Months into being diagnosed with my disease, my doctors were trying their best to find different ways to continue to minimize my symptoms. One of the ways suggested was to remove a part of my immune system since it is an autoimmune disease. 

What felt like the quickest turnaround ever, I found myself being told weeks before the actual date I would be getting my thymus removed. Your thymus is a gland that sits in between your lungs and is a part of your immune system. It produces antibodies and helps fight infections, so, by taking it out, the goal was to lessen the antibodies that attack my muscles. The trade-off is there are so many parts of your immune system that sometimes it has no effect. However, removing a part of your immune system makes you more susceptible to illnesses and makes fighting them harder. 

Blindly, I went into the surgery knowing that there was a 50/50 chance of it working, but a 100% chance I would now have a weaker immune system. Nevertheless, I still had the procedure spending two nights in the hospital. I had a somewhat quick recovery only missing a week of school. My friends were the best visiting me every day and bringing me goodies. I only had slight trouble breathing for a couple days, but besides that I found myself with little to no side effects. 

Sadly a year later I can say the surgery did not work. As frustrating as that is, it is just another thing I have to live with. Another thing I cannot dwell on. A common theme throughout my column has been resilience and positivity which I cannot stress enough. Dwelling on bad things does not get you anywhere, that is something I had to learn.

Next week I will touch on my nurses and my appreciation for them. I can’t wait to continue to share my story with you! Remember our struggles don’t define us.