My name is Brooke Batterson; I’m 16 years old with a disease, Hirschsprung Disease. It makes my colon not have any muscles which is the reason why I have so many surgeries for my stomach. When I was 10 days old, I almost died because my colon was expanded, but my life was saved by my doctor. I live a normal life, but with fear of my stomach because I get sick a lot and missed school for three days max, crying and holding my stomach in pain. Then the Monday after Halloween weekend, I felt sick while I was at school, so I went to the nurses’ office and she just sent me back to class. That at night before my Student Council meeting, I was in more pain, so I went to the emergency room, I was there for a whole week after having two surgeries; a reverse colonoscopy type and to move my appendix. When I got home I saw Victoria and Curtis, my friends, but on Sunday I got sick again and went back to the emergency room because of tissue scars on my colon and my bile was really bad, so I stayed there until two days before Thanksgiving.

It was November 13, 2008 when I was surrounded by daisies outside of a hospital in Dallas, just when I got off my Morphine pump. I felt tired, painful, nasty, yet happy; like I had been saved to live my life everyday knowing I’m okay and there’s nothing to fear. My step-dad, Gerald, was wearing a blue polo shirt with khakis, and black shoes, my mom looked tired, old, but beautiful as always. I was outside because I got off my Morphine pump and I missed my dog, Minnie so much. Gerald brought her to the hospital so I can spend precious time with her. She started barking for nothing, I looked to the left and saw a gorgeous lizard; he had yellow spots all over his body, but had unique green skin.
I said bye to Minnie and Gerald and went back to my room. Dr. Miller came in and he started teasing me and I say “whatever” while watching animal planet. When it was three o’ clock in the afternoon, Morgan, my friend texted me to see if I was okay and to say that she will be here at seven o’clock. My step-brothers, Garod and Garrett came in five minutes after I got the text message. It was already past Garod’s birthday which was November seventh, but I called him that day to say happy birthday and he was glad to hear from me. They both brought me a bag of Cheetos, but I couldn’t have them yet because I had a tube up my nose and down my throat to take the bile out. My throat was in bad pain, it felt like my insides were closing on the tube, making it hard to breathe just thinking about it. Garod, Garrett and I went to the game room to rock out on the Guitar Hero, but Garod won as usual which wasn’t surprising because he and Grant, my older brother were the kings of Rock n’ Roll!
It was seven o’ clock, Morgan wasn’t here yet, but gave me time to get back in bed because it would hurt to walk since my scar would stretch; the scar was in a straight line down my stomach. When I got a phone call on the hospital phone saying she’s coming up, I got really excited, she came in and gave me a polar bear, we both named it George, then unexpectedly I felt like it’s hard to breath. Morgan panics and told my mom while she was getting the blue plastic bag that I was pointing to. I threw up and Morgan left the room since its sickening, she came back to say bye because she had homework to do.
Days flied by quickly until two days before Thanksgiving when I got to go home which I was very thankful for since I got to eat Pumpkin Pie! I didn’t eat in two weeks and lost about eighteen pounds, so I was very hungry! I wanted to see Minnie really bad, but the day after Thanksgiving, my best friend for life who’s also my brother, Grant came home from Austin!
I’m doing much better with my stomach now, I’m so glad it’s all over now for my new life. I always did normal things like everybody else through my whole 16 years, nothing is ever different, but I couldn’t handle my sickness. I missed school so much, but not anymore because of my last three surgeries. I had a total of 22 surgeries in my life, my family and friends always been there to support me in a bad situation. I also want to thank the most to my mom and best friends, Victoria and Morgan!