The story of Lauren
I am currently 15 years old and am living a fairly normal life. I hang out with my friends, spend time with family, and go to school, but life wasn’t always this way. At 12 years old, I was diagnosed with gigantomastia, which a very rare disease, let alone for a girl my age. Gigantomastia is thought to be caused by breast tissue being sensitive to hormones, so the scariest thought is that it could reappear at any moment. Upon diagnosis, I had to give up soccer, the sport I loved. But it only got harder from there. I had to break the news to a few of my friends, which ultimately made my relationship with them awkward,or even nonexistent. For my first surgery, which was 6.5 hours, I missed the first month and a half of 8th grade school year recovering. When I went back, the big question was “where were you?”. When I didn’t answer that question, eventually some people just stopped talking to me, most of them my former friends. I had nobody to talk to and nobody that understood. Eventually I was to the point that I was questioning why I should even keep fighting. I became depressed. My worst mistake was not telling my parents so they could help me through it. I was their strong daughter and I couldn’t let them see me like that. To this day, I still feel depressed at times, especially when seeing my doctor. I’ve since had 2 additional surgeries, both around an hour long. I’ve also recently been cleared from having to see my specialist. She was a huge blessing to my life. She not only was a doctor and surgeon, but an amazing friend. Because of her, when I get older I want to go into the medical field so I can be as much of a blessing to others as she was to me. All the glory goes to God for bringing me through this extremely hard time and giving me such kind and amazing doctors. I hope my story can inspire you to keep going and never give up. After all, you could reach the top of the mountain from the lowest valley.