Petition Letter
Dear Academic Considerations team,
Hello, my name is Gianfranco Papia, and I am in first year at Queen’s University, in the life sciences/biochemistry program and living in residence. I am enjoying my experience at this university greatly, however, have had multiple medical conditions and complications that have altered my experiences and negatively affected my academics.
To begin, in the summer of 2023 around mid-July, I fell extremely ill, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and was diagnosed with Addison’s disease and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart lining and fluid around the heart). I was diagnosed after being admitted to hospital for 5 days, for the first time in my life, started lifelong medications including hydrocortisone, fludrocortisone, and colchicine. I was told that the Addison’s disease is something I would have for life, but as long as I took my medications, I could have a relatively normal life. I was also told that the pericarditis was short term and should disappear within approximately 3 months of medications. My family was debating whether or not I should go to university or delay the start of my university life but I was too excited and eager to come to Queens. Throughout the following few weeks, I began to feel much better and by the end of the summer and the month of September everything was under control and the pericarditis had almost disappeared. I began school and felt pretty good until the beginning of October where suddenly severe chest pains started to come back causing me to go to Kingston General Hospital where I was told that the fluid around my heart had returned, and I had recurrent pericarditis. I was put on Ibuprophen three times a day to serve as an anti-inflammatory medication until the pain went away. The pain did dissipate slightly until 2 weeks later when it came back much worse.
On Friday, October 20th, 2023, I had extremely bad chest pains all day causing me to be unable to move at times, but I did not go to the hospital as I had a PHYS 115 mid-term that evening. This was until around 45 minutes before the exam when I felt very nauseous, and I vomited up severely. Due to my Addison’s disease, vomiting is a big problem as it means I cannot keep my medications down and therefore can cause me to go into an Addisonian crisis because I cannot produce any stress steroids. I collapsed and my roommates called an ambulance where I was taken to Kingston General Hospital immediately. I felt very ill with bad chest pain and was incredibly weak. I was seen and was told I had an extremely high amount of fluid around my heart, much more than I’ve had before. This was to the point where it was compressing my heart causing me to have a very high heart rate and low blood pressure. They said I had a life-threatening condition called cardiac tamponade. Thus, the doctors decided that I needed to get a procedure done to extract the fluid from around my heart immediately, a pericardiocentesis. That night, I was admitted to KGH Cardiac ICU and stayed there until October 25th when I was discharged and put on more medications for my heart.
Since then, I have been having weekly blood work and appointments with my cardiologist to check up on my CRP (inflammatory marker) in my body. However, by November it was still a high number and going up indicating that I had ongoing inflammation around my heart and was at risk of recurrent pericardial fluid and life-threatening cardiac tamponade. Therefore, it was decided to put me on full immunosuppression therapy, and I was put on high dose prednisone (a much stronger steroid), as well as many other medications to counteract the side effects of the high dose steroids. I was on roughly 17 medications per day. Thankfully my pericarditis stabilized, and I continued my weekly bloodwork and cardiology medical appointments. Unfortunately, in early January I fell ill again due to toxicity of one of my medications Indomethacin. I have recovered from this, and I have been stable since then and have started decreasing my medications. This is a very slow process of recovery which may take up to a few more months providing no further complications. The downside is that as these medications continue to be reduced the risk of pericarditis returning again increases.
This illness and the multiple hospitalizations, weekly medical appointments, as well as the stress of being suddenly diagnosed with two rare illnesses has unfortunately taken a great toll on my academic performance. The reason for this petition is to request a credit (CR) grade instead of my physics grade and have the grade be taken off my overall GPA. Since I missed the midterm assessment (due to being admitted to hospital), my professor said that no other options will be given except to make my final exam worth 75% of my total grade. My continued illness and medical setbacks and complications have prevented me from truly performing to my full potential academically. I am not permitted to perform any exercise at all or do anything that could stress my heart. My recommended level of activity is no more than a sedentary lifestyle. I can’t do anything nor have any physical activity. I was previously very active and this has taken a further emotional toll on my wellbeing.
I kindly request this consideration as my entire semester and life has been in turmoil due to my sudden and serious medical conditions. In the end, I ultimately managed to pass the class and completed every assignment and all of the labs, thus making me eligible for this CR request. As I mentioned, since October, I have had to adjust my lifestyle by not being able to do any physical or strenuous activities affecting every aspect of my life including and not limited to, academics, fitness, and social life. In conclusion, this has been a very difficult process for me emotionally and especially physically as I try and hope to adjust back towards a somewhat normal lifestyle should I not suffer any more recurrences or setbacks.
