Friendship, the ER, and Kidneys

  If I have learned anything recently, I have learned what love looks like through the actions of my friends.
  If I could sum up the past two weeks in a word...well I probably shouldn't use that specific word...
let's go with a more family friendly option: bonkers.  I got back to college after Thanksgiving feeling bad.  I had been having back pain for a few weeks and it hadn't gone away.  At first I thought it was muscle pain, but for the amount of time it lasted and the amount of pain and how deep it felt, I thought it might be something more.  I went to the Wellness Center the morning I got back and they thought it might be a UTI.  A few days later, the pain got really bad.  It was excruciating.  Something else was going on.  In the past week I have been to the ER twice.  They're thinking kidney stones. Last Thursday morning I woke up and couldn't move.  Between gasps of pain and tears I texted a close friend to come help.  We went to the ER where two other friends met us and eventually a fourth showed up, staying with me for hours as I waited. As much as I wish I could have had my parents with me, my family truly was there.
 After getting tested and getting sent home, a throng of caring faces made their way through the room with food, "get well" balloons, and their prayers.  There was also a gift of a ridiculously obnoxious but hilarious flower that spins around singing "You are my Sunshine".  I sat on the bed, delirious, drowsy and dizzy from the pain and nausea medications but feeling so loved and grateful.  The next afternoon, the same friend who came to help the morning before, held my hair back as I knelt over the toilet, and laid with me as I tried to sleep away the effects of the pain and the medications.
  In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, three other friends took me back to the hospital as I was again in severe pain and stayed with me again for hours waiting and waiting.  Holding me as I cried, overwhelmed, scared and exhausted.

I cannot express how incredibly grateful and beholden I am to those friends.

  Guys if you're reading this, you seriously have no idea how much you mean to me.  You are family, and I would do anything for you, and there is nothing in this world that is sufficient enough to thank you for what you've done for me.
  There are many, many things in life that I'm unsure of, but I do know this: that you all are the best friends anyone could ever ask for.  Thank you for your love and support.  Thank you for not getting exasperated with me.  Thank you for your prayers.  Thank you for helping me through all of this. Without you all, I don't know what I would do.  You are a major reason I am here at this school, and a major reason why I love it so much.  I honestly don't know what I would do without you guys.  I am so honored to be called a friend of so many wonderful people.  Thank you.

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