About Me

The crowd is roaring as I finish my song. I can see flashes of light from all of the cameras. I can hear a buzzing noise from all of the cheering my ears are ringing with delight. I walk off the stage seeing everyone smiling everywhere I walk I am receiving hugs. Once I see my parents I can tell they have been crying, my mom’s eyes are red. As I walk up to them they are hugging me with pride. I feel a sense of accomplishment and joy. I can now say that at that very moment I have never felt better in my life.
My name is Elizabeth Hendrickson when I was five years old I was diagnosed with Ornithine Trans Carbamalace. OTC is a disease that makes it so your body can’t handle protein because the liver is missing a urea cycle in the liver. I had to live with this dreadful disease for eight years. Living with constant dread of my next hospital visit. And dreading if I will live through it. 1 in every 1000 people are affected by OTC. It is very rare and even deadly. Most people with OTC don’t live past the age of 2. However I was lucky and at the age of 12 I received a liver transplant. I was in the Denver children’s hospital for 4 months. When I was in the children’s hospital I also became sick with pancreatitis and gastritis. I had to have several surgeries when in the hospital and had to go back for one more. It’s been five years now since my transplant and I am feeling great. I only have to take 5 pills in the morning and 3 at night.
This year I was able to go to The roundup river ranch transplant camp. I met a lot of good friends there and even hope to go back next year. One night at the camp they had a stage night where you could perform I decided to perform a solo. I guess people liked it because a month later they asked if I would come back to sing at the fundraiser and that they would pay for all of the expenses. I was so excited and said yes right away. We started out the night with dinner which was a five course meal. Then I performed and then the auction started. I was amazed on how many people just gave money like it was nothing. Three guys actually gave 50,000 dollars and the fundraiser ended up raising over 400,000 dollars.
Someday I plan to go on American Idol or The Voice. And maybe be able to give back what those people gave to me.

With this blog I plan to write about my upcoming competitions, videos of my music, recitals, and also what is going on in my music room. I also plan on putting videos of our classes online so you can see what our school does for music on a day to day basis. My music helped me so much through my life by relaxing me during stressful times in the hospital. And with music I can express myself in a way that words can’t. I love music and I plan to go into Music Education when I graduate.