Julianna and the Autobiography of Pain

By Judith A. Helmker

N/A

*no book description

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479725533

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Copyright © 2012 by Judith A. Helmker.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: Julianna And The Autobiography Of Pain

Chapter 2: The First Big Problem To Enter The Picture

Chapter 3: University Hospital

Chapter 4: Summer Fun

Chapter 5: Wonderful Winter Weather

Chapter 6: The Wonderful News, Or Not

Chapter 7: Surgery

Chapter 8: Chronic Pain & Pain Centers.

Chapter 9: Memories Of Golf

Chapter 10: Too Many Surgeries

Chapter 11: Stoney Creek Manner

Chapter 12: Wrapping Up Life

Preface

JULIANNA, AND THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PAIN is a disturbing story about a girl whose life is filled with trouble and sadness, and how she overcame the problems that beset her. If you look at her life from a hopeless point of view, you will not see the wonderful life this girl really had.

Julianna was born outside a large city, went to school and graduated just short of receiving a Doctorate Degree in Education. She became a teacher and author and was honored by including her name in many, Who’s Who Biographies.

She also excelled in athletics and became a well know athlete, as an Olympic Champion. She had a full life with three children, who also became well known as a golf professional, a Corporate officer, and a nurse, and teacher at the University level. Her life and her family, and her years of athletics with culminated with her obtaining a Doctorate Degree in Education, at the ripe old age of 73. After years of teaching and learning, she set out in a life of sharing until the age of 90 when we catch up to her and find out about her life’s story.

Come with me now and find each page filled with great happiness and great sorrow, and learn that with love, hope and faith you can do anything you want if, you are willing to pay the price. Julianna meets each problem with hope and faith in God. And, believes that, a person is so much better for trying things, and has the courage to take on all problems that come her way. She has a deep belief in God, and knows that through Him all things are possible. She wants to do something about a problem, and with Gods help she can say, why not me, instead of why me."

Also, with Gods help, she can really believe there is a reason for human suffering. And her path leads her to say, If man can walk the face of the moon, he can move mountains on his own land. Here is her helping prayer:

Heavenly Father, Hear my prayer,

Keep me in your loving care.

Help me through the day, today,

In all I do, in all I say.

Keep me pure and sweet and true,

In everything I say and do.

AMEN

Introduction

AS SURE AS MAN CAN WALK THE FACE OF THE MOON,

HE CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS UPON HIS OWN LAND

The events in this book happened to me or to the people I came in contact with during the many years I have suffered with chronic pain. The names have been changed. As I wrote this story, I became very much aware of the need to tell my story of suffering, with chronic pain to the millions of people in the United States who share a similar story of agony and pain. I do not wish to criticize the medical system as it operates in America today, but I must show the virtues as well as the horrors of this system.

I am grateful for the help I received from Phyllis Lahmann who encouraged me to write the story in the first place. An important aspect of this story is that it brings into focus the emotional aspects of a physical illness, and reveals the patients problems, feelings and misunderstandings. It also tells of the tremendous inability to not know what to do in the face of adversity.

As I report the events I leave it up to the reader to see the frustration of not knowing where to turn next and still try to keep happy and the family together. It also tells of the tremendous inability to not know what to do in the face of adversity.

I have written four information books in the field of physical education which I taught for thirty years, before I wrote the first book on the AUDIOBIOGRAPHY OF PAIN. My book on girl’s athletics was used by the University of Michigan for a text book, and my book on ALL Terrain Vehicles, is still used in the field, by a national group of all terrain vehiclers. My snowmobiling book was reprinted in l973. I have been a teacher for the years leading up to my retirement in l989. I do hope you will like this book, and can identify with some of the frustrations that Julianna went through. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

JUDITH A. HELMKER

Chapter 1

Julianna And The Autobiography Of Pain

I was sitting in a restaurant with a close friend and we were talking about what book I was going to write next. She recommended that I write one about my unusual life. At first I thought she was kidding but as we sat there, many ideas came into my head. I have had quite an interesting life, so why not. I am alone in my bedroom thinking about where I should begin and the thought came to me to start at the very beginning, when I was born.

My mother told me she had to walk through three feet of snow just to get to get to the hospital. When she arrived there were no beds available in the maternity ward, but there was one bed in the children’s ward. Needless to say, that wasn’t the only time I was put into the children’s ward when there wasn’t any room in the hospital where I was supposed to be. I came out an average seven pound baby girl, eighteen inches long with black hair and big blue eyes with flecks of gray. That night the girl with big blue eyes & flecks of gray made me feel old. I then wondered if the rest of my life would turn out gray at an early age, but it never did. Have no fear, for I am a ninety year old person with the body of fifty year old women. Unfortunately, my body hurts from being operated on too many times by well meaning surgeons. I am the bionic woman hooray . . . .

