Angels in my Life...

Oh where to begin?! These last few days have been very eventful, to say the least! We'll just start out with saying...Today I'm laying in bed--which is what I've been doing 24/7 since Sunday--and my sister, Jessica, and her two kids, Kaleb and Sammy, came over to see me, and as I'm on the computer looking at things Jessica asks: 'are you going to update your blog and write on there that you're alive?!'
So here you go everyone...I am alive!!! :) (So here's the story on why she's wanted me to write that...)
It all began Sunday morning...My mom woke me up before she left to church, so that she could help me with my physical therapy exercises on my hip. (My mom is so wonderful and I don't know what I'd do without her...she's just an angel in my life!) When she woke me up I told her that I just hurt horribly, but that's not too uncommon for me to wake up and have pain due to my Ehlers Danlos, so she said that maybe I should just stay home from church today and rest. I told her I'd see how I was feeling and things. So, my mom and little brother left to church and I gradually tried to get ready to go to my ward (I'm in a single's ward). I was still hurting alot, but I wanted to try and make it for at least part of church. I was finally ready and headed out the door, and I got to church just a little into Sunday School where I went and met up with my friends. Sunday School got over, and my best friend, Jenna, and I were heading to go down the hall to Sacrament! She's so cute, she looks at me and was like 'Jackie I'm not trying to sound mean, but you don't look very good...you either look like you are in lots of pain or don't feel well. Are you okay?' I just looked at her and told her that it was both--I was in so much pain it was making me sick, but I'd be okay. We started down the hall, and I held on to my crutch with one arm and her with the other; we stopped for a minute and I started crying a little bit and she just asked if I wanted her to take me home. I told her I'd be okay and that I wanted to try and stay. However, than the pain in my head started getting very bad and making me extremely dizzy. All I remember was saying: 'Jenna I hurt so bad and I don't feel very good.' and then I passed out!
My wonderful friends, more sweet angels in my life, caught me and laid me down. Jenna called my mom and someone else called 911. And I ended up being taken by the ambulance up to the ER.
My sister, Janeice, met my mom and I up there, and they--my mom and Janeice--stayed with me the entire time. I love my family so much...they mean everything to me! The doctor ran blood tests, x-rays, CT-scans, IVs, pain meds, and everything while I was up there. All of my tests came back normal (well nothing came up that we didn't know about all ready...the CT-scan showed mild curvature of my lumbar spine and an increase in size and number of kidney stones throughout my kidneys) and so that was great news!!! She, the doctor, said that she's thinking I have costochondritis again--which is an inflammation of the cartilage between my ribs and my sternum--and that and all of the other pain and inflammation throughout my body is coming from my Ehlers Danlos.
The Ehlers Danlos, as I have said, is a collagen disease and collagen is found throughout your entire body. So, with this flare-up, the joints connecting my ribs and sternum, between my neck and my skull, in my back, shoulders, hips, etc... (basically all throughout my body) all pop, shift around a little bit, and just inflame everything...thus causing all of the pain, sickness, and dizziness.
So, I went to my primary care physician yesterday, Tuesday, and things still aren't getting better, so they switched the anti-inflammatory medicine I was on to a steroid (it's a 6-day taper off treatment) to see if hopefully this can hit it and help calm everything down. In the meantime, while I'm waiting for that to kick in, I'm just home laying in bed, taking naps, watching movies, and just taking it easy.
I'm so grateful that it was nothing more severe than this, and more than anything, I'm so grateful for all the many angels that the Lord has blessed me with in my life! I want all of my family and friends to know how much I love them, am grateful for them, and that I don't know what I'd do without them. It seems that whenever I'm having a hard time or anything or just need a little "pick-me-up" my family and friends have either called and/or come over to visit! THANK YOU SO MUCH to my mom, my siblings (Janeice, Jodi, Jessica, Jill, and Taylor), my neices and nephews, my Bishops (both in my family ward and in my single's ward), my friends (Jenna, Eric, Dallin, Ariana, Tiffanie, Tara, Ashley, Tiffany, Kelsey, Jill), so many ward members and leaders (again from both wards...Sister Fessler, Jennifer, Amy, Bro. Carlile, Bro. Scott, Mitch), and just everyone!!! Thank you for always being there for me and helping me through everything...I love you guys!!!!