Page 14 - 2018 HLA Senior Yearbook

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R Why should you be considered?
"On a scale from one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” Have you ever been asked that question in a doctor’s C office while you lie there in excruciating pain? This is absolutely the worst question someone could ask me, and it has unfortunately been asked more times than I can count. How can you expect a child who has only known pain her entire life, to be able to answer this question? There were so many “pains”, which one do I rate? Since this was
all that I knew, I honestly believed that everyone lived like I did. This belief led me to stop mentioning how sick I felt, and I ended up creating some amazing coping mechanisms to get my mind off all the pain I was trying to manage.
As I got older, my symptoms got harder and harder to handle. I started getting so light headed that I would almost O pass out. My parents were so worried about me that they took me to every type of doctor you could imagine.
Doctors were baffled by all the symptoms and struggled to pinpoint exactly what was going on. As they began to run all their tests, a menagerie of results and diagnoses began to flow from one appointment after another.
Multiple blood tests showed extreme allergies to everything I was eating which was why I couldn’t eat anything without getting sick. This was diagnosed as “leaky gut” and an onslaught of different foods and massive amounts of supplements at various intervals began. IV’s of nutrition were administered because my body couldn’t absorb anything. One doctor discovered an autoimmune disease called Hashimotos which means my immune system
M was attacking my thyroid. This, of course, affected my hormones which were extremely low aiding my extreme bouts with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Another person discovered parasites and a Hiatal hernia. Another found salmonella and E.coli along with the Epstein bar virus, which is better known as “Mono”. After having two Colonoscopies and two Endoscopies, doctors concluded the chronic sharp stabbing pain I felt throughout my abdominal area was caused by a rare disease called Lymphocytic Colitis, which required high doses of medication. Even the doctors were completely shocked!
Because I had to cope with so much pain, I was driven to find ways to escape its relentless persistence. That’s when E my imagination in drawing and creating began to take flight. I created stories with characters that lived in fanciful
worlds. As my passions grew, so did my pain. One night while visiting grandparents when my pain had reached an unimaginable level of excruciating intensity, I searched for anything on my iPod to get my mind off it. I discovered a whole new world called YouTube. I was hooked!! From there I began to create videos by writing scripts, designing sets, creating wardrobes for my “actors”, editing film footage of sound and music, and experimenting with lighting techniques. Being home schooled, forced me to research and to teach myself the skills I needed to create the videos with the level of expertise I desired. From there, I created and manage my own
R YouTube channel, Angel Rose LPS Films, which over the past few years has reached a fan base of over 41 thousand subscribers and attained more than 11 million views.
NOITNEM ELBARONOH
SNIFFAHC YAF EIZNEKCM