The Texas Incident

... Continued

Once  I began vomiting in the early morning on Saturday, December 27th my stomach kept telling me I had to poop every hour, but I could not find relief.  I sat on the toilet and vomited in the trash can. That's how I spent most of the day on Saturday when I wasn't lying in bed with a heat pad on my belly. Veronica convinced me to call my parents and tell them what was going on. I didn't want to freak them out, so I tried to down play how horrible I really felt. My mom immediately offered to drive to come pick me up, but I thought I could wait it out and be better by my flight Monday morning. I was wrong!

Saturday night came around and the vomiting had stopped, but I still couldn't poop. I decided to take three pills of Veronica's mom's laxatives in hopes that my belly could find some relief. Sunday morning around 7am I began vomiting again. At this point, I hadn't eaten anything since Friday night, so it was just liquid coming up. I didn't sleep for more than an hour at a time before my body was waking me up because it thought I had to go to the bathroom, but I couldn't get anything out. Around 9am on Sunday I was finally able to poop. At first, beautiful turds filled the toilet; however, each time I went running to the bathroom my bowel movements became looser and looser until I could no longer control them. I pooped my pants twice because I couldn't make it to the bathroom fast enough. I wasn't even embarrassed. Just disappointed with my body. I called my parents at 11:45am Texas time to ask my mom to come get me because I knew I couldn't fly on a plane while having uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting my brains out.

My mom and Kim left to come get me and I tried to gain some control of my pipes. I spent most of the day sitting on the toilet to avoid more messes.  We had family friends visiting Houston that were kind enough to meet my friend Veronica halfway between Houston and Austin to pick me up so that my mom would have a shorter drive. Veronica was a life saver. She packed my bags and got me ready for the car ride. We left Veronica's house at 4pm and I arrived at the Tous' hotel in Houston by 8pm. The car ride was extremely uncomfortable. Thankfully, I didn't vomit nor poo my pants. I was grateful the Tous had a suite and they gave me my own bathroom close to a bed. The last time I vomited was at Veronica's house. At this point, I was still shitting every few hours, but I hadn't had a mess since Veronica's house.

At 3am, mom and Kim arrived at the hotel. I put on the depends my mom brought as well as some comfy clothes. We thanked the Tous and left. While walking out of the hotel I could smell the staff cooking the continental breakfast, which made me dry heave and gag once I got outside. I slept in the car the best I could even though bumpy roads made my stomach uneasy. We stopped at most of the rest stops along I-10 East (when the GPS said I-10 East, I swear she was saying "I titties."). Mom and Kim alternated driving and resting. We made a pit stop at the Russo's, our friends in Alabama.  We got there around 11:30am. They fed me crackers and ginger ale. I showered and took bath, which I followed with a two hour nap.  It was nice to finally see them after 20 years. I want to visit them again when I'm healthy because they are so much fun! We left the Russo's around 4pm.

After leaving the Russo's, we went through a Chick-fil-a drive-thru. We pulled over in a Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot to eat. I took two bites of soup and then I shit myself in the backseat of the car. Thankfully, the adult diaper did its job and contained the mess. Mom went in with me to BB&B to help me clean up my mess and put on a clean diaper. My mom is a trooper! Once that was cleaned up we hit the road because I gave up on eating anything until I got home. Mom and Kim drove through the night making a few pit stops for me before we finally made it home early morning on Tuesday, December 30th.

I'm so very thankful to everyone that helped to get me home and everyone that took care of me when I struggled to care for myself. I'm grateful for all my friends that prayed for me. I'm crying just thinking about how much I am loved and cared for. Although I grieve for my independence during times like this, time has proven that I will get back up and find it again.

I lost 18 pounds during this whole ordeal. I dropped to 132lbs and I seem to be stuck there. When I look at my naked body in the mirror I see an extremely thin and toned physique that most women would envy. However, I feel very weak. I want to regain my strength and weight because this body image to me is one of illness, not health. While I'm stuck listening to how lucky I am that I can lose weight so easily and listening to everyone's new year's resolution to lose weight I am secretly fuming inside.

Christmas with Veronica

I arrived in Austin at lunch time on Christmas Eve. As soon as Veronica and her mom picked me up from the airport we headed to get some amazing Texas BBQ for lunch. We shared a delicious portion of tender brisket, smoked chicken, and juicy sausage links. It was absolutely wonderful! Following lunch we explored a gas station called Buckees. It had over 30 gas pumps and inside it was like an enormous Wawa. We walked around tried a sample of pecan pie. YUM!  On the way to Veroncia's house, we stopped at a little pecan store on the side of the road because there was a huge squirrel outside that I wanted my picture with. Inside I bought underpants bandages. "Dress your wounds with tighty-whities!"


