Melissa Hinson Returns to Work at BSGE

Melissa Hinson, a very valued member of our school community, has come back to work at BSGE. She is not only a key player in the school’s technology, but Melissa is also close friends with many students and often spends lunch chatting with them. Working three days a week, she is once again contributing to our school and putting smiles on our faces.  She has recently been through some hardships health wise.
A little over 3 years ago, Hinson became aware that her kidneys weren’t functioning as they should be. And now has kidney disease, which means that her body isn’t getting rid of wastes properly.  A person’s kidneys are vital organs because they help clear out toxins from one’s body in order for it to function better and be less susceptible to harm.
With this in mind, she still tried to live just as she would without the problems.  However, when she was so sick that she could barely walk a block, she had to be put on dialysis.
Dialysis is a way to help clear and filter your blood of toxins, something her kidneys are unable to do.  Every time she goes, she has to sit for about 4 hours while she is connected to machines.  The process is tiring and very long.
Through having dialysis, she developed a blood infection, leaving her in the hospital for 6 weeks.  The 6 weeks were brutal, and she took every day as it came.  When the doctors finally released her and told her she could go back to work, she knew she still didn’t have enough strength to put into the job.  So, she decided that coming back part time would benefit her best.
Throughout the entire experience, Melissa took everything as “something [she] just had to do.”  In hopes of making the best out of things, she commented on how during dialysis, she and her group play pranks on one another, play cards, and joke around.  She spoke of how she’s “looking forward to the summertime,” so she can take her water gun with her and shoot the hospital workers and others who are going through dialysis.
In the future, she hopes to one day get a kidney transplant, which will resolve many of her issues. At the state she is currently in, even a simple cold could mean a trip to the hospital.  She has to have made a lot of changes in her life, from her diet to her traveling, which “sucks,” however; it is something she has no choice but to adjust to.  In the meantime, she’s just taking things one step at a time.  The one thing she said she likes best about being back at work is that it gives her something to do, which she really appreciates.