My Story by Jessica S.

Jessica S., that is my name. I was born April 20, 1988 at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. I lived with my mother, father, sister, who is only two years older than me, and brother, who is two years younger than me. When I was two, my father died in a car accident. My family then moved to Florida. We lived there for a year. One Thanksgiving, my grandmother burned her leg with turkey oil. We came back to New York to see how she was doing and we ended up moving back. We lived with my Aunt Mercy and her two children, Luis and Jennifer, for one year. We went to school across the street at P.S. 29. Then we moved one block down from them. I lived there until I was seven. That’s when it all happened. One day I got up with a headache. It went on for three days. My mother took me to see a pediatrician. They told me it was a flu going around and they gave me penicillin. They sent me home and told me to stay out of school until I got better. It went on for three more days, and I was not getting better. I started walking with my head to my right side. It was like I had a weight on my head. I threw up everything I ate. My mom took me back to the pediatrician. My mother told them about my headaches and that what I had was not the flu. The doctor then examined me again and insisted that it was the flu. He sent me home again. Two days later, my mom’s dad died of a leukemia. A week later, my mom had to leave for Florida. She left me and my siblings with my Uncle Emo. He is our second guardian. We dropped my mom off at the airport. We went to the park afterwards. That’s all I remember………. I fainted at the park. My uncle called my mother immediately. My mother had just arrived at my aunt’s house when the phone rang. My aunt and mom rushed out of the car, leaving everything in the car, to get the phone. It was my Uncle Emo. He gave my mom the news. My mom and aunt got back in the car and headed back to the airport. My mom changed her flight and arrived back home that night. My mother never got to go to my grandfather’s funeral. We went to Lenox Hill Hospital emergency room. We were called in the room. They took my weight, my height and my blood pressure. Then they told us to wait. I remember falling in and out of sleep. The doctor called us again. My mom explained to the doctor what was going on. They took an x-ray and did a blood and urine test. They told me and my mother they didn’t see anything but there is one more test they wanted to do. It was an MRI……. I remember hearing my mom crying, so I dragged myself off the exam table and went to see what  was going on. I saw my mother on the floor crying hysterically……. When I opened my eyes again, I was in an ambulance on my way to Beth Israel Hospital on 88 St. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going on. I spoke to the people in the ambulance and they tried to keep me calm…… I went in for surgery right away. I had nine hours to live. I had a brain tumor….. The next thing I knew I was out of surgery and asking for food to eat…… Then I went into a coma. I was in a coma for two months and in the two months, I went into cardiac arrest twice and I had a stroke….. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sabrina, my sister, and she was the only one I recognized. Then slowly, by meeting everyone again and learning more I started to remember everyone, and I learned how to eat again. For a while I couldn’t eat because I had a feeding tube. One day my sister was eating some fries. I don’t remember if she knew that I was not able to eat.  I was hating that I couldn’t eat. My sister saw me staring at her fries and she gave me a fry. I ate it like a little baby. I sucked on it until it was gone. My doctor walked in on me sucking on the fry and was shocked. He started to observe me eating. To see how well I did, the doctor observed me eating mashed potatoes and jello. Then the feeding tube came out and I went on solid foods. Then I started chemo. I lost my hair little by little. I had about five blood transfusions. It went on until age 11. Through all of that I learned to walk by therapy. First, using a walker. Then slowly by myself. At the age of 13, I stopped chemo. I am now 19 and in high school. I am doing well now and working for the hospital. I am in another battle with diabetes. I am doing good with that, but I am having trouble getting back to me….the me before everything.
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