Chapter 1: The Diagnosis

My Name is Chelcy and this is my story:


One of the hardest things in life is when you have goals and plans that you want to accomplish and how you want to show the world what you are capable of, and all of the sudden BAM! Your whole life changes, in a snap of a finger! And you feel like you are in a tornado that doesn't want to stop and your not sure how to get out of it.


One of my passions in life has ALWAYS been teaching! One of my favorite things that I loved about teaching is when these kids would come to school with a passion to learn! When they finally understood what I taught, was the BEST! I loved that! I also had a passion for them knowing that I loved them!

Getting to know them, and who they were and what they were going through was so important in there educational learning.


When I learned a First grader had to take care of the siblings at home and didn't get to be a kid, that broke my heart. I knew it was my responsibility to make sure that they knew they could be a kid at school, AND! to learn and work hard. My work history includes being a Long term Substitute teacher, teacher assistant, etc. for the past 5 years that has been my world. This past school year was my fifth year teaching.



Everything started to change in February 2019, on this particular day the teacher I worked with wasn't in attendance, so I told my co-worker that I was having pain in my ribs. Which isn't normal, she then told me that I needed to go tell my principal about what I was feeling, the principal told me that I should go to the doctor.


So I left and went to a doctor nearby, the doctor took my blood and called me later that night, and told me that I was extremely dehydrated. I believed her when she told me that I was dehydrated, cause I had a job that was super fast pace and you didn't have time to slow down to take a water break or a bathroom break.


I ended up going to the doctor 3 times that week, and by the last one, the doctor looked at my results and noticed that my kidneys were not functioning well. She then referred me to a nephrologist, I was so hesitant and I was extremely scared.


I was busy with life and didn't take the time to worry. I was still feeling pretty good at this point. So I just put calling the nephrologist under the rug.(don't ever do that!)


They ended up calling me and told me that I had missed an appointment that I didn't know I had... Though we rescheduled and that's when things started to change.



I went to the nephrologist and he took a blood and urine sample. He found that I was peeing out all of my protein and wasn't keeping a lot of my nutrients in the way a normal person does. Which called for a kidney biopsy, to figure out what was going on.



On top of all of this, I ended up getting some kind of cold, cause we were in the middle of January at the time.



I went and got the biopsy done, they found blood clots around the kidney which meant that they had to keep me overnight in the hospital.


I ended up going home, and the next day I was in a lot of pain. I ended peeing out a lot of blood. I shared this with my husband. He ended up calling the on-call doctor, which was my actual doctor. What a BLESSING! I can tell you now, that I have been blessed with the BEST nephrologist in the    WORLD! When my husband was talking to the doctor, he told us to come into the hospital.




I ended up being in the hospital for 12 days. If you didn't read that right it says 12 DAYS!



At the beginning of being at the hospital, they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I would say it was pretty stressful not knowing what was happening or even knowing what was going on with my body. In my mind I wondered, what could it possibly be? I have strived my whole life to be healthy and strong. I have stayed away from drugs and alcohol. So what could it possibly be?



Well, my doctor came in the next morning and told me that he had a meeting with all of the doctors that were under kidney care at Intermountain Hospital. They were trying to determine what was wrong with me. Since I had a biopsy, they were saying that it could be lupus, but they also said that it has to be in the blood plus the biopsy to be lupus. My doctor told me that they only found things in the biopsy that would make it possible to be lupus. Since it was only within the biopsy they ruled out lupus.



My diagnosis is very rare and far between. I was diagnosed with ANCA Glomerulonephritis, an autoimmune disease. The ANCA is an antibody that attacked my kidneys which got them not to work properly.



Where did this come from? I NEVER thought this would be my trial, I NEVER expected this to be my life. It has taken time for me to process this whole thing, knowing that my kidneys are failing at such a young age. (I am just 30 years old)





I had plans for my life, ya know? I got married back in 2017, and I had goals and plans that I wanted to accomplish but, now! It's been put on pause. And this is just so much to process in my mind.



To wrap my head around the fact that my kidneys are not functioning well, and that they may not get back to where they need to be. What I have learned! I have learned so MUCH!

Honestly, you get to choose whether you are positive or negative it's a choice we have to make. It doesn't matter the trial. We all have been given our trials, we all have devastation's that crush us. It's okay to cry!



When life threw me a curveball, I chose to be positive in spite of the turn of the events in my life.



With this autoimmune disease, I am more apt to get sick. My career choice has been in the teaching field, (elementary school, special education) teachers assistant.



When this diagnosis came, they told me that I couldn't go back to my job. That was hard, I loved my job but I felt at peace that this was for the best.



It became a search of what I would be doing next, what career would best suit me, cause being around kids has always been apart of me. The thoughts that kept coming into my mind was 'Chelcy, be still and know that I am God' and also that God knows what he is doing and to trust in him.



I couldn't have got through this hard challenge without my husband, family, and close friends.



You don't realize how holding someone's hand, can do for them! A simple phone call or a text. And just being genuine, anyone can tell a fake. When we love as he loves, we begin to see others as he sees. <3



This trial came unexpectedly, but! I know that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ! I feel them so close to me and know that they have the best interest in me. And through him, I can get through this. <3