Good Friends Make Life Sweeter

Discovering the terrors of turning over twenty-five has been a whirlwind of 'I'm so old!' to 'what is the deal with insurance wait time?! I just need one question answered!!!' Having to recover from surgery which doesn't help the old feeling either, just doesn't make one thrilled over turning another chronically ill year. Had it been a day or two before I would have been starting out my over halfway to fifty from a hospital bed. Since the hospital transistioned to cheap bacon I have to admit even I can only suffer through so many gluten-free muffins before begging for forbidden food.

Yes. I know I am supposed to be sugar-free. Heck. I do pretty well considering my 'cake' was actually a small cupcake which someone creatively arranged three candles in. Since you couldn't only buy one from the GF bakery my mother had to get a second. I ate that on my real birthday where my decision on how to spend it was a let down to just about everyone. I wanted to recooperate. They all wanted to take me out. My boyfriend was the opposite. He wanted me to recooperate. I wanted to get out.

I could go on in stir-crazy frustration if not for one very sweet package. Amidst cards and familiar handwriting arrived a box. I knew it was coming, even had a clue to its contents but had completely forgotten until that moment. I saved it for last because I knew who it was from. She may be five states and hundreds of miles away but she never forgets to say Happy Birthday in her own way. This time with a package from my favorite gluten-free bakery.

I felt like laughing to realize she had gone to the trouble of ordering from hundreds of miles away for me to get my favorites from ten-minutes from here. Then again, when you are not allowed to drive those minutes can feel like a thousand miles. Eating a soft, perfectly delicious, chocolate chip cookie brightens up even the worst insurance malfunctions.

Having good friends in this chronically ill life is like a warm coat in a negative windchill winter storm. They help protect you from the worst and keep you from freezing up in this life. They make life sweeter from a simple card reminding you the miles don't matter. And on the days which make you think life is looking pretty sour they send sweetness your way.

Thanks for the delicious reminder my fellow PGS-fish-duck-impingement-entrainment partner and former roomie. And as your cards says, BFF of course.

ICUs Bring January?

After spending a very eventful Friday in the Intensive Care Unit I find myself musing on January, the month that is down right tricky. For some reason on a month which should be great for many ways I seem to attract hospital visits like vultures to a carcass. Instead of mere Emergency Room visits or surgeries I end up going to the extreme. Friday being the prime example. Okay so my surgery was not something precisely routine. Still having had several laparascopic surgeries I am no stranger to it. Evidently nor am I now to the ICU.

What I know is this: I went in for a day surgery and woke up the next day in the ICU. What I am told is this: I went into a seizure in the recovery room. Every one went a little crazy while I got drugged up to my eyeballs to prevent another one. I do know a lot more now about the situation but everyone is so traumatized I am trying to just do what they are doing. Putting it behind them because hearing your daughter may have to be intabated is just a little to scary to deal with.

Funny how what we remember so little of can have affected the lives of other people so much. Maybe its the cold or just the grey skies but it makes me like January a little bit less each year.