Anniversary~Part 1

I have spent a lot of time these past few weeks thinking about 14 years ago. It was exactly 14 years ago that I found out there was a reason to me always feeling sick. It would take 4 long months to give that reason a name and start treatment. I was a junior in High School and for one of my classes we went to the health fair in the gym. We had to go to each booth and get the information and have it signed off that we visited the booth. I remember making my way around and getting things signed but not paying attention. My friends and I were talking and enjoying not having to sit through class. It's amazing how moments of time are frozen into our brain. I couldn't tell you what class I was in or who my teacher was but I can tell you what the nurse looked like at the blood pressure station and what her face looked like after she took my blood pressure. I can remember word for word what she said to me. To this day I am thankful for that nurse. She did her job that day. (Which you would be AMAZED at how many don't) She saw a 16 year old girl with crazy high blood pressure and she made sure she said something about it. ***Side note, I have had my blood pressure taken a million times since that day and I can't tell you the number of times I've had a nurse tell my my blood pressure is 126/72. Which is fine for me because I know my blood pressure and I know that's not true, but what it does is piss me off for the rest of the people that might have a problem or not have the perfect blood pressure but think they do because a nurse is lazy and not doing her job.
The nurse that day took my blood pressure and looked at me and I could tell she was going over the numbers in her head. She wrote them down and looked a little puzzled. She asked me if my blood pressure was usually high and I being a 16 year old girl said "I don't know". So she took it again. Still high. She then sat in front of me and said, Your blood pressure is really high which is very uncommon for someone your age. It could be stress from school or something you ate but you must go home and tell your parents to make you an appointment with your doctor ASAP.
It's amazing I listened. I heard every word and I went home that day and told my mom what she said and asked for her to make me an appointment.

*This is a long story and I've wanted to get it into writing for 14 years. This experience and disease have made me who I am and has taught me many things. I'm going to split it up over the next few posts.