And in that loss, it seemed that her breath, the very suste- nance of her existence was stolen from her, forcing Elexa to trade her minutes on the hockey field for months at The Chil- dren’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter in Norfolk, Virginia.
But it is from the seed of that heartbreak, that a new passion bloomed inside of the 20 year old, as she was inspired with a new dream to practice medicine.
So with the bold, relentless vigor that she pursued her athletic career, Elexa pursued medicine. She invested diligently in her studies, and spent her free time shadowing doctors at The Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter.
Doctor Angela Hogan of CHKD writes, “Elexa has this quality that is hard to exactly describe, but after she has worked with a physician, they are left touched, changed to be better people, better doctors.”
Fueled by a charismatic, passion for the medical profession, Elexa prepared for the MCAT. Yet the night before the test, adversity knocked. A familiar radiating pain sliced through her scapula. Elexa’s lung had collapsed.
In an ill-advised display of bravado, a determined, perhaps desperate, Elexa delayed her drive to CHKD, and instead meandered her way to the MCAT testing facility, where strangled for air, she survived the five hour test. Afterwards, Elexa drove herself to the hospital, calmly explaining to the doctors that her
lung had collapsed. When asked to recall the details of the event, Elexa vaguely remembers taking the test, or driving to the hospital. She acknowledges the inherent risks of her decision, yet she reasons that, “If I didn’t try, what else would I have left.”
Elexa scored a 24 on the MCAT, one point shy of what is generally accepted by med school standards. The demands of her condition coupled with a pile of financial burden prevented her from retaking the test.
It seemed another dream, that of medical school, was squandered. An understandably despondent Elexa reminded herself to just breathe. A phrase, tattooed on her torso, that has been embedded into her life as a constant reminder that no matter how difficult life becomes, she must continue to
breathe.“I must keep going because if I don’t keep going, what will I have left.”
With her medical dream on hold for now, Elexa has channeled her energy toward a new purpose, fundraising. In a recent radio phone-a-thon, she raised $3000 for the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter, proudly professing her ability to “annoy the crap out of people for a good cause.”
Perhaps, though, her ability to “annoy” is a by-product of her far greater ability to relentlessly and courageously persist through the adversity of life.
Some critics may argue that the ignorance of this persistence drove Elexa to questionable, risky decisions.
But any lover of sports and heroics knows that those decisions, although risky, were rooted in a fierce desire to live every moment of life to its fullest despite the restrictions of a disorder that make every breath a competition.
Interestingly, Elexa’s doctors believe that playing sports strengthened her heart enough to withstand the duress of 12 collapsed lungs within four years.
Unfortunately, Elexa’s condition, unlike most cases of Bronchiolitis Obliterans, is progressive; the scarring in her lungs has not stopped. Eventually, if it continues, her bronchioles will close, strangling Elexa for air. Her doctors are unsure the timeline for when this could occur, but when it does, Elexa’s only recourse will be a lung transplant. And in the case of Bronchiolitis Obliterans, a transplant is an incredibly risky procedure that does not guarantee success because it could potentially progress the disorder, or worst case, result in immediate death.
So for Elexa, the future is uncertain. She does not know whether she will have a chance to retake the MCATs. She does not know whether she will realize her dream of medical school. She does not know how her disease will progress. Like all of us, Elexa does not know how many breaths remain in her lungs.
But Elexa has the heart of a champion; a heart that is strong enough to realize that, despite the uncertainty of her future, giving up is not an option. Every moment and every breath counts; so when those breathes become more of a battle, she reminds herself that in the face of life’s somewhat daunting challenges, she must continue to just breathe.
rdawson9@gmail.com
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