A pic of the three of us after we filled up on BBQ!

Squirrel!

Once we got home, we got ready to go celebrate Christmas with Veronica's extended family.  I think I met over 30 people at her cousin's house. The food was awesome! Plus, it was great to meet so many people in her family. On the way home, we stopped by a huge Christmas tree made of lights. We twirled under tree at midnight,  which was magical! By the time we got back home, I was exhausted, but I gave Veronica her gifts before we went to bed.

On Christmas, we went to Ihop for breakfast and then we explored Austin. It was perfect because the streets were empty! We had the city to ourselves. We even went on a little hike.

Austin, Texas

The view from our hike

After we finished exploring, we stopped by a family friend's house to drop off gifts and celebrate Christmas. When we returned home, we watched my favorite Christmas movie 'Surviving Christmas' before going to bed.

The day after Christmas, we relaxed at the house in the morning before getting some more Texas BBQ for lunch. After lunch, we went wine tasting at a place called Water 2 Wine. We bought some wine of our own and a bottle to share at our painting with a twist later that night. After wine tasting we went back home to relax before going to paint. The painting with a twist was so much fun! The instructor was great and funny. "If you make a mistake, drink some more wine until you like it."

We went to In-N-Out on our way home, which was fun because Veronica had never been before.  By the time we got home, I was tired and went to bed.

3am Saturday, December 27th I woke up vomiting.... to be continued.










All I Want for Christmas is to Poop

I've been afflicted with constipation again. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I've had a relieving bowel movement. Honestly, I've been so busy with work, my trip to Taylor's, a Disney adventure this weekend to properly deal with it because I haven't really been home long enough to where I can safely take laxatives. I barfed a few times last Tuesday and again on Sunday. I think it was because my belly wasn't digesting my food quick enough for it to have room to go all the way down. I've mostly only been eating one meal a day since Thursday because if I eat more, I don't feel well. My stomach is in such discomfort and even my anus and rectum are giving me false BM alarms.  I drank a mug of warm prune juice this morning, but so far no luck. I'm going to drink another mug of warm prune juice before I go to bed tonight. I have a morning flight to Texas, but I'm desperate. If I have to shit on the plane, so be it. I warned my friend, Veronica that I'm bringing laxatives with me. I hate the feeling of having to poop, but not being able to relieve it. It's so bad that I'm wishing for an early period to shake my pipes up a bit.

I'll Likely Be Graduating with High Honors

UCF distinguishes top academic performers at graduation in the commencement program with asterisks and on official transcripts. Hopefully, I'll have some special cords and stoles to wear at graduation, too!

• Summa Cum Laude for those students in the upper 2.5 percent.
• Magna Cum Laude for those students in the upper 5 percent, but not in the upper 2.5 percent.
• Cum Laude for those students in the upper 10 percent, but not in the upper 5 percent.

UCF uses the average GPA over the past two years in the College of Business Administration (CBA) to calculate the top 2.5%, top 5%, and top 10 % of GPAs in the CBA. I currently have an overall GPA of 3.955, which qualifies me for Summa Cum Laude honors because it's higher than 3.911 cut off. As long as I can pass my last class next semester with an A or B, I'll graduate Summa Cum Laude in the top 2.5% of students in the College of Business Administration. Heck, even if I pass my last class with a C, I'll graduate Magna Cum Laude in the top 5%! As of October 2014 the CBA had 7,765 undergraduate students. Below is how I rank among my peers. Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

Christmas with Taylor 2014

After work on Friday, I drove down to visit Taylor and celebrate Christmas. Damn, I missed that girl! We wasted no time in opening up some wine and opening our gifts from each other.  Oh, and I passed our friendship turd back to her. After adding something to it, of course. I think the red button looks great!


We talked for another hour, and then Kenny, Taylor, and I went to P.F. Chang's for dinner.  We are two very classy ladies, so it should be no surprise that we took advantage of the chopsticks and became walruses for a photo op.

By the time we were done eating dinner it was 10:30pm, so we went back to her place and went to bed.

I left around 6am for a 9 mile run. Even though I had a paper with turn by turn directions with me,  I still had no idea where I was because I'm not familiar with the area.  It was a great run. I ran 9 miles in Sunrise, Florida, on Sunrise Blvd as the sun was rising, so that was kind of special.  Kenny had already left for work by the time I got back and Taylor was already up getting ready, so I didn't get any extra sleep. After I took a shower, Taylor and I went to a flea market she wanted to check out. We followed the flea market with lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, which was my first time there. It was delicious!  We took our cheesecakes to go and ate them at her place before we left for the Phillips, Craig, and Dean concert.

