Dan's Troubles | Teen Ink

Dan's Troubles

February 21, 2018
By JamesStory PLATINUM, Baltimore, Maryland
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JamesStory PLATINUM, Baltimore, Maryland
23 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way." -Ernest Hemingway


Ok, before I tell you my story about Ebola, let me give you some background of this “Ebola.” Ebola has been around since 1976. In that time, no one had Ebola except a few people. That is until 2014 when the Ebola outbreak started. 2015 was one of the worst years for me and over 70% of West Africans. I don’t live in West Africa, I live in the U.S.A. Oh and my name is Dan. That is short for Danny. 2015 was one of the worst years of my life because I was one of over 20,000 people who got Ebola. It was a tragic story and I am excited to share it with you. Well, what am I waiting for? Let us begin the story!
Early Spring: 2015
This is how my story begins. It was Early Spring 2015 and this was the first time I had hear about “Ebola.”
I can’t believe it! This new illness they call “Ebola” is spreading! Maybe I will be lucky and not get it.
When I heard about Ebola it didn’t occur to me how big of an illness/problem Ebola would become. 2 months had passed with no sign of me or my family getting Ebola. That is until Late May when I started feeling sick. I was in the United States so I thought I could not have Ebola. I had previously been in West Africa but moved for a better lifestyle. I did some research by talking to some of my friends and going on the computer. I had found out that Ebola started to spread in late 2014. This shocked me and now I was freaking out. I really didn’t know what to so I called my mother Susan and she said the following
“You need to go to the doctor right now” “Do you know what has been happening?”
That was it, I was going to the doctor. The next day I was about to go to the doctor when I turned on the news it said “Ebola Outbreak getting worse.” At that point I was even more freaked out than I had been so I rushed out and headed to the doctor. When I got to my doctor I told them about new symptoms I had never had before. I had told the doctor I had headaches almost every day, I was more tired than usual, and I had a high fever yesterday. The doctor said to follow him into this big room. It had a lot of machines in their so I was confused. The doctor said to sit down in the chair so he could look at my vitals. After about 10 minutes, the doctor walked out of the room. He came back about 15 minutes later to give me extremely bad news. The doctors had diagnosed me with Ebola. They had looked into my vitals, ran some tests and said it was confirmed I had Ebola.

After the doctor said that I had started to cry as this was terrifying for me. The doctor said there was nothing he could do because they had no cure. He did a few more tests before he said to just go home and to not come into contact with anyone for a period of time. That included my work. After I got home I had to call all of my family members to tell them about what had happened including my work. I had previously worked at a lawyer’s office and now I didn’t know how I was going to get money. Everyone was ALL devastated. My mother had said that it was best to just get some rest and get help if you started to feel worse. Another 3 weeks has passed and I was feeling worse than I ever had before. I had started having abdominal pain and started throwing up a lot as well. I knew I could not go to the doctor because what could they do? The doctor told me they did not have a cure or anything. I couldn’t go near my family anymore because I did not want to get them sick. It was almost 3 weeks in and I was feeling horrible. One day I was just watching TV when my phone rang. It was my cousin Ester. Let me tell you about Ester. He is the rudest person alive. That’s all I need to say. I answered the phone and coughed. He said “YUCK” “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” I said I had Ebola. He replied saying “Well, that’s wonderful because now I don’t have to see you, ha ha you can’t go out of your house.” I hung up the phone after that and tears came out of my eyes. Rude is all I could think. Another month had passed and I needed to go to the hospital. The abdominal pains were starting to hurt even worse, even after I took Advil for my horrible headaches, they would not go away for the whole day. Even if I couldn’t get help for my Ebola, I had to try and get even the smallest amount the help. It was on a Saturday and I headed out to my car to go to the hospital. I would have called the E.R. but I needed to drive at my own speed so I could get there maybe even faster. When I got there the people at the front desk acted immediately after I told them what happened and they took me in immediately. My doctor came in after around 10 minutes of checkups. The usual weight, temperature and some regular tests. My doctor came in around 10 minutes later to ask me what was happening. I told him about my worse abdominal pains, crazy headaches and my tiredness. He did some tests on me and went out of the room. I decided to check my cellphone to keep my busy and ended up calling my mom. She asked me what was wrong and ended up telling here so much my head was spinning. She said I would be alright and just to stay calm. Then my phone rang again and guess who it was? The rudest person I know. Ester is calling me and I didn’t know if I should answer my phone.

