. When the MRI results came in and the doctor came in to speak with us I could feel my heart beating in my throat, what in the hell had happened to my body?! It turns out that I had been so consistently dehydrated from spending far too much time in the sun and not drinking nearly enough water that the fluid in my brain had "congealed" I think that was the term he used. He mentioned that they have never seen that in such a young person and those results were usually only seen in people in their 80s. I was so dehydrated that when I got my blood taken for tests the nurse literally only got one drop... and it was almost black. From that day onward my body has never been the same. By the time I started my first year of high school, I could barely be in 70 degree weather without pouring sweat and passing out. So, to cut the story short, I had to leave traditional high school. It's almost as if my body stopped functioning correctly. When I left my high school and began doing an online program on my own (my parents both have/had full time jobs) I dropped into an extremely deep depression. Over the next year and a half I quickly gained over 130 lbs. I had to quit figure skating, even though I was in love with it, because my body could no longer handle the stress. I lost all of my "friends", and if you've ever been a 15-year-old girl you know that friends are a very important part of your life. I felt completely alone and afraid... and sick. My immune system almost no longer exists anymore. I've gotten everything from several bouts of flu per year, countless colds to whooping cough, staph infections, etc. I can't get immunizations because,even though they're as weak as they are, I will almost always end up contracting whatever it is the shot is supposed to prevent. It's been almost exactly 5 years since this all began and my body is barely beginning to recover. The weight has finally began slowly decreasing and, though it still bothers me a great deal, heat isn't my worst enemy anymore. My lungs are permanently damaged from going far too long being undiagnosed with Pertussis (Whooping Cough) so losing weight is taking far longer than I wish it would because I can only do very minimal exercise involving getting my heart rate up and having to take in more air than usual, mainly any exercise that works out the cardiovascular systems. All of this brought me to vegetarianism and to begin the process of becoming vegan. When my diet consists of mainly fruits and vegetables I feel stronger, lighter, and healthier. I can almost feel my body really beginning to heal itself. This summer would have been another terrible one if I never changed the way I eat. I've lost almost 40 lbs now and I continue to slowly lose more. I still have a long ways to go and I don't know when I'll get there. But I'm starting to feel good again. I've missed myself.... it's nice to feel that glimmer of my old personality and health again. I'm sorry if this post is far too long-winded, but I had a lot to get through... and that was barely scratching the surface.