My Diagnosis/ Surgery

Although I have already welcomed you to the eventful life of Angela. Let me welcome you again. Once again, I had to go to Urgent Care on Wednesday instead of school. I woke up with swollen tonsils with white spots on them. To know surprise, I had strep throat. Right away I went to the Rite Aid Pharmacy to get my antibiotics. As I was there waiting for my prescription, I called an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctor. All day at Urgent Care I had been pondering whether to take it to this next level or not. Nobody wants surgery, however the doctor at Urgent Care told me I needed to make an appointment with the ENT to discuss it.

Allie didn't like seeing my enlarged tonsils

Let me tell you, did that doctor scare me.... He came in the room after I had changed into my hospital gown. He checked my lungs, heart, and my throat. Of course, anything having to do with my throat area I get scared about because of my past Hodgkin's Lymphoma Cancer diagnosis. He told me I indeed had strep throat, my tonsils were very swollen, and so were my lymph nodes. He then proceeded to tell me to change back into my regular clothes and that he would be right back. ONE HOUR later after I already endured an anxiety attack, I stepped outside the room asking the nurses what was going on and where he was. When he came back into the room, he asked what was wrong because I was crying upset. I told him he had scared me when he mentioned my lymph nodes being enlarged because of my past diagnosis. Him not coming back in decent time made my thoughts wonder and made me think something was wrong. He apologized for taking so long and said they are probably enlarged just from being sick.

Today (last day of school before bring break) I went to the ENT. I was told that usually after this few instances of tonsillitis that they normally wouldn't perform surgery on them yet, however because of my Hodgkin's Lymphoma background I need a tonsillectomy. They mentioned that the tonsils are much like the lymph system in that they swell up when I'm sick. There you have it folks, I might be having surgery over spring break. If I do, at the moment I have no idea who is going to be able to take care of me. I'm honestly very worried but there's nothing I can do besides let life happen. Monday I should be able to find out when I can have surgery. Hopefully they can squeeze me in for Thursday or Friday that way I won't miss too much school. It's going to take a week to ten days to recover. All I know is I need this surgery done because I have been sick consistently this semester and my tonsils have been swelling up for over a year now. Hopefully after this surgery I won't get sick as much. Again, I'm very sorry that this is all I have been blogging about, but at least I know now why I keep getting sick.

The Top picture is Reagan and I, the bottom is me at Urgent Care supporting her.

There is no such thing as a "normal person", however I am different than a lot of college students. I'm a cancer survivor with not as strong as an immune system as everyone else. I do get sick easier and let me tell ya, college students are not very clean. I'm going to spend the rest of today cleaning that way I can come back to a clean place. I will be visiting my friend Nicole back where I used to live in Ventura this weekend. As for the rest of break, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I will keep you all informed if I do or don't get my surgery this upcoming week. I hope you all can at least enjoy your Spring Break!

Before I go, I'd also like to ask you all a favor. As I was waiting in Urgent Care on Wednesday, I found out my friend from my cancer organization/ camp "Special Love" has been put into hospice care. For those of you who don't know what that means, Reagan has cancer and the fight is becoming sadly too much to handle. Please send prayers/ good thoughts her way. I'm happy I was already wearing my SpeciaLove shirt to support her and give me strength while I was enduring my own health issues at Urgent Care Wednesday.

A few hours after I posted this, I just found out Reagan has become an angel. I wish the best of healing for her family. Reagan, you never lost that fight. I'll miss you.

Reactions

Click photo to see closer

I've never been allergic to anything. Frankly, I hope I am this time. Why? Because when I used to get red skin irritations it was a sign of my Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

 I started using a different brand of shaving cream and within 12 hours my skin broke out into a rash. I found out I had it when I was sitting in the emergency room waiting for five hours. (Oh yeah, Friday night I had to take my roommate to the hospital. The ambulance wouldn't let her ride with them even though they had her best friend from out of town in there. So I offered to drive her there). Yesterday I saw the rash start to spread even more. Now it's on my feet, legs, back, stomach, and under my arms. I don't shave half of those places so that's why I'm confused. Today the rash is still there, but I will try taking my roommate's Benadryl tonight before I even think of going to the doctor again. Hopefully this is all just an allergic reaction!



I've had a few other reactions come from this weekend as well. Katrina and I made the ultimate decision of going to visit the animal shelter. She looked at cats in amazement as I stood there not so amused waiting to see the dogs. We looked at the cats for a few minutes and then the dogs for about an hour. This one you see here was only 6 weeks old, but she will be huge later on. There were two chihuahuas: Burrito and Taquito. ADORABLE.

I woke up this morning from a much needed long sleep at 12 PM. I had lost a lot of sleep Friday night. I had absolutely no energy when I woke up so I decided to make guacamole for my roommates and I to spice my energy up a bit. Their reactions to trying it for the first time were very muy bien. Then when the green heaven in my fancy ziploc container was gone, I had to start my homework. I worked on my Film Outline, did difficult math homework that has nothing to do with my major, and now I'm blogging for you guys :) Sorry I haven't been blogging as often as I'd like, but as you can tell I've got a lot going on! Health and school comes first!

Daylight Delight

Hello daylight savings! Coming from the east coast's three hour time difference, I'm very happy about this. Before daylight savings it would get dark between five and six which would be eight or nine in the east coast. So as soon as it got dark at five or six here I'd start getting tired like I was on east coast time again. It was very annoying as I would get tired driving to dance practice when it was already dark. Or going out with friends I would start to get tired at an earlier time. Not anymore!

