I wasn’t supposed to be there. I was supposed to be at work. It was the opening day of Starbucks and I was stuck sitting on a cold, itchy bed waiting for the nurse to come in instead of starting my new job as a barista.

Though I’d probably had it for my whole life, I first noticed the acid reflux at about age nine. I was running to second base and all of the sudden it felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart. I stopped running and was tagged. I told my coach about the pain and he asked if I wanted to sit out the rest of the game. This may have been better for the team in the long run because I wasn’t very good. Even thought it was good for the team it was not good for me. After the game I went to tell my parents about the pain and they said, well wait a week and see how it feels then. The week had come and gone and it seemed that whenever I ate I would get this strange pain. My parents finally decided to ask our doctor about this when one morning before school I was throwing up “yellow gunk”.

Within the course of the next year, I continued throwing up the yellow gunk and the pain was getting worse. By this time we had gone to about three doctors, who all told us they didn’t know what it was or, that I was making it up. I finally went to a doctor and got a response as to why I was coughing, hurting, and puking. He explained that I had acid reflux disease. He also explained that it was not a serious condition but something that a lot of adults get. He explained that the valve from my esophagus to my stomach was loose so stomach acid, the “yellow gunk”, came up and was slowly eroding the sides of my esophagus. To make sure I needed to have some tests. Then perhaps I’d take some medications to get rid of the problem.

After years of struggling we went to a doctor who, I felt, finally made some sense. Dr. Jenifer Lynch my ear, nose, and throat doctor was at that time my savior. She set up an appointment for me to meet with Dr. Cynthia Geocraris. During my appointment she talked about the surgery and all of the tests I had. She finally said the words I had been hoping to hear, I was a candidate to have gastroenterological laparoscopic surgery. Sounds good, huh. Imagine being happy to hear that!

I had the surgery and was finally fixed. It was a few days full of IVs, no appetite, nurses, and six new presents residing on my stomach (my scars), As a result, these are the top ten ways my life has changed; I can now confidently say the name of the surgery I had, I still can’t eat some foods, but I can eat a lot more than before, I lost ten pounds in recovery, I can play softball (even though most wouldn’t want me to), I finally know why people hate hospital food, I’ve realized how much people truly care about me, I know take advantage of gym class, I’m finally enrolled in a dance class, my voice sounds better than ever, and I’ve become so much happier because I’m not constantly hurting, and it shows. You would think having surgery wouldn’t be the most exciting part of your summer, but for me, because it changed me so drastically, it was.