Month: March 2016

Can’t even self-medicate

Had a conversation with three friends over the week. Told one of them that I didn’t want any visitors in the hospital but I suppose some friends never listen.

Him: I’m outside, just meet up with me. There’s a bar around the corner.
Me: OK.

For the sake of clarity and brevity, I’m going to combine these three conversations into one.

Him: How’re you two holding up?
Me: Same. Terribly. They’re cutting her open again right now. (breaking down) She’s fighting for her life and all I can do is watch.
Him: That’s your job. Your job is watch over her.
Me: My job is take care of her, and I’m just doing a craptastic one.
Him: (scoffing) You think most guys’d do what you do?
Me: Maybe. But I’m also wallowing in self-pity. (pause) I’m never gonna get over this, no matter how it goes. I’ll never be normal again. My boy’ll never be normal. It’s so damn selfish, I know, but that’s what I think.
Him: I’d think that too. Look, I don’t know what would happen if my wife got sick – and I never wanna think about that – but I’d like to think I’d do exactly what you did.
Me: What if I cursed her? (pause) I wonder if I shoulda let her go the day she collapsed. Saved her from all this.
Him: If you did that, you and I would be in another bar with you wondering, “Should I have tried to save her?” Look, when my mom passed, I kept wondering if there was more I could have done to save her. Even now, think about that weekly. Here, at least, you know you’ve done everything.
Me: What if it’s not enough?
Him: You’ll never know unless you do it. (motioning to the bartender) Another drink?
Me: (shaking head) Gotta get back. I can’t even self-medicate.
Him: (laughing) You will at some point. I’ll help. That you never need to worry about.

———-

We left the hospital last week. She had pneumonia, a blood clot in her leg, and an unknown blood issue that they couldn’t resolve. Since they couldn’t treat the last one, I just asked them to release us.

It’s par for course for this damn disease. Everything is an unknown in an unknown. It’s just hell.

\’

Location: home again, but for how long?
Mood: gutted
Music: I’m fragile – I try not to be

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We can’t catch a break

Me: Doctor, do you have any new information?

Sorry again for the radio silence. We’re back in the hospital. We can’t seem to catch a break.

We went to the hospital for something relatively routine but the next thing you know, we’re in the ER for the fifth time in as many months. 13 hours of tests later they say that they have to hold her overnight.

Then overnight turns into five days. And counting.

There’s something wrong with her – above and beyond what they already know is wrong with her. What’s scary is that they don’t know what’s wrong.

Don’t really have the right words to try and express how I feel. Somehow she keeps pushing forward; I don’t know how she does it. In many ways, I feel as if I’m following her lead.

Think that even the hospital feels some pity for us. The last time we were here, we were in a cramped shared room. This time, she got a private corner suite overlooking the same river. No rhyme or reason.

We’re certainly not complaining about the nice treatment, but we’re not really able to enjoy it in any meaningful way.

What we really want is answers and clarity. The two things we can’t seem to actually get.

And so we sit here in a sun-drenched corner room in the east side of town, yet completely in the dark.

Doctor: I’m sorry. We’re still trying to understand this.
Me: You’re no closer?
Doctor: (shakes head)

\’

Location: A beautiful room that we’d rather not be in
Mood: indescribably worried
Music: I hear in my mind. All of this music and it breaks my heart

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