They came up to IV this time!

Now that it's daylight savings, I can drive to dance and be pumped ready to go because the sun is still out giving me energy. I can eat dinner at a later time before I head over to the beach to watch the sunset. Speaking of energy, I have ordered and received this tea in the mail yesterday. It's a "teatox" which is supposed to give me more energy and get rid of the toxins in my body. Being a cancer survivor, I'm sure I still have a TON of toxins still left in my body. Hopefully this tea will help get rid of some of it and make me feel healthier because I have been getting sick a lot lately. This morning I started it and am ready for it to kick in! I'll let you know how that goes. Today I will be going to the DMV and dance practice once I'm done with school. I think you could say I'm adjusting to being independent and back in California at a good pace. I didn't think so before, but I'm learning not to be so hard on myself.

Weekend in LA

Since I am looking forward to the weekend that is so close, I'm going to tell you how much fun I had last weekend. I got a text from Nicole Friday asking if I want to go to LA with her that night. She is a friend who I've known since I was 2 when I originally lived in California before. I packed my bag and within less than an hour I was heading down the 101! I finally arrived to her house (in our old neighborhood) after I drove through a lot of annoying traffic. We got ready for the night together while catching up on our lives :)

Friday night we met up with her friend Izzy who lives in LA and we went to North Hollywood. We took an Uber to Universal City Walk which was actually the smartest idea ever because we didn't have to pay for parking! When we arrived, we walked straight down to Saddle Ranch and enjoyed some Mexican appetizers. Nicole wanted to ride the bull, however she wanted someone else to do it to. I volunteered and by that time everyone was outside watching cheering us on! Haha. In a hurry afterwards, Nicole and I ran to the candy store before it closed.

Saturday I didn't expect to stay another night, but I'm happy I got the chance to. I spent the day at Nicole's family's house. Some of her family hadn't seen me since I was very little! Of course I didn't remember them, but I knew her dad and sister. That evening Nicole and I got ready again to go back to North Hollywood after we met up with Izzy. This time we were going to a Sushi place that had waiters and cooks who danced and entertained for you! To make the experience even better, we pretended like it was my birthday. All of you know why I deserved a second chance at celebrating my birthday. If you don't click here!


Sunday morning Nicole received a text from her coworker saying that she needed her to come get a puppy to take home for a few days. It was a puppy pitbull and it t'was sooooo cute! Sweetest thing ever, he slept in my arms during the drive home. Before I headed back to Isla Vista, I stopped by the Oaks Mall. I told the same pet store I got Guinness at that if they had any female pugs between May and July, to call me :)

Approved!

They have a specific "student" card

Today is usually my long busy day full of classes, but my second class ended up being cancelled. My teacher cancelled it only an hour and a half before so that's kind of annoying. I've never had a class cancelled before though!

So me being me, I don't choose to relax during those couple extra hours I have because of the cancellation. I decide to get stuff done! Procrastination is a hard thing to overcome and I've been trying to get better at it. I drove over to Citibank because I need checks for the apartment I will live in next (I will blog about that place soon).

After that, I took my opportunity to ask the banker how to apply for a credit card. A lot of students make the mistake of not building credit until they are out of school. My family had been telling me I should get one for a few months now too! I have this fear of spending money I don't have and running low on it so I want to prepare myself. Within the same visit I applied and got approved for my own credit card. The lady who help me was amazing. She answered all my questions unless it was something that was too complicated and not worth the stress to try and understand. Even though this blog is about boring banking stuff, I thank you for reading through. This was just another big step in my life!

What's a Productive Rainy Day?

My Monday's are usually always an interesting day. This day started out nice when I found parking pretty fast around 10:20. Since I still had extra time left, I decided to walk down Oceano Ave to see what living options they have right next to the school. It was nice, but even more expensive than Isla Vista! I thought about living in Santa Barbara instead to be closer to school, however the price wasn't worth it. So I called a place in IV that I will be taking a tour of today! In Sociology we talked about what "love" means. It was interesting to hear what other people my age had to say about that and what the "actual" definition was. Not going to lie, it was on point. As soon as I walked out of class I just see and hear the pouring of the rain. Students were all taking snapchats of it and I took off in a hurry across campus for my next class. I hate being at school when it rains because you can't relax outside, classes can be far apart, and the indoor cafeteria space is CROWDED. I ate inside and stepped back outside to find a poor seagull looking at me and my fries because it wasn't getting its full steal of food for the day.

Next I had English and as soon as it was done I went to the Student Services building to make an appointment with the academic counselor. I thought I was going to have to wait a week for the appointment, but they actually give you one on the same day! Half an hour later I was with a counselor discussing what classes I need to take to eventually transfer. I feel relieved knowing the information now, however I was not happy to hear that 70% of students transfer AFTER three years at SBCC. I thought it would be two. The counselor said I could do it within two if I worked extremely hard and did full summer school. Yet, I made a promise to myself to put my health before school, so I will most likely not be able to complete my classes here within 2 years :( ALWAYS PUT YOUR HEALTH BEFORE ANYTHING!

After the counselor, I went to the Admissions and Records office. They handed me a packet telling me how to receive in-state tuition. Once I get that, I will be saving a lot more money. Next I walked all the way across campus to get to my car. I drove to the bank and back for my next class, Film. And that concludes my productive, rainy day. Exciting right?

PS: It's March. It should be getting warmer soon. I'm excited :D