Annamals Blog

My name is Anna, I run a pet service called Annamals. Learn about my incredible health journey!

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Isolation.

Pancreatitis was hard. I spent more days in the hospitals with doctors and nurses than my own peers. That began to be my everyday environment. It got to the point where it felt weird to go to school. I felt like I didn’t belong there. No one understood what I had been through.

I’d come back to school with bruises all up and down my arms from the many IVs that had placed. I think in my head, going to school was more exciting because it meant that I wasn’t in pain anymore. It didn’t have much to do with my friends, no offense to them. I began to feel isolated and stuck. No one understood me, or the pain I had been through. Many kids would try to sympathize with me and say “My stomach hurts too sometimes,” this only made me angry because they had no idea what pain was. 

Isolation with illness is not something that goes away. It’s something I live with every day. As a 22-year-old, most of my friends are graduation college. I am so happy for them and their bright futures, but I didn’t even make it past the first semester. It’s hard to hang out with them and listen to how hard school is or ho mean a professor is or how big this paper they have to write is. I’m not visibly bothered by this, and you will never see me physically bothered by this. I am smart enough to go to college, I even believe I’m smart enough to maybe go to graduate school. However, health holds you back in more ways than one. 

My goal in life is to wake up every day and feel good. That’s my only goal. I want to wake up with a good blood sugar, no back pain, no bloating or digestive problems that steer me away from food. No sitting in the bathroom for ridiculous periods of time. No fatigue, for absolutely not reason. I want to wake up and feel good. feel happy. feel whole.

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Me and Sadie at Annamals!

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This is my dog, Sadie. Summed up for you in exactly 9 seconds. She’s just like her momma.

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Check out my website and services if you're in Louisville!

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What the heck is Pancreatitis?

One of the many important lessons I believe my family learned through this journey, was the difference between a cure and a treatment. When the doctor came into my room in and told us that I had pancreatitis, our initial thought was, “…Well okay, how do we fix it?” Here lies the problem. A problem that touches more than just June 16, 2007. I am not a patient person (no pun intended). I like to get things done quickly. I wanted the doctor to tell me that he was going to run some antibiotics in my IV and send me home. Instead, this became the day that my lifestyle was flipped upside-down. For the first of, actually, many lifestyle changes to come in my future.

We quickly learned that this was not something that was going to go away overnight. For the next seven days, I stayed on 7 West in my first of the dozens of rooms I would later stay in. I vaguely remember one of the dozens of nutritionists I’ve seen in my life. She brought a large board to help visualize what pancreatitis was. I didn’t really pay attention. All I retained was that I would have to immediately be put on a low-fat diet and drink about ten bottles of water to keep the pancreas hydrated. I learned through experience that I was allergic to both demerol and morphine, by reacting with hives. Nubain wouldn’t touch the pain I was in, but luckily we were nearing the end of the visit.

We left the hospital the way I imagine a new parent does. Scared and not ready to leave the sterile and safe place that can catch you when you fall, or answer any question. We were sent away with small brochures and pamphlets, but no real ideas as to what my next meal would be. I remember coming home and watching mom throw away most of our kitchen. We looked at the back of the things we were eating and it was horrifying. My first meal was a plate of saltine crackers with sandwich meat and a glass of water.

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Duke

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My name is Anna.

My name is Anna, and I come from a middle-class white family in Louisville, KY. My parents are both from humble upbringings. My dad from the sticks of Iowa, and my mother Rochester Minnesota. My dad became a psychologist and my mother works for a private university. I had a great childhood and never had anything to complain about. My parents could afford to send my brother (5 years my senior) and me to private grade school. My parents did an excellent job growing up making sure we knew the difference between need and want. In a community of kids who received extravagant presents for no reason, family’s that owned lake and beach house properties, and everyone seemed to have the newest technology, we valued our trust, loyalty, and time together over any price tag. When I would ask if we were rich, I would always be greeted by the same answer, “We are lucky.” It wasn’t until I got older when I really understood what that meant--not that much older though. This is about where the happy childhood memories end, and in the spirit of Lemony Snicket but with my own twist, only keep reading if you’re ready to learn.

It was June 16, 2007. Father’s day actually. The day began with a stomach ache that grew worse by the hour. By mid-day, I found myself at the Children’s Hospital. By this time, the pain was a 10/10, I could physically see my stomach throbbing, and my whole family waited with me, not really sure how our life was about to change. I’m not really sure what we were expecting or how severe it actually was. The doctor came into my room and said, “Well, it appears you have pancreatitis.” We all sat there for a minute. I feel like we were kind of just waiting for him to tell us what the cure was, but there was none, and I was admitted to my first hospital stay for seven days; at twelve years old, on father’s day. 

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Welcome to the Annamals blog!