I decided to do so and all I heard were rude things about me, laughing at me, horrible name calling and more I can’t even say. I don’t want to remember or even tell you about those nasty things he called me or it would be ugly. So after another 30 minutes had gone by, my doctor finally came in to break the worst news I had ever heard in my entire life. My doctor told me when they looked at my vitals again, they had found that my Ebola had spreading and had been blocking my blood vessels. He said to me very slowly, that I was dying. I can’t explain to you how much I was shaking at that point right as he said that. It felt like the whole world was collapsing before me. My doctor told me that my body would not be able to fight off my illness because of my blood vessels had started to block. I not only didn’t think this could ever happen to me, but I couldn’t believe this had happened. It was time to tell me parents. Oh man how upset they would be. I had a prediction that my mom would be the saddest of all people because my dad Troy is more of a tough guy and his never cried ever. I had hope in myself that my body would be able to fight Ebola off but the chances my doctor said were extremely slim and almost not possible. I called my mom as I was driving home and as the words came out of my mouth my mother was already in tears. I had to explain to her that the doctor said my body probably will not be able to fight off Ebola. My mother said that I should just have hope and I said I did but if the doctor said that then it might be true. I explained to her everything that had happened and after about 25 minutes of talking to her, we said our goodbyes as this most likely would be the last time I would see her. 1 week had passed. My abdominal pain was almost unbearable and I was having extreme diarrhea that would not go away. I got a call from my doctor saying that I need to come to the doctor’s office for another checkup. I asked if I could get driven there as I was so tired and I needed some assistance.

They agreed and after about 5 minutes I heard the sirens and got in the ambulance. When I got there they took tests and when all of that was over the doctor went out of the room like always. He came back in around 15 minutes and had a smile on his face. I was freaking out because I didn’t know what was happening. He showed my one of the tests they took of me and told me to read this print that was on the diaphragm. It read Blocked Blood Vessels: Negative when I read those words I didn’t know what to think of it at first. I had a confused look on my face so the doctor clued me in. He said that my body somehow had found a way to fight off my Ebola. It was a miracle he said. He said that for some reason my body was not reacting the way it should. Dr. Frenzler said that in around 2 months, my Ebola would be basically gone. I was amazingly surprised and after that moment I had felt happier than I ever have before. I called my dad first. He was so excited and when I told him what had happened he told mom and they were so proud and amazed. Ester then called me. I really didn’t want to answer it this time because of all the other times. But since I was in a good mood and I have just found out this fantastic news, I decided to answer him. He said hello to me at first which was surprising because he would usually start off his conversation with an insult. He asked me how I was feeling and I told him the news. He said that was great so I said to him if he was feeling ok because Ester had never ever been this nice to me before. He said if we could start over again and we could not be rude to each other anymore. I said that would be awesome and he then gave me three compliments in a row. 3 compliments is a lot for him and me so this was great! I said my Ebola would be basically gone in 2 months so in around a month and a half he could come over as well as my other family. I quickly realized that I needed to call my work to let them know I can come back. This was so exciting, my life will be going back to normal finally.

After all the doubts, bad times, I still had hope, and this is what it was worth. My work said they were super excited for me to come back and said I could get a promotion if I work another 4 months. When they hung up I was waiting to go home. The ambulance brought me back to my house.

1 Month Later:
After a month of finally getting better, my headaches were going away and I was only getting them 2 times a week! Huge improvement from only a month ago! I got a knock on my door and it was of all people, Ester. In the car was my mom and dad, so I was so happy to see them. They rushed out of the car and hugged my tightly in my arms. It felt like my oxygen for going to run out. Ester was the next one to give me a hug and he actually started to cry. It was great seeing my family again. 1 month had passed again and every day it was either my mom or my dad that would visit and sometimes Ester. My life had seemed to go back to normal as I started to work again last weekend and I went to the doctor every 2 weeks. Last weekend Dr. Frenzler said my Ebola was all gone. This was exciting so much. 3 months had passed, no headaches. Only little ones after work. I couldn’t believe it. Everything was better. No Ebola. I could not stop repeating that in my head. No Ebola. I was one of the luckiest people alive and when I turned on the TV, the man said over 9,000 people had died. I was one of the lucky ones. Each and every day feels like a miracle to me. 2017 turned around and everything was better than before. I got married to a beautiful woman named Lana and we got a golden retriever. That is for another time though.

Thank You for reading my story, I am hoping this proves to you that nothing is impossible. Keep hoping and nothing is impossible. I am so thankful to my family who supported me. Keep faith in yourself. Everything you ever thought was bad can be cleared up. Every day is a new day for me and I think about how thankful I am. Even if you are feeling the lowest of the low, depressed, sad, anything. Just keep strong and you can accomplish anything. Thank you for reading and remember, keep going.



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