While I'd like to keep my name private, here I am, showing my face. To the left is a shot from last year's birthday during a family trip to Oahu. I look happy and well because you can't see the layers of makeup pasted on to cover my worsening acne, and you don't know that I was sick as a dog and slept in the hotel room almost the whole time there.

To the right is me, last weekend, on my most recent birthday. No makeup; no puffy, irritated face; clear sparkling eyes, and a genuine look of happiness and health.

Living through--and then fighting--my infection was by far the most difficult thing I've done...more challenging than college, work, marriage...even childbirth and motherhood. Still, considering where my health was headed, I had to go all the way through this nightmare and face it head-on to get to the other side.