The 5 Hardest Days of my life

In this story I am going to open up about 5 days that constantly play on my mind and how then have affected me since.

I had Been working in Long Island NY for 2 months, looking after children and adults with physical and mental disabilities, they would come in for 5 days at a time and would stay at camp with us, not only allowing them to get a holiday where their needs can be met but also to give their parents/carers some time to themselves.

It was the most mind opening, inspiring and challenging experience of my life, I met some amazing people who fascinated me due to how much they seemed to enjoy life despite being at a disadvantage due to disabilities. Some of the characters I met while working changed my life for the better, it really does make you feel lucky to be able to live a life that isn’t constantly affected by something out of your control.

However it wasn’t all posotive for me, I have been there for nearly 2 months, we had a week off where no campers were in so we could spend some time travelling and exploring the USA, I travelled to Washington DC followed my Philadelphia and then spent my final day exploring NYC before having to return to work the next day.

Well that’s what I thought was going to happen the next day, instead came the 5 hardest and scariest days of my life.

It was the early hours of the 26th July 2019 when I was awoken by terrible sharp pains coming from my stomach. I felt extremely week too (I had been suffering from migraines in the week where I had been travelling) so I was already used to feeling slightly ill however this was so much worse and the Paul was only building. I jumped off the top bunk of my bed and ran to the toilet thinking maybe I just needed to take a large dump. What I experienced next was by far the scariest few hours of my life.

Blood. Blood was the only thing that was coming out as I was sat on the toilet, then all of a sudden I start to feel like I’m choking slightly, almost like something was stuck in my throat but it was just small enough to allow me to breathe.

At this point I am already panicking as there is blood coming out of my rear and more blood than I have ever seen in my life, when it starts to come out the other end too, being sick every miniute or so, just pure dark red blood, covering this small white bathroom in deep red, it looked like somebody had dismembered a body in there.

Not wanting to wake my colleagues I take myself off to the staff room as there is a toilet and a sofa in there so won’t need to disturb anyone if it happens again. Which of course it did, i was up and down to the toilet all night depositing nothing but blood into it. I was scared and 1000’s of miles away from any family members or friends to comfort me. I must have fallen asleep around 7am and been awoken by my colleague Dan in the staff room around 9am. I explained to him what had been going on all night and he supported me and helped make sure I was okay.

About 25 minutes later I decided to take a walk over to the nurses office, she opened the door to me and before I could even finish explaining what had been happening to me, an Ambulance was on it’s way.

Everyone I worked with was starting to either return back to camp or wake up after returning last night, the first thing they all saw?

Me being strapped up and loaded into the back of an ambulance.

All of a sudden my phone start going mental , constant calls and texts flooding in to make sure I’m okay. I wasn’t. Panic started to creep in and I started to work myself up, although I was then administered 100% pure oxygen which definitely calmed the panic.

I was hooked up to a couple IV’s and sent into a small waiting room while they tried to find me a bed. After about 10 hours and a visit from 3 of the best friends I will make travelling I was finally given one. They said that they would monitor me for the night and then if needed then some tests and do some scans tomorrow morning. The bleeding continued through the night was getting more and more scared as the night went on, I didn’t even know the human body contained that much blood.

The next morning came around and I was weak and extremely hungry, about 45 minutes later my breakfast turned up, or at least what I thought was my breakfast. It was for the guy in the bed beside me. What did I get given? A carton of apple juice. Which of course I shouldn’t be eating because of my stomach but being that hungry isn’t good for my mental state which was already depleting fast. I missed my family, I missed work, I missed the familiar feel that home has.

I had multiple tests done over the next 3/4 days and not a single one could find out where all this bleeding was coming from. I had cameras up both ends, chemicals injected into me and then run through huge body scanners such as MRI and CT, all showing no actual answers to what was going on with me.

By the third day missing meals was really catching up with me, I had visibly lost weight, I felt so week that standing up felt difficult, and my arms were an array of purples, yellows and browns from all the needles that had been going in and out of my arms. I was regularly ringing family and friends in tears due to how frightened I was that they wouldn’t find what was up or that it was something far more serious and couldn’t help feeling closer and closer to death day by day.

The 4th day comes around and it’s been a good 24 hours since I had been seen by a doctor, I called a nurse in as I needed to have a bowel movement, she took out my 4 IV’s that I had constantly been hooked up to and I went off to the toilet (this is when I took the photo above, notice how weak and drained I look) but this time was differnt, there was still blood in there, however after being forced to drink 4 litres of laxatives for my camera ops it was a lot more watery and more of an Orange than a dark red. About 2 hours later I went again, this time, small dried clumps of blood were coming out of me, now I know you must be thinking that it sounds horrible and digusting but for me that was just the mental boost I needed. Dried blood only means one thing. THE BLEEDING HAD STOPPED!!

I told the nurse and she then informed the doctor, who came and spoke to me straight away after not bothering for over 24 hours. He told me that just because it had stopped that it didn’t mean it was fixed, he then admitted that he couldn’t find the Issue so was transferring me to a different hospital on the other side of the state.

This is exactly where I just mentally snapped, I lost it at this doctor and told him exactly how it was, I told him to give me some proper food and see if it will stay down. Which of course he was totally against as it hadn’t come straight from his mouth first (he was such an arrogant man). I raised my voice and told him again, about 30 mins later a nurse came with some bread and soup, finally some flavour for my senses. Nope it was basically hot water with peas and carrots in it and 2 dry slices of bread, but after 4 and a half days of not eating it was like heaven on a plate. About 8 hours went by and it had stayed down, the relief i felt was amazing, my next stool was still dry blood so nothing got worse after eating thankfully.

The doctor then returned and spoke to me about how he still wanted to transfer my to a differnt hospital but I was having none of it. I told him to write me a medical note saying I must return home and check myself back in hospital as everything is free back home, he obliged and signed me out of hospital and I was picked up and driven back to the camp I was staying at, I had around 24 hours to say goodbye to every single person thr had made that a summer to remeber for the rest of my life and it was honestly the most diffcult part of the whole experience. And if any of them are reading this right now, I love you guys and thank you for making a difference in not only the children’s lives but also mine. I was then dropped at the station and had to return back to England by myself. I was extremely sad as I had to leave just over a month before I was expected to, but I’ll never forget any of the life lessons I was taught over there.

I can honestly say that I have never been more terrified of being ill especially as I had all these experts saying they had no idea what was up, I honestly thought I could have died in that hopsital.

€12,000 medical debt and a year later. no more stomach issues and back on track of following my dream.