Sincerely,
Gianfranco Papia
(Student ID: 20400519)
Hello, my name is Gianfranco Papia, and I am in first year at Queen’s University, in the life sciences/biochemistry program and living in residence. I am enjoying my experience at this university greatly, however, have had multiple medical conditions and complications that have altered my experiences and negatively affected my academics.
To begin, in the summer of 2023 around mid-July, I fell extremely ill, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and was diagnosed with Addison’s disease and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart lining and fluid around the heart). I was diagnosed after being admitted to hospital for 5 days, for the first time in my life, started lifelong medications including hydrocortisone, fludrocortisone, and colchicine. I was told that the Addison’s disease is something I would have for life, but as long as I took my medications, I could have a relatively normal life. I was also told that the pericarditis was short term and should disappear within approximately 3 months of medications. My family was debating whether or not I should go to university or delay the start of my university life but I was too excited and eager to come to Queens. Throughout the following few weeks, I began to feel much better and by the end of the summer and the month of September everything was under control and the pericarditis had almost disappeared. I began school and felt pretty good until the beginning of October where suddenly severe chest pains started to come back causing me to go to Kingston General Hospital where I was told that the fluid around my heart had returned, and I had recurrent pericarditis. I was put on Ibuprophen three times a day to serve as an anti-inflammatory medication until the pain went away. The pain did dissipate slightly until 2 weeks later when it came back much worse.
On Friday, October 20th, 2023, I had extremely bad chest pains all day causing me to be unable to move at times, but I did not go to the hospital as I had a PHYS 115 mid-term that evening. This was until around 45 minutes before the exam when I felt very nauseous, and I vomited up severely. Due to my Addison’s disease, vomiting is a big problem as it means I cannot keep my medications down and therefore can cause me to go into an Addisonian crisis because I cannot produce any stress steroids. I collapsed and my roommates called an ambulance where I was taken to Kingston General Hospital immediately. I felt very ill with bad chest pain and was incredibly weak. I was seen and was told I had an extremely high amount of fluid around my heart, much more than I’ve had before. This was to the point where it was compressing my heart causing me to have a very high heart rate and low blood pressure. They said I had a life-threatening condition called cardiac tamponade. Thus, the doctors decided that I needed to get a procedure done to extract the fluid from around my heart immediately, a pericardiocentesis. That night, I was admitted to KGH Cardiac ICU and stayed there until October 25th when I was discharged and put on more medications for my heart.
Since then, I have been having weekly blood work and appointments with my cardiologist to check up on my CRP (inflammatory marker) in my body. However, by November it was still a high number and going up indicating that I had ongoing inflammation around my heart and was at risk of recurrent pericardial fluid and life-threatening cardiac tamponade. Therefore, it was decided to put me on full immunosuppression therapy, and I was put on high dose prednisone (a much stronger steroid), as well as many other medications to counteract the side effects of the high dose steroids. I was on roughly 17 medications per day. Thankfully my pericarditis stabilized, and I continued my weekly bloodwork and cardiology medical appointments. Unfortunately, in early January I fell ill again due to toxicity of one of my medications Indomethacin. I have recovered from this, and I have been stable since then and have started decreasing my medications. This is a very slow process of recovery which may take up to a few more months providing no further complications. The downside is that as these medications continue to be reduced the risk of pericarditis returning again increases.
This illness and the multiple hospitalizations, weekly medical appointments, as well as the stress of being suddenly diagnosed with two rare illnesses has unfortunately taken a great toll on my academic performance. The reason for this petition is to request a credit (CR) grade instead of my physics grade and have the grade be taken off my overall GPA. Since I missed the midterm assessment (due to being admitted to hospital), my professor said that no other options will be given except to make my final exam worth 75% of my total grade. My continued illness and medical setbacks and complications have prevented me from truly performing to my full potential academically. I am not permitted to perform any exercise at all or do anything that could stress my heart. My recommended level of activity is no more than a sedentary lifestyle. I can’t do anything nor have any physical activity. I was previously very active and this has taken a further emotional toll on my wellbeing.
I kindly request this consideration as my entire semester and life has been in turmoil due to my sudden and serious medical conditions. In the end, I ultimately managed to pass the class and completed every assignment and all of the labs, thus making me eligible for this CR request. As I mentioned, since October, I have had to adjust my lifestyle by not being able to do any physical or strenuous activities affecting every aspect of my life including and not limited to, academics, fitness, and social life. In conclusion, this has been a very difficult process for me emotionally and especially physically as I try and hope to adjust back towards a somewhat normal lifestyle should I not suffer any more recurrences or setbacks.
Sincerely,
Gianfranco Papia
(Student ID: 20400519)