Sweetly Devoted | Jung Wooyoung

1; (intro)

This was the seventh doctor you had been to and each visit only led to more tears in the end. To say it was frustrating wouldn't be enough. Tormenting, torturing; perhaps those were the words to closely describe it. An autoimmune disease wasn't just something you could wave off, especially when you had multiple other health problems. Suffering and feeling the world turn gray suddenly as the life in you started to fade away. You felt like you were losing yourself as each year passed. Depression was rising as high as a tsunami wave.

Four years is how long you've been sick and it's been a ride bumpier than hitting all the potholes while driving. How you became ill? It wasn't clear at all. You had just woken up one night, drenched in sweat from fear. A night terror was what they called it. The problem was, those night terrors came every single night since the first one until you stopped sleeping for two months. Getting only one to three hours of sleep until finally no sleep at all for the last two weeks. Due to the lack of sleep, your anxiety went off the charts. Shaking and trembling at the slightest of sounds, you stopped eating too. You were scared to death and of what? Not even you knew. You had fainted eventually and woken up in a hospital room, almost dying of starvation and sleep deprivation but saved with an ambulance call from someone who found you.

The hospital doctor gave you a pill, not bothering to examine you properly. The trust you put in him was huge. You figured maybe you just lost your mind. It's just anxiety and depression but oh, how wrong you'd be. You recovered for a moment, only to suddenly fall again. Your health had been a bumpy ride and since the night terrors (which thankfully did end from the new pill you started), but since then on you were never the same again. The things you once loved, you didn't anymore. Anxiety was to blame for that one. You lost bits and pieces of yourself. The bits and pieces scattered around, turning into blank pages and crumbling away. Who were you now? Certainly not that once bright being who could take on the world better. The person who had dreams higher than the clouds above.

Six doctors in a row deemed you crazy, god how much did those words hurt you. Nobody wants to be called crazy especially not from medical professionals. You thought you'd get used to the word after so many times but you just couldn't. You didn't have that strength anymore. The sad part is, the medical professionals didn't properly look at you. Something was wrong. Thanks to your seventh doctor for catching it and is trying to pinpoint it now. She believes there is so much more to you. 'It's not in your head. All those doctors are wrong, I will prove it.' Hopeful for the first time but of course, you also didn't wanna jinx it. For some reason, every time you mentioned something; it would turn out bad. As if a darkness just followed you constantly. After all, it took four years to find someone who believed you and she won't be the only one.

You did believe you were crazy as things just did not make sense overall, especially before this doctor came along. As time passed, you weren't just mentally ill with anxiety and depression. You were physically sick and every vein in your body was burning from it. You felt horrid pain in your body, mentally and physically. Your poor body is suffering and you don't know how to help it. That's when suddenly, the thought of 'being crazy couldn't be right' hit you. Mustering up the small piece of strength you had to go on, you pushed for doctors until you found her.

The discovery of an autoimmune disease was found except for your case, it was special. 'Of course it's special,' you once scoffed. 'Nothing for me can be a simple answer.' Doctors found you a mystery and experimented on you. In the last two years, you had gone through several medical tests. Every two weeks, for months you got to feel needles poking you. Constant checking and testing that drained you. The doctors still deeming you crazy just because the tests they ran didn't make sense to them. You stood up and walked however, despite the difficult road ahead. You keep on going even if some days, you grab that razor blade and say it's totally over. Something small in you, is not letting it be over. Something that makes you heal your self inflicted wounds and try to care for yourself.

The autoimmune disease you had was special because it kept changing from one version to another. The problem is, that's completely contradicting. One version of the disease kills your energy, makes you ache. You become very sluggish to the point where even taking a shower is hard. Heart rate slows and your face gets puffy. The other version; you are restless, jumpy and anxious. The anxiety jumps and your heart is racing. Yet here you were, switching between the two versions of the disease every few weeks. No wonder you were a mess. In the end, it was decided that a virus was messing you up and from it, you got the lovely gift of a physical nodule in your throat.

Luckily that nodule hasn't turned into cancer yet and you pray that it never does. Only bothers your throat from time to time and makes swallowing difficult a bit. Nobody wants to go through cancer and your heart has always gone out to people who do have it. You always thought that if it came to that, you wouldn't be strong enough to handle the news. You figured, you'd completely break and give up.

You had a beloved guardian angel, your therapy dog who has passed away before you found out you were sick. You wore a golden locket around your neck daily in memory of her. An urn necklace. You believe she is protecting you somehow. Your guardian angel is the only thing you had to hang onto.

Recovering only to relapse again and again; spinning around like a tornado. New symptoms came that made things so difficult again. So here you were, with the seventh doctor. The only woman who believes something is still wrong. Your autoimmune disease was able to calm down, not being too harsh on you and not going through crazy spikes. However, your blood-tests had shown multiple other issues arrive yet again. The tears you held in so strongly burst the minute you got home. Stress levels were ascending up and you just locked yourself alone. Hating to cry in front of others so you just kept to yourself and let it out, in the comfort of your private bedroom.

A second autoimmune disease now found present in your gut this time. The first one being in your throat, a gland whose hormones can affect every organ. The doctor had a plan to detox your body as you found out you also had multiple food allergies causing leaky gut syndrome as well as developing anemia. All were contributing to making you ill. On top of it, the pill that you depended on for the night terrors and insomnia, causes the first autoimmune disease in your throat to worsen. The fear of letting go of the medical drug you depended on for these four years hurt you. How could doctors not tell you that the pill wasn't supposed to be for years? Nobody warned you. You weren't sure if you could do all this anymore. You would need to start six supplements and you would have to tamper off your current medication by lowering the dosages every two weeks. The pill that saved you years ago in the hospital from night terrors because that too now can be causing more illnesses. Bitterness against doctors is all you felt. Not for this seventh one but still after everything, it would be hard to trust her; even if she is different so far.

It was an overload of information and a month to do so much work. You just wondered why and how were you getting so ill. Would it ever end? You felt no comfort because almost everyone around you seemed to be tired of hearing you sick. Your home life wasn't exactly the best. A father should protect not harm but that's the life you got. Watching you struggle to move some days from pure exhaustion that the illnesses were causing. Nobody in your family seemed to really give a shit.

Nobody in general.

Except for one person; who didn't consider you 'too much' and definitely cared.