Well, I will talk more about that in the body of the story, just you wait and see. The first 22 years of my life were, shall we say, quite normal. I started school when I was four and got rheumatic fever when I was eight and in the third grade. Basically, I was put into the third grade for about the last four months of school. That is, when I got sick and when I returned, they put me into the fifth grade because they realized my abilities. I had started school when there was January enrollment and the students were either put ahead or stayed in the same grade for the next year. I was put ahead so many times that I would enter high school at the age of twelve, and graduate at the age of sixteen without a single idea what life was all about. I never started to menstruate until I was in the fifth grade, and didn’t learn how to drive until I was a senior. By then, all my other friends where anywhere from eighteen to twenty and had experienced sex and drinking . . . I just experienced kissing and that I didn’t like milk anymore.

I breezed through high school easily and received a scholarship to the great school of the University of Michigan. Unfortunately after one semester of a 4.0 grade average, I decided that Michigan was not that difficult, and I would try my hand at Michigan State. There is a rivalry in Michigan between the two schools and I felt I wanted to go where the football and basketball were played the best. I wanted to take up medicine, and the best school was Michigan State University.

I just loved college. The beautiful school that had a tremendous horticulture program along with it’s animal Husbandry program that is the oldest in the country, and the school was filled with farmers. They sure grew them cute down on the farm. Sports always inspired me, and physical education became a minor along with my medical program. The health department was a part of the physical education program and we had to take classes like physiology, anatomy, kinesiology, and datingology. An unfamiliar word you say, yes it is. But you have to remember that I did not date very much in high school even though I had many opportunities. At the age of twelve, I made the boys tennis team. I would have made many boys teams but I didn’t want to embarrass anyone. I forgot, I did make the boys swimming team but since they had a girl’s team I had to swim on that team. As a young person growing up in a suburb of a large Michigan City and having some wealthy relatives, I swam for the Turners, a private club that swam against other private swim clubs. I went to Olympic tryouts but I had a bout of Rheumatic Fever and had to quit the tryouts. It was all right however, as I did try out for the diving event and came in second from last when I really blew a swan dive, and a one and one half twisting back dive. I was also very athletic, but it seems like I was born to early for most girl’s sports. The boys had all the sports they wanted and if girls wanted to play on a team they had to tryout and beat all the boys. That is why I ended up on the boy’s tennis team in high school. But college, that was different. We may have played the game a little different but that was because the world didn’t think girls should stress themselves as much as the boys. Ha Ha!!! Title Nine came in during the 1980’s and the Federal Government believed that public schools should give girls the same opportunity in sports as the boys. If they didn’t offer girls sports in the same category then they had to stop the boy’s team from playing. And the male ego wouldn’t stand for that.

Almost 50 years after my four years in college I received seven collegiate letters from MSU in basketball, badminton, field hockey, golf, softball, soccer, and speed swimming. It took them that long to figure out that the female of the species was good enough for Letters as the boys were . . . My memory was greatest in field hockey because we beat the University of Michigan and Central Michigan University, and I scored the winning goals. That was my greatest feat in athletics up to this point, except for my swim in the Olympic trials. I also played tennis, but I received more awards from the county I lived in, after I took my teaching job. For many years after that I played golf and tennis at the state amateur level.

One of my most memorable games was a tennis match in Ingham County. My partner and I were playing for the doubles championship, and in the last game of the tournament I ruptured a tendon in my elbow. On my backswing I could slice the ball so hard that when it landed it would bounce and then spin five feet to the left. Hardly anyone who wasn’t expecting it would not be able to return it. My service was also very fast. In this game I was about to serve. The opponents did not see me take my racket into my left hand and my partner was playing half court so she could return the ball from almost any place on the court. I threw the ball up and hit it as hard as I could, but it just made the opposite serve court. The player was so far back, she couldn’t get to the ball because she was so far back waiting for the ball. I got the first point. Then the second before the other team realized what I was doing. My partner got the third point. We discussed strategy and decided I would try for the game, but that didn’t go so well.

They got the next two points. We did get the last point, when I ran up to the net for net Shots. And my partner hit hot balls down the alley. We won and never told our opponents what had happened to me. The luck was on our side.

