The thing that I love the most about my family is that they're very caring. I know if I'm ever in need or if there's anything that comes our way, they're going to be there. As a mom, it's hard having a health condition because I know that there's times where I'm in pain, where it takes a lot from me. I think that's the hardest part, that it's not something visible.
I was at work, I was 24 at that time. I started having a lot of pain. I mean a lot of pain where I couldn't move. And then minutes from that, I'm throwing up and throwing up nonstop. My sister comes in again and she's like, I need to call the ambulance because you don't look good. I was having severe pancreatitis.
So they gave me some medications. They put me to sleep while I was in the ICU unit, because the pain was so much.
When I woke up, I had already been there for about a week and a half. And that's the first time that I heard about triglycerides. And then my triglycerides were at 2000. But the triglycerides wasn't something that they mentioned to go home and do this, to keep them under control or to avoid them getting any higher. If I would've known everything that I know now, I would've never left that hospital without having an answer or having an actual diet or actual paper telling me, okay, this is what you need to do to avoid your triglycerides getting out of control.
I was just hospitalized and this time it was worse than the last time. It was the first time that I was going to go see my endocrinologist and he was like, I'm really scared to let you know that your numbers are not good. Your triglycerides are over 10,000 right now. The next thing I remember, it's that I'm already in the ICU again.
I just knew that it was bad because I had a lot of doctors in front of me and that's when I understood like I have kids and not being able to see them, them being scared because of everything that they were seeing and to be in that situation just makes you feel that, what did I do wrong?
The first time that I had that pancreatitis and the first time that I heard of high triglycerides, if they would've told me everything that I know now, I would've changed a lot of things, and I think that's why things got out of hand. Because I didn't know. I hope for my future, and my future generations, my daughters, and even for those who are out there, I really hope that there's an answer soon.
And they say there's always the light at the end of the tunnel, and I hope that that light comes here soon.
