The Picture of Health

Hi Kim,
Thank you for this wonderful article. I lost my younger sibling to liver disease in 2006, and subsequently underwent a liver transplant in October 2007. I identify with everything that you are going through. What keeps me going is my faith and my family. I am stronger and better for having traveled this difficult road. Everyday is better than the next. I no longer take life for granted.
-CKS

I want to commend Kim on her strength and attitude I am healthy. I had my first kidney transplant for 17 years ago and can relate to how the doctor's see you that you are their patient and being healthy is not in their vocabulary. The countless test you go through and all those medical history sheets needed to be filled out and when it comes to the line name all surgeries you have had, but wait there is never enough room to write in all of them. I am now awaiting for my next transplant and started hemodialysis again. Soon it comes back to why this is happening to you and at an age where you were thinking how boys were now cute. I was 16 when I had my first transplant ,the donor was my sister. I had spent a year prior to my transplant on hemodialysis. A sophmore in highschool and 3 times a week for 3 hours at a time talk about a cramp into my social life. Kim you are a inspiration to myself how you keep on going you are healthy just wanting to live a normal life. I can relate in so many ways and know exactly what it is like to have the pain of a biopsy. You can email me at spfau24@yahoo.com. I loved your article

Kim, This captures, in a calm way, the resiliency of a person through harsh health processes. You were hit with life-disrupting events; you coped not crumbled, you became better not bitter, you emerged stronger not weaker! You're journey is VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL to mine! Physical limitations frees the spirit, soul and heart. You explored and defined and redefined your environment, the players in it and boundless freedoms most won't ever be free due to non-challenge!! My path of reconstruction spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually means more to read about another with emotional awareness and inconvenient daily routines that simply become routine.
Would welcome you to visit Kim: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/AlAlquist -Al

Kim,

Sorry I did not see your article till now.

As I look at your picture, I see a young lady who is quite healthy. Your attitude makes all the difference to whether or not you are healthy. I always wonder that to check on those doctor's forms where you rate your general health. I want to check excellent,but know that those extra 20 pounds mean I'm not. I've not experienced the insults to my body as you have to yours, so, my attitude has not been tested as yours has. I am told, however, that i am an encouragement to many others in my acquaintance. I've received a kidney and, 21 years later, a kiver. I hope this will get me through to the end. I am 67 years old.

Richard

Kim,
I used quotation marks, but they came up in the comment as question marks.
Sorry.
Karen

I used quotations, around the book title, but for some reason they came up as question marks.
Sorry.

Kim,
Thank you for being so honest and open. I too, believe that a person should be recognized for their true nature, and not an illness. The term unhealthy is defined differently here in the United States and other countries, but in a few countries it is different.
For instance, in India, there is a medical practice called Auryvedic Medicine, where the doctor does not look at the disease, but at the entire mind, body, and spirit for diagnosis. This type of medical procedure tries to heal all parts of the body and not aim at the one part which is not functioning properly. In the healing procedure, the attempt is to strengthen the entire body, mind, and spirit, so that the body is more adapt in healing itself. The body is naturally able to heal, however, the universe as it is today, has grown far away from this type of healing. You might look at a book called ???Prakruti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution???, by Dr. Robert E. Svoboda to get a better understanding of what I am attempting to explain.
My prayers and thoughts are with you.
Warm regards.
Karen

Kim, I was greatly blessed by reading your story and essay. It really help me to remember the small and simple everyday blessings. Please continue to share your stories as everyone is fighting some type of battle and need to know they are not alone.

Your story is truly amazing and approach to adversity reminds me of how my husband paints a similar picture when contending with health concerns. His issues surfaced when he was just about your age, 25 to be exact, and we married when he was 29. Over the course of our 25 year marriage, he has had twenty or more surgeries, contracted hepatitis somewhere along the way, and has endured almost 30 years of dialysis. Are we consumed by the negative? Absolutely not! Those hospital stays/runs were just "bumps in the road." Thankfully, my husband has a chronic case of resiliency. Most recently, my husband underwent spinal surgery between CT scans for a serious liver ailment. Within weeks, he bounced back. To me he is quite like you--a picture of health and survival! Keep smiling!