We took a great photo by a Christmas tree before the concert.

When the show ended, we went back to Taylor's place and recreated a selfie we found on Pinterest. It was outrageous and hilarious. Memories were most certainly made while trying to recreate it.  After that nonsense, we went to bed. 



We slept in Sunday morning, and went to Publix for some baking supplies before going to church at 1pm. After church we went ice skating! I had forgotten how much I love to ice skate. It was great fun. Once we made it back to Taylor's place, we did some baking and took some selfies while we waited for things to bake. Once we finished baking, selfie taking, and listening to Christmas music it was time for me to head home. We're hoping to see each other in January.



Finished Fall 2014 Semester Strong

I earned an A in all three of my classes! The A in Real Estate came easy. However, portfolio analysis and supply chain didn't come as easily. I needed to score a 94% on my portfolio analysis final exam in order to pass the class with an A. I scored an 82% and an 81% on the first and second exams, respectively. Given those low scores I figured a 94% on the final would be asking a lot of myself since I hadn't performed that well on an exam all semester. I did get 100s on all of the in class exercises and on the group project, so I must have understood the material to a certain extent.  I somehow managed to pull out a 94% on the portfolio analysis final exam to barely pass the class with an A.

My supply chain final was difficult. I didn't know what to expect going into it because I got a 76% on the first exam and a 97% on the second exam. I taught myself everything from the textbook. I needed a 153 out of 180 to bring my overall grade up to a 93%,which is what it takes to pass the class with an A. I scored a 145 out of 180 on the final. The professor gave a 7 point curve to bring my 145 up to a 152, which put my overall grade at 92.95%. Technically that's an A minus. Thankfully, my professor rounded my 92.95% up to a 93% and gave me a full A for the course!

With hard work and a little bit of luck, I passed all three classes this semester with an A! My current UCF GPA is 3.905 and my overall GPA is 3.955. I know I still have one more class to take before I graduate with my B.S.B.A. in Finance, but currently I've passed all except two of my classes with an A. I passed one with a B and another with a B +. Someone needs to pinch me because I never in my wildest dreams thought I would do this well in college.

Running and School

I ran the Space Coast Half Marathon on Sunday. I knew going into it that it wasn't going to be a good race for me. My period graced me with its annoying presence the day before the race and my stomach was not in the mood for 13.1 miles. Though I will avoid porta potties when I can, they actually are life savers and don't really gross me out anymore. The hardest thing was squatting with fatigued legs to avoid contact with every surface. My training got derailed by my wicked stomach pain a few weeks ago, so my longest run before the race was 6 miles. I used the race as a training run and ran the first 7 miles straight with only walking at water stops. I did three and one intervals from mile 7 to mile 9 and then I walked the last 4 miles to finish in 2 hours and 54 minutes. The course was beautiful, but my race was anything but pretty. I'm looking at it as a solid 9 mile training run. The space shuttle bling was out of this world! I'm looking forward to the OUC half marathon this weekend and hope to have a solid 11 miles during the race. The following weekends will prove tricky to find time to train because I'll be visiting Taylor, be at Disney celebrating my sisters' birthday, and then I'll be in Texas. My focus is still on the Disney full marathon in 39 days, so I'll be packing my running gear, and saying no to alcohol, going to bed early, and waking up early to get my mileage in.

Oh, hey, it's finals week already. That came out of nowhere. I took two finals today. The grade for Supply Chain was muted, so I don't know what I got on my Supply Chain final yet and I got a 90 on my Real Estate final, which means I passed Real Estate with an A!  Today, I took a final for the last time in the main campus, college of business testing lab. That was a bitter sweet moment walking out of there knowing I'll never have to take an exam in the that testing lab again. I have an in class final on Monday at 1pm, and then my semester will be over!  Next semester my class is at Valencia West campus, so Monday will be my last time on the main campus for class. I remember being intimidated by the thought of going to main campus. It's huge. It's where students go to graduate. What if I can't? My fears were quickly calmed. I will be walking out of my final exam on Monday with a new found confidence. I can do anything I put my mind to. My peers are not necessarily better than me. I out performed them during most of my college career. I don't know if I'm still one of the top 20 finance students at UCF, but I was in that ranking at some point. In fact, I will no longer underestimate myself.  Hard work pays off and it's a liberating feeling to see the fruits of my labor. Now, my mindset is: What if I can? I can and I will!