Victorious Ship

Introducing the U.S.S. Gutless! 

So what's with the ship?? All the ink on my skin has personal meaning. Its symbolic of something significant in my life. Sit back tight, and I'll explain my ship...

In 2006 I was a freshman in college in Montana. My first week there marked the beginning of my health struggles. Prior to that, I was an average teenager with nothing holding me back. It took a year and a half of ongoing tests, inaccurate diagnoses, and confusing circumstances before I was finally given a name for all my health drama. The name: Ulcerative Colitis.

At this point I had transferred to a college in Minnesota for my sophomore year. I still had no idea what was really wrong with me, but soon my life would be turned upside down. After months of increasing abdominal cramping, I was in so much pain that I literally thought I would DIE. I asked one of the RA's at school to drive me to the Emergency Room, doubled over in pain from my guts. 

A CT scan showed that my entire colon was inflamed. "WHAT IS A COLON?", I asked naively. - Side note - a COLON is more commonly known as the large intestines. Its the 5-6 feet that houses your poo. Mine was a WRECK. I was admitted to the hospital for a week, given only liquids to consume at first, and a TON of IV steroids through my veins. "Solumedrol" these highly powerful steroids are called. If you've read my blog, Roid Rage, where I explain the super fun side effects of Prednisone, just imagine that intensified! WOO, Nutso!! Hooked up to an IV pole, in a hospital for a week, wide awake from the 'roids pumping through my veins, hungry and in pain. Yuck. Anywho, those crazy 'roids really calm inflammation down. 
Here's me pretending to be buff from the steroids.... haha

Fast forward- 6 months to my Junior year in college: Another flare of UC, pain and inflammation out of control again... more hospital action. 

Fast forward one more year:  another flare, admitted to the hospital again, this time back home in Montana. (Yes, I am pretending to drink the IV fluids in the picture below- it really resembles Mountain Dew, ya know!?)

At this point I had decided that it must be my calling in life to visit all the "B" hospitals. I could write reviews on the hospitals in Bemidji, MN, Brainerd, MN and Billings, MT.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM HOSPITALS:

1. Hospitals are not for sleeping. They are for receiving medicine and getting your blood pressure checked every 2 hours, at all hours of the night, especially when you're sleeping- IF you can sleep...

2. They’re expensive. Really, really expensive. 

3. There needs to be more artwork! Come on, its not exactly an exciting place to be, so let’s cheer it up!

Fast forward one more time to December 2011 : I had tried all the medications available to treat UC and had decided to get my colon AKA large intestines removed. Dun, dun dun...

...Three MAJOR surgeries later, I was blessed to be able to get rid of the ileostomy bag that I lived with for 6 months and THANKFUL to have my plumbing hooked back up! (Yes, I still go to the bathroom like everybody else, I just have a lot less pipes to go through...)

This past year I've had my guts cut out and my abs sliced through 3 times. I've almost bled to death once, I've had a tube shoved down my throat to resolve an intestinal blockage that was making me constantly puke. I've had eroded skin on my tummy, pulled stitches, staples throbbing in my anus, loneliness, and extreme sleep deprivation. I've wandered hospital corridors, IV pole in hand, one baby step at a time, (with my awesome [now] husband and mother by my side.)

So yeah, to say the least, its kinda been a rough year and young adulthood so far.

As the band Athlete says in one of their songs Wires, "Looking at you now, you would never know." Truly, looking at me now, no one WOULD ever know what I've been through!

I've always felt like a boat in the rough seas, being tossed about by the angry waves. But guess what? My ship keeps on sailing. The Lord has always kept wind in my sails and He has kept my ship from crashing into the rocks.  Interestingly enough my name (Kelsie) means "victorious ship".

So I guess my ship is an outward sign of the storms I've sailed through/am still sailing through. 

"The easy part of a storm is knowing there's an end. The hard part is believing you will get there." - Anonymous

I wish I could say that things will always get better, but sometimes our circumstances don't improve. Believe me, I know because I was just re-diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. But there is HOPE, there is always hope, and it is found in Jesus Christ alone. 

By God's grace and mercy my victorious ship sails on, despite the raging seas.