The pain just kept increasing. I couldn’t understand why it hurt so much. Doesn’t back pain only happen to senior citizens or those who are injured? I didn’t know what was wrong with me. There would be better times and worse times, but there was always constant pain. I couldn’t help but think, Why me? I thought I was falling apart. It was the worst feeling in the world.

After a while the pain was so unbearable that it interfered with daily life. I would go to school feeling all right, but was so tired by the end of the day that I would lay down as soon as I got home. Sitting up always felt like a strain. I couldn’t do homework or eat normally. Something was definitely wrong.

I’ve never been a weakling when it comes to pain, but this was different. I would be on my knees crying and begging for help. When I was home alone and it hurt, I would scream and beg it to stop. I would pray for it to go away. I was scared of what might be happening to me.

I realized it was time to see a doctor so my mom made an appointment with a chiropractor. I was so nervous when I went there that I was crying. When the chiropractor took a look, he discovered that my back was more curved than it should be and a muscle was very tight. It felt like a knot. It wasn’t scoliosis, it was just how I was born and now there was pressure. I wondered, Why is it hurting now when it’s been there all along? That makes no sense. The doctor gave me exercises to loosen the muscle but I was unconvinced of his diagnosis.

I did the exercises for a while, but they didn’t help. It still hurt so much that I cried every night. It was getting worse in school, too. I would take pain medicine but still felt horrible. I was so mad; I wanted to get better.

One night I was home and felt a sharp pain. I decided that maybe a bath would help. I added some bath powder that was supposed to take away aches, but I couldn’t sit in the bathtub long enough. The powder smelled horrible and I felt like I was going to die. I stood to get out of the tub and threw up. It was so bad that I ended up going to the emergency room.

Once there, I had to wait for what felt like forever. For four hours, I felt terrible and it seemed like they didn’t care. When I finally saw a doctor, he had no idea what to do. He looked at my back and when I told him what the chiropractor had said, he figured it was just a muscle problem. So, he gave me a shot of painkiller and sent me on my way. I felt better.

When I went to the chiropractor again, I explained that the exercises hadn’t helped, but the shot had. I told him about my visit to the emergency room and he decided to take x-rays.

One night the pain returned, stronger than ever. Once again I was hurled over crying, but this time for more than a day. I missed school for two days and couldn’t eat but I drank a lot, though I kept vomiting.

I was afraid to go the emergency room again because I had just been there. I felt stupid, but I was done dealing with the pain. I was going to find out once and for all why this was happening to me. So, at about five a.m. I headed back to the emergency room.

It wasn’t such a long wait at this hour. I threw up three times while I was waiting, so they took me quickly. They knew something must be wrong, finally. They took my blood pressure and temperature. Everything was normal. Then they decided to take a blood test. Just another thing to add to my day, I was dehydrated, so I needed an IV. It took three nurses and four holes in my arms to find a vein.

Next, they took me for x-rays that showed nothing, so they took me for a CAT scan. This bed was more comfortable, and warm with blankets and pillows. I almost fell asleep. If I had, it would have been the first time in two days.

The CAT scan showed that I had an ovarian cyst, which is a “fluid-filled sac formed when the follicles on the ovary mature, but do not release the egg into the fallopian tube” (4woman.gov). Mine was very large, which is what made everything hurt and made my muscles tight.

I had to see a gynecologist. At my age there should be no reason to see one and it was very uncomfortable. She gave me medicine and said she would keep an eye on the cyst to see if it shrank. If it doesn’t, I will have to have surgery which, of course, I don’t want. When I was checked again, the cyst had only shrunk a little, which makes me wonder if I will need surgery. Hopefully it will just go away.

I am doing all right now. It still hurts, but is much better. It turns out this is a fairly common problem. For now, I just have to wait and hope for the best.