In golf, I became very good while I was in college but I didn’t do anything with it until I graduated and my children were older. I really liked swimming and the competitive nature of the sport. In the Olympics the United States always put out the best teams, and we would win many metals. In forethought my oldest daughter, Grace and my son Jonathan were excellent in swimming. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I was married in my senior year to Ryan Smyth. He was an excellent student in tax law. He graduated when I did and got a great job at a local tax business with 51 people doing taxes every year. Ryan was very handsome and took care of me very well. During my college years I did well in pre-med and would go into the medical school with a 4.0 GPA.

Once in a psychology class we had a chance to take IQ tests. Another girl and I did the test together. She would test me and then I would test her. I think our parents paid for the tests to be sent in so they would be interpreted. It was about $250.00 at that time, in the 1970’s. I scored 184 which I later found out was in the upper four percent of the American population. What was great about that is the score would never change so I knew I could accomplish a lot in my life. I didn’t plan on so many illnesses in my adult life, that would complicate my life after awhile. During College, I once played some players from our school. They were three boys from the varsity at MSU. A friend of mine who was six foot tall played with just me, and we beat the guy’s two out of three games. However, the guys got kind of angry in the third game, and they were certain they would not be skunked by two measly girls. They won and I spent the weekend in the health center with a sprained ankle. It was so swollen that I couldn’t tie my high top shoes. Oh well, what a price we both paid for beating those guys. Maybe they sat the bench. Girls play basketball a little different than boys do. We are best at dribbling close and stopping quickly and put up a ten to twelve foot jumper . . . . swish. We can’t beat taller people especially if they are over a foot taller than you. They dunk and we jump. It still is fun just playing and beating boys. Yea !!!!

Two bad things happened while I was in college. My brother played on the baseball team and he hurt his elbow pitching. He is a great pitcher. Once in recreation baseball at home, he pitched a ball, and when the catcher caught it, he took his hand out of his glove and it was dripping wet with blood. My brother’s pitch had opened up the boy’s life line and he had one hundred and twenty-five stitches in it. My mother was agast, and I was just stunned. It didn’t bother my dad at all. Needless to say they got his hand fixed up good for the next season. However, something happened to my brother that no one would ever expect. He was a student manager in his dorm, and trying to make a little money on the side for extra cash, when his whole life got really mixed up.

I was in the health center overnight for a sprained ankle when I got word that Bob was brought into the health center. He was bleeding very profusely from the nose and mouth and he had not been hit or injured. I saw him being put into an ambulance and they were going to take him to the local hospital, which was very good. It had a five star rating. The next morning I was sent to my dorm with crutches and some Tylenol. My parents were called by the school and they were on their way over to MSU. It was a beautiful spring day and we had already seen some robins and wrens. The white cumulus clouds were billowing in the slight wind, and they looked like large ice cream cones on top of a blue bed below.

The next day I rode my bicycle over to the hospital in spite of the pain I had in my ankle. My parents were there, and after greetings they just sat beside Bob and just stared at him. No one said a word, no one had too. We were all upset about the situation. He was going into surgery when the doctor and his team arrived. They had already prepared him for the surgery. He had so many things hanging out of him that it made me frightened just to look at him. There were two bottles of blood going into one arm in a piggy-back situation and two more bottles of saline going into the other arm. They too were flowing with just machines so I knew they needed to get a lot of blood and water into him before they were to begin the surgery. He also had a bag partly filled with urine and two more bags which I presume to be antibiotics. To round out the tubes, one came from his nose that was hooked up to a big bottle. His eyes were open and I moved closer to the bed I as I wanted to know if he knew what was wrong with him. Hi Bob, How do you feel. Hay little sister, what happened to you? Nothing important, I just sprained my ankle playing basketball, I’ll be fine. Bob replied, You probably kicked some one and they kicked you back, right. You have it brother, I replied. Bob then talked about how he got into the situation he was in, and told the family that he had a bleeding ulcer, and were going to operate so he wouldn’t lose any more blood. He mentioned that the Red Red Cross didn’t have enough of his blood type, and that a fraternity on campus donated a pint of blood apace, that filled up the blood bank and also gave him the necessary amount of blood with more to have on hand for the surgery. Even though we were both type O+ blood, they would not take my blood, because I was not eighteen yet. I didn’t mind because I am usually on the low side and kind of anemic. We both tended to be that way and we both seemed to get ulcers now and again. I never had one bleed nor do I ever want one too.

We all went down to the surgery waiting room when they took Bob down to surgery.

I think my parents were a little relieved, but