Kim--Your article could not have come at a better time. Having been diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis in 1992, I was considered 'healthy' until I was diagnosed with auto-immune. I still FEEL healthy--my levels are great, I can still do everything that I want but have been label. I am now pregnant but doctors are worried about two ovarian cysts. Frustration and pregnancy hormones lead to an emotional eruption last week. You have reminded me that things will get better it you trust in the ones that you are comfortable wtih, as I am sure you are with your doctors. A healthy state of mind puts everything else into prospective!!!! Thank you for the reminder.

Hi Kim,

Your positive spirit in the midst of pain and hardship are admirable and inspirational.

It???s not easy to put a positive spin on a negative or at least un-natural situation; it requires tremendous courage and will.

I am making a suggestion you might try for further progress. Do not consider your ailments as permanent. Know that the physical world is a function of the unseen world, and that your mind has power over your body. Focus on the level of health that you desire, and the way to attain it will come to you. Be sure of it.

The help might come to you from areas you not only have never investigated but that you now do not even know the existence of.

Elder George

Dear Kim,
Words cannot express my gratitude for your article... These words mean too much for me. I have been chronically ill since birth. But despite knowing everyone in my hospital,the endless amount of painful medical procedures... and trying to battle the fight of mind vs body.. and despite being 19 I am unable to experience the same things people my age have. You have brought the views of millions with a chronic illness to the other millions who don't. Thank you so much for showing the world that we do consider ourselves "normal" we do not pity ourselves and live to the best of our ability, your put your story in an amazingly elegant way. Thank you once again!

Kim did a great job of putting into words the way I found myself reacting to my Stage 3 Cancer diagnosis and treatment nearly two years ago. I was ayoung woman and had been healthy my whole life but was shocked at how fast that health could fade away. Today I'm healed and extremely grateful for a resilient, healthy body. There are a lot of us out there who may be sick but won't be defined by our illnesses. And we'll recover, too!

Thank you for sharing your story. It resonated with me. I am home recovery this week from my second procedure for reconstruction related to a unilateral mastectomy from a breast cancer diagnosis last May. I am 33, cancer free, young, and I feel strong and healthy. I almost went surfing for the first time the week before my surgery before deciding better of it. I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be healthy this week as I fill out applications and feel defined by my diagnosis. I will never again be without medical insurance. I will always have "a preexisting condition". I will have to think twice before racing off to travel the world or leaving my job. However, I am more than my medical history. Thanks for giving a voice to those thoughts.

Thank you for sharing. Stories like yours highlight the life giving gift that almost any of us can give through donating blood, bone marrow, or our organs. It takes very very little to give someone a whole new chance at life.

Thank you for sharing your life???s story. It is an inspiration. I know, I can relate. I have the same disease, but it unraveled in opposite order. First, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis at age 15, then at 35 I had colon cancer, then after successful surgery and only rectum left, I was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, PSC. Then year ego I had to remove rectum. In spite of all this or maybe because of all the strength I had to gather, I never stopped living, I was able to immigrate to United states, have family, children, job I like. And I never forget to be thankful for every day I am alive.

It isn't up to me to say you are healthy or unhealthy; but I can say with confidence that you are a POSITIVE FORCE---you get a thumbs up from me.

I too have autoimmune hepatitus and was diagnosed 4 years ago at the age of 51. I am one the 25% of males to be diagnosed with this mysterious problem. The big question for me is where did I get it from? I notice that more and more people are being diagnosed with previously thought to be rare occurrences of uncommon diseases or illnesses more often. Maybe the cause is part of our transition to the 21st century.

Extremely well-written, and spot on. The last paragraph reminded me of my own mother, who has miraculously survived a Whipple procedure for pancreatic cancer. Her robust recovery is a testament to her faith and my dad's faith in the doctors and their services, as well as taking things in stride, one day at a time. It pays to be an educated patient. Not only does it make medical ordeals less traumatic, it ensures a healthier approach to life afterwards.