My Angel

I had eaten maybe one meal a day for 6 months. I had weighed a healthy 120 pounds until I decided that I needed to lose weight to be accepted. At the end of a horrifying 6 months I weighed just 79 pounds. This was not a healthy weight for my height of 5 feet 6 inches. I was only 12 years old. The spark in my eyes had disappeared and yet no one took notice of me. I was in denial about had bad it was. The truth was my ribs were visible, I was nothing, but skin and bones. I had no energy. I missed over 2 months of school due to my deteriorated immune system. I went into my doctor to yet again be diagnosed with pneumonia. My mom drove me to the clinic as I blankly stared out the window on that cold, March day. We pulled into the parking lot and as I stepped out of the car I felt as though I was hacking up a lung. This was the fourth time I would be diagnosed with pneumonia since October. In my mind I felt hopeless. I had fallen into a severe depression due to the ridicule from my classmates I had suffereed through during my 7th grade year. Several times during that year I contemplated taking my own life. That was the lowest point I had ever gotten to. All of this and how could anyone not notice? How could anyone not care? Walking into the doctor's office was a turning point in my life. In many ways that visit to the doctor saved my life. While getting a check-up and being prescribed Zithromax my doctor commented on my significant weigh loss. She asked me about my eating habits and told me that she was going to diagnose me with Anorexia. Someone noticed. It was a doctor whose name has slipped my mind, but someone noticed. She told me I needed to start gaining weight now and she wanted my mom and I to schedule a follow up appointment in one month. I decided I was not going to let this eating disorder take over my life. I wanted to change. After walking away from my religion and my faith a couple years before that I turned back to God. I prayed and I trusted in Him and my faith was restored. One month after that appointment I shocked my doctor because I had gained 8 pounds in one month. That is an amazing accomplishment for someone with an eating disorder. I owe my life to that doctor, she truly was an angel.