Here Goes Nothing.

Well, here I am. In the world of blogging. I told myself I wouldn't do it...

but here I am.

To start off, my name is Casey. I have a story, and here's where I'm gonna tell it to you. (haha, stalkers, no age here)

The last 10 years of my life went pretty well, I'd say, even though I'm waaay to young to be judging that. I was born in the 90's, a time of bad music and *NSYNC, the band that saved me from complete and total musical boredom. I remember I owned all 3... or maybe it was 4... of their CD's (refraining from using the word 'albums' because I know that Di, when she reads this, will laugh and show all her friends that an almost-12-year-old girl from Boca Raton used the word 'album'). I was cute, blonde, blue-eyed (still blue-eyed, not so blonde. more like a reddish-brownish-blonde), and everyone loved me. Or so I like to think. I give you... me.


That's my personal favorite picture.

So, back to my life, because it's really all about me.

Around 7 or 8, I started getting stomachaches. They weren't so terrible, but they were frequent with a capital 'F'. Sometimes all day, usually every day, I'd get stomachaches. It was torture. I couldn't do anything anymore. My neighbor, who came over every day and asked me to go outside- usually I'd say yes- wasn't even bothering to come after I'd turned her down dozens of times. There were rare days when I felt myself. My nana (my mom's mom) who lived in New York told my mom there was a doctor who was highly respected in New York City who she said I just HAD to see (you have to know my nana for this) and to come up right away. When the stomachaches were getting more severe by the week, we took a chance and went. The appointment was a ton of money. A ton of money for him to tell me, "Eat more fiber, and stop worrying so much. The stomachaches will go away in no time."

Well, guess where I am NOW, Mr. Highly-respected-GI-in-NYC?

After eating fiber and not stressing so much didn't help, we decided to contact a REAL GI doctor. His name was Dr. Hernandez, and he was my hero. On the first visit, he knew there was something wrong. He ordered a colonoscopy (a test where they put you under anesthesia and put some camera up your butt and into the digestive system, to see if there's a problem). The results showed I had a larger-than-normal amount of acid in my stomach that was causing ulcers. So, I had ulcers... and acid reflux. He then ordered a gastric emptying. Turned out I had a severe case of gastritis, and a digestive system that did just not want to cooperate. The test took a whopping 6 hours, and I had a 90% SLOWER, that's 90% SLOWER, system than the normal human being. Which is about as slooooooooow as you can posssssssssibly geeeeeeeeeet. So, we'd found out the problem: ulcers on the stomach, 7 to be exact, uber-slow digestive system, and acid reflux. Take some Prevacid, Carafate, Prilosec, and Pepto-Bismol before every meal. I was cured!...

...Not. I was cured for about 1 year. After it was safe to go off all the meds, we went on winter vacation to Vermont for skiing. I began to love the sport, doing it all day without stopping. One day, my throat started to hurt so bad, I went into the ski lodge and sat and drank hot chocolate. But I couldn't swallow it. My throat was really bugging me. My mom took me to a walk-in clinic in a little town outside of Stowe, and I had strep throat. Let's just say I didn't enjoy the rest of my vacation. Then, disaster struck (ok...not really DISASTER, but with my condition, this was pretty bad). I got mononucleosis, an immune system disease that suppresses your appetite and makes you fatigued to the highest level. My mom noticed a behavior change. Her once active and full of life kid was always tired and barely eating. She took me to the doctor. I got a quick mono test, and it was positive. So, we knew the problem. But when the "mono" lasted longer than it was supposed to, and I still wasn't eating, the doctors thought there was something else wrong. Thus starts: The Downward Spiral.

Girl gets mono, loses 10 pounds. Girl gets addicted to losing weight, girl loses another 10 pounds. Girl develops eating disorder. Girl feels crappy, which makes her not want to eat. Because she doesn't eat anything, she feels crappy. Girl goes into a world of guilt, quickly comes out of hole of guilt, eating disorder goes away before girl starts school next year.

The next couple months were good. My eating problem was gone, and I was happy and active again. Then, the new year comes in (and Casey gets her first kiss) and for my great-grandpa's birthday, we went to Disney. Bad idea. I had to be in a wheelchair the whole time. Usually, I was the one leading the group. When we got back from Disney World, my mom took me to Dr. H's office, and he wrote me a ticket to the hospital.

That's all for now, since my fingers are kinda tired and I have to eat dinner now. My story, though, is not finished, and it only gets better, and more colon-less, from here. Stay tuned!