Canker sores developed in my mouth that week, and grew worse over the first two weeks of school. I finally went to a doctor, who thought I had the Coxsackie virus. We laughed about the name and I was sent on my way. No diagnosis yet. 

Well, my symptoms hung around, and the next week I went to see a different pediatrician, who sent me for blood work. I had never had to have blood drawn from my arm before, but it wasn't so bad, and my mother bought me ice cream after it. Even though the results of the blood test were negative, my symptoms weren't. In fact, they were getting worse, from a boil on my rear end to loose stools to blood in one or two of them. And so I went back, this time for a series of blood tests. Now, I weighed at that point about 95 pounds, so when the technician began to draw the 2nd or 3rd of 8 tubes, I fainted, head on the table-