Since I first got my mensural cycle at 12, I have always had extremely uncomfortable period pains; at 14, my mom put me on birth control because the pain was too unbearable. I was not responsible enough to keep a pattern of taking the pill every day at the same time; oftentimes, I didn't take it at all. I was on and off of birth control from the ages of 14 to 16, going on 17. I was not sexually active at all during these years. One weekend, my best friend slept over at my house, and my period unexpectedly came on. Of course, it was unbearable. She had to help me shower, eat, and get ready for bed because I could not move. My mother was not home at the time. And I felt a shooting pain on the right side of my body. Once I slept, I was okay for the next day. The next morning, I had an eye doctor's appointment, and my friend came with my mom and me. Once we got there, the shooting pain started again. Since my office is in a mall, we decided to eat before it worsened. Her mom picked her up from the mall, and my mom took me back home because she had work.
Not even an hour later, I was paralyzed from the waist down. I had to drag myself to the bathroom, where I also vomited uncontrollably. My brother called my mom crying because he was scared for me; she sped home, they carried me to the car (at 9 and 10), and I went to the hospital. They were hesitant to give me medication because they believed I could handle it. They also were very rough and didn't ASK questions; instead, they assumed. Luckily I transferred to another hospital to have surgery. However, looking back on this incident bothers me because I did not know how blatant racism is in the medical field.
