It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now…..

I have found myself sitting at too many hospital bedsides recently. During Christmas week alone, both of my beautiful daughters had urgent medical problems.  They both spent time in the hospital and so, therefore, did I .   My brother was hospitalized shortly thereafter in agonizing pain following knee surgery, and I sat beside his bed, again feeling small and afraid hoping my presence offered some comfort.

 

All of these loved ones of mine are healthy for the moment. 

 

How many roller-coaster rides can a heart stand when someone near and dear to you experiences health problems?  Who knows? You slide into your seat, secure the harness and ride—and you know YOU are not driving this train. You have signed up for a lifetime season ticket and you ride, wondering if the bend up ahead is going to be followed by a drop-off that takes you straight down without you knowing what’s waiting at the bottom.

 

Let me say right now that we all get a little crazy when we’re scared, some more than others.  Let me also say I have discovered during the few times a medical condition has resulted in a visit to the hospital for Cecilia, she shows off her talent to incite panic in those around her which I freely admit she inherited from me. When it happens, it’s “STAT.”

 

She is so well-spoken and credible that it’s extremely difficult to tell whether what she is saying is accurate or FULL-BLOWN PANIC disguised as normal.  Unnerving doesn’t begin to describe what you feel when they give her an injection to calm  her down and the second that door closes behind them, she seems to go “boing!” from reclining to sitting and says, “SOMETHING….IS…..NOT…..RIGHT.”  “COME HERE…….FEEL MY HEART…IT’S NOT BEATING RIGHT….CAN YOU FEEL IT?”   Neither is mine at this point.  Then, she becomes so pale I get up to seek immediate help because she is the one in 2 million who is now facing imminent death due to an allergic reaction to the drug given to relax her , and I must find the person who can save her. I also want to find that nurse and ask for something to knock me out.  All the while I speak to her in a tone that is quite obviously a fake calm.  Both daughters say they become MORE frightened when I do it because they recognize I am scared out of my mind when they hear me speaking…..very…..slowly….and…..enunciating….carefully while doing a really bad acting job of pretending to be calm.

 

Do not think for one minute that these Florence Nightingale moments stop at the humans in our family.  The daughter I have just described has a four-legged, furry “child” named Sophie.  Sophie DeAngelis, Yorkie-Poo, weighs in at a hefty 8 lbs., but do not be deceived. She has teeth like a Barracuda and the drive to finish off her inanimate prey.  She loved her chew toy, Dru Barkymore, so much that when she was found, Dru Barkymore looked more like E.T., and I feel sure she wanted to phone home. 

 

This precious puppy has obviously inherited a flair for drama and scaring us to death as this string of texts from Cecilia shows: 

 

From: CC cell

Feb. 22, 7:45 a.m.

Sophie is throwing up, and she hasn’t eaten anything for 2 days.  I’m really worried.  She ate a tennis ball.  I thought she was just chewing on it and then I couldn’t find the part that was missing.

 

 

From: CC cell

Feb 22, 3:31 pm

We’re at the doctor’s office.  They r giving her an xray now. she has been throwing up since 9 last nite, not eating or drinking.

 

From:  CC cell

Feb 22, 3:37 pm

she ate a full branch yesterday on the beach. they said it felt like something was obstructing her abdomen.

 

(Ed. Note:  a full branch?  Okaaaay, then maybe she is not just a cross between Yorkshire Terrier and Poodle, but has a little Boa Constrictor mixed in that we didn’t know about.)

 

From:  CC cell

Feb 22,  3:49 pm

big foreign object. they said it looks like full sock or big chunks of tennis ball. surgery in the morning.

 

[Ed. note: see Exhibit A.]

 

From:  CC cell

Feb 23, 10:18 am

GREAT NEWS NO SURGERY I WILL CALL U IN A LITTLE WHILE. THEY SAID SHE IS ONE TOUGH DOGGIE. I AM GETTING THEM TO GIVE ME THE XRAYS SO U CAN SEE 4 YOURSELF. MUFFIN HER GUARDIAN ANGEL WAS WATCHING OVER HER

 

 

Sophie survived and promptly began living her best doggie life again:

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.