Living with chronic illnesses

Chronic Diseases: Unraveling the Depths of High Schoolers with Noncommunicable Diseases

With her stomach in excruciating pain, her body lying on the cold, hard floor, as she is lying on the ground, balled into a curl, like an earthworm remaining in that chamber until more exceptional conditions are provided, the young, fourteen-year-old girl, sobbing, wonders where her life took a turn. I was not a victim of labor or any other normal circumstance; however, I was another uncomfortable diseased girl with a chronic disease by the name of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The constant, inevitable pain of this affliction combined with the fears of becoming a high school sophomore weighed over me, like a cumulonimbus cloud waiting to just pour. As Jack Stauber, an internet genius, once said, “The rain is nice, but I don’t like really getting wet.” This musical artist’s reference is what it feels like to have to balance my health and school life: a constant rain. In our environment, there is a distinct amount of people who battle the depths of a chronic disease while also trying to perpetuate high school life; this is not something you think about on a daily basis. Most times, people feel alone or do not encounter these experiences

Furthermore, the overbearing symptoms of excruciating stomach pain, nausea, sleep disturbance, fatigue, weight gain, etc., burdened my life as an early teenager, causing me to long for the feelings of what it felt to be without derangement. My Irritable Bowel syndrome journey started in June of 2022, after the gathering of  symptoms and that very first doctor’s appointment concluded; they performed a number of examinations, but there were no answers. Due to everything else being ruled out, IBS was my perfect match; it is chronic and has no cure. I had to accept this would be something I would have to spend the majority of my life with; walking the halls with a sense of isolation, as I would be an afflicted sophomore, trying to find equilibrium amongst remaining a top student, ranked two, and an unwell student; however, I was never alone. 

Nickolas Koonce, a very diligent senior student here at LEHS, was diagnosed with diabetes around age thirteen. “I had an A1C of 18 and my blood sugar was 519, but I actually had no symptoms whatsoever,” Nickolas said. In Layman’s terms, these numbers are exceedingly high and would put you in immense risk of long-term damages; they are tremendously treacherous. He explained his most difficult adaptation was his diet; “it was mostly my eating habits…knowing what to eat and what not to eat,” he said. Nick, an outgoing classmate with Type 1, dreads the strenuous disease most when it pertains to all the pricks and needles he encounters. Prediagnostic Nick was to travel to Dallas with an intravenous fluid, which he had to keep for three days, due to the emergency that led to him being diagnosed. This full of life peer wants to encourage the support of people without diabetes and he advises to make sure to know what it looks like when something is going on; in each class, he has arranged for someone to make a call, check his sugar, and dispense medication for when that time comes. When asked what it was like to tackle the job of bringing a high school student and maintaining a disease, Nickolas responded, “it is hard. It is hard.” Although the rain sent thunder and lightning his way, he still persevered; giving up was never an option, and again, he was never alone.  

Many people amongst the halls encounter diseases each day; tackling many jobs and bearing the weight of a sickness was never something you were to endure alone. “I went under the awning. It’s. It’s still raining…I did what I was supposed to,” says Jack Stauber. Many times we view our differences as that rain, trying to run from what will always be there. It’s normal to feel this way, but you are never alone. By having this section within the newspaper, my goal was to ensure you all realize we are more in common than what we think, and we are so much more than our diseases. 

Written by: Tamera James