April 3, 2009
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Too Close to Death
My best friend Cathy got her wisdom teeth removed quite a while ago. When a few days have passed, she talked to me saying how she felt nauseous and the left side of her body was going numb. I didn’t hear from her for a week but I thought she was just busy with school.
Later I found out, during her surgery she developed an infection because of unclean tools and a slightly rushed procedure. When she went to see the doctor, they just assumed that it was just the flu and sent her away. She went to another hospital and they told her she had a brain tumor and was rushed to a specialist clinic in Seattle right away.
They told her that it wasn’t a tumor but an infection in her brain but they had to do surgery quickly on her to prevent it her from dying. They removed as much of the infection as they could but of course the aftermath was difficulty moving her body.
When she had enough strength, she tried to call me and tell me what happened, she sounded so tired and very scared. I tried really hard not to cry, especially since I was trying to convince her everything was going to be alright. Her voice was so hard to understand because it was so raspy but I tried my best and told her I was going to visit her that weekend.
The first time I visited her was with a group of her friends. I was in shock to see the sickly condition she was in, she was all wired up and I could tell she was really weak. Since I was becoming a nurse I knew exactly how bad her situation was because I was able to understand the nurses’ notes on the small white board across the room. She was on strict monitoring even though she just got out of the ICU.
I was really happy to spend several hours with her because I knew she was just so terrified to almost die and the hospital is a very boring place to be. All of us kept talking to her about the things she missed and not to worry about homework but I could tell she was getting tired even though she enjoyed our company. We left our get well cards that we made on the way to the hospital, to remind her that we really care for her.
I was just so heartbroken when our time was up and we had to leave her, I thought I was going to cry right there. I could tell she was really unsure about her recovery and was scared she wouldn’t come home or see us again. I knew that if I just called her every day for however long she was able to talk, to encourage her not to give up; it would really help her out.
I visited her several times since then and I was really happy to know about her improvements almost every day. Her voice became gradually clearer and better to understand and physically she improved her movements each time I visited.
She was in the hospital for about two months trying to recover. She was able to get out a little earlier because her parents signed up for a program that lets her recover at home, now that her condition wasn’t as severe.
I was there the day she arrived home and I was so excited to see her! I was so glad she was able to make it though. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry that day but when she got home and her grandma saw her was so overwhelmed with emotion that she hugged her and cried so I started crying too.
I was so happy to see her relaxed and in her own house.
All of this made me realize that you never know when someone can be suddenly taken away from you. You should always use your time with someone wisely and that I clearly wasn’t. This shook me up enough try to make my friendship with Cathy much better.
I take back any unnecessary rambling I had about her in the past, I strongly regret saying them and I guess you really don’t realize what you have until its gone or almost gone in this case.
