Rachel Koch

Prof. Jamey Dunham

English Composition

16 September 2019

How One Event Impacted My Life

         When I was 6 years old, I had a stomach ache. I had asked my mom to rub my stomach,

as most kids would do. She started to rub my stomach while watching “The Office” on TV.

Then, suddenly, I noticed her look down at me with a furrowed brow. I asked her what was

wrong, and she called my dad into the room. She pointed to a spot on my abdomen and my dad

began to palpate the same area. The look that my two parents gave each other was one I would

never forget. The next thing I knew, I was being taken to the doctor’s office without even an

explanation of what they had found. My diagnosis of focal nodular hyperplasia changed my life

forever.

         When I arrived at the doctor, I heard my parents telling Dr. Geberhart that they had found

a bump on the inside of my abdomen. The doctor again felt right around my ribcage, where the

liver is located. He confirmed that there was indeed something there that should not be. He tried

to convince my parents not to worry, but the next few weeks at home it seemed like there was a

tension of something unknown in the air. I was scared because I knew that my parents were

scared, even though I didn’t really know what was going on. I wanted to ride on my tricycle, and
jump on the trampoline, and keep taking my ballet classes. My parents barely let me go outside

after they knew I had something wrong. We got referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist at

Cincinnati Children’s, who was one of the best in the country. He told my parents that he

believed I had a liver tumor, and after that, my daily life was just a whirlwind of tests. It seemed

like once a week we were driving to the doctor’s office or Cincinnati Children’s hospital. That

hospital smell, like a mix of hand sanitizer and airborne illnesses, became familiar to me. I got

pricked with needles for blood samples. I also got multiple ultrasounds, and I hated how my

stomach always felt sticky after the warm gel was poured on. I even had to get a CAT scan.

When I was brought to the hospital for my CAT scan, the nurse told me I had to drink this

orange liquid in order for the machine to work. It tasted like a thick version of Fanta, so I thought

it was just a soda and drank it all in one go. After this, my stomach started to feel not quite right.

I told my parents that my stomach hurt but they just told me I was fine. As the nurse was

inserting my IV, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and everything became black. When I

finally regained consciousness, I threw up the orange medicinal Fanta all over the nurse. We

went ahead with the CAT scan anyways, and the results of all my tests were sent to my doctor.

The doctor was pretty sure that it was benign and wouldn’t cause problems, but he ordered a

biopsy to make sure. A biopsy is a procedure where they make a tiny incision and use a needle to

capture some of the tissue, where it is then tested to look for irregularities. However, at 6 years

old, this was a very traumatic experience that has still affected me today.

         Before my biopsy, the nurse told my parents it would be a good idea to schedule a “walk-

through” of the procedure for me. It took place in the room where you wake up after surgery, and

they showed me on an Elmo stuffed animal about the IV I would have, the oxygen mask, and

what exactly would go down during the biopsy. Then, I was taken to a room and prepped for the
procedure. I still had not comprehended what was going on with my body, and I felt very shaky

and nervous. When they started to wheel me away to the operation room, my heart started

beating out of my chest and I started crying ferociously for my parents. They never came. Next

thing I knew, I was in the operating room and counting backwards from 10 as they began to

administer the anesthesia. When I woke up, I was alone in a room and cried again until the nurse

came up to me. I can still remember every detail about this day because it was very traumatic for

me. I even know what I had to eat after; mini corn dogs and crinkle cut fries. From this day on, I

had extreme separation anxiety from the feeling of being abandoned before my procedure. This

later turned into generalized anxiety, and I was in therapy and on medication by the first grade.

Although my anxiety has been a struggle throughout my whole childhood, the past few years it

has finally began to dissipate. Regarding the biopsy, they concluded from the sample that my

liver tumor was benign, and through my imaging and lab work, the doctor made a diagnosis: a

condition called focal nodular hyperplasia, defined by a liver lesion which typically does not

grow, and does not become malignant.

         From the moment of my diagnosis to today, I have continued to get blood tests and

ultrasounds every 6 months. Until the summer of 2019, there were no changes, and they even

said that I could start going longer between appointments. I had looked forward to my “tumor

days”, because I always got to pick where we went out to lunch, and we got to stop at IKEA.

This June was one of those days. We went through the normal routine, bloodwork, ultrasound,

then follow-up with the doctor. However, when I got into the appointment, the doctor who I now

knew well told me that there were two new lesions. As he continued talking, my ears tuned out

and my eyes began to well up with tears, because I knew in my head I would have to repeat the

whole process again from when I was 6 years old. I felt just as vulnerable as I did then. This
time, I got ordered to get an MRI with contrast. The two days it took to get those results back felt

like months. When the results finally came back, we learned that everything was still okay, but

now I have to come back more often for testing. This is also a rarer branch of focal nodular

hyperplasia, called multiple focal nodular hyperplasia.

         In the end, most people would consider all my medical history a curse. Although it has

had a negative impact on my life by bringing anxiety upon me from a young age, it also helped

me discover something that a lot of people my age haven’t figured out yet. I have known since

third grade that I want to be in the medical field. The help of the doctors and nurses through one

of the scariest times in my life inspired me to do the same thing for other people. My love and

interest for the medical field has not wavered since I discovered my passion. I would consider

this one of the greatest impacts on my life because I know what my calling is for when I’m older,

and although it has been a scary ride, I think it has been a good experience for me.