Personal Narrative: Rheumatic Fever

Rheumatic Fever is the complication of untreated strep throat and has long been eradicated ever since World War I. Of course it was my luck, or there lack of, to be diagnosed with such an illness. This would prove to be one of the hardest things for me to triumph on my journey through life.
The first major warning signal happened in sixth grade in 2011. It was as vivid as if it had happened to me fifteen minutes ago. I was on my way to my 3rd hour and had just closed my locker. A few steps after closing my locker I all of the sudden fell. This wasn’t like I had tripped and fallen because of lack of coordination or because of focusing on something else. I at one moment was standing up and walking with no difficulty and then the next moment i was on the floor ,cheek on the floor and books scattered in random positions around me. People around me gasped and wondered if i was alright. Thankful for the people that had gathered my books and had given them back I just sat in the hallway and asked for one of the teachers to

The reason for this extensive amount of testing is because you can’t test Rheumatic Fever directly, just the bacteria that caused it which is strep. I had so many blood tests that I started comparing the nurses that withdrew the blood. To fight this predicament I began to take penicillin one shot a month or one pill a day. I tried both and soon learned that the pills were definitely the better choice. Unfortunately, according to my profession, if I’m around people at my job I have to take it for life, or if I’m not around people for the majority of my job I only have to take it until I’m twenty one. I began to notice pains in my heart from time to time and notified my mom who, in my opinion, overreacted. Turned out that I had a slight heart murmur which is kind of like getting cramps in one of the most important organs in your