Dearest Hope,
I spent a few days last week with Lori while she was in the hospital. I heard from my parents who were with her when she was admitted that she was in excruciating pain and it was unbearable to watch. The doctors declared that she had a staph infection from her PICC line and the hip pain she was feeling was due to the infection causing some arthritis in her Sacral joint. I mentally prepared myself to see Lori in agony. I was on the verge of tears the whole drive there. When I walked in, Lori was sitting up in her bed, watching Family Guy with Tim and letting out little chuckles here and there. I felt relieved that she was comfortable. I woke up in the middle of the night, when her nurses came in to get her vitals. Lori took one look at me from across the room and burst out into hysterical laughter. When I tried to talk to her she laughed even harder. A silent hysteria escaped from her mouth as she shooed me away. I went back to bed thinking…last nite she was screaming in pain, tonight she is screaming in laughter…thank God for good drugs!
The next day was filled with as much normalcy as possible. We ordered breakfast, drank coffee, popped in a movie. We laughed a lot..or I should say, we laughed as much as she could without complaining of how much it hurts for her to laugh. If it weren’t for the numerous doctors coming in and out of her room, the Echocardiogram, fetal monitoring or the big CHEMOTHERAPY sign posted in her doorway, I would dare say that it almost felt like a sleepover. The kind of sleepovers we would have when we visited each other in college. Before our careers… Before our husbands…before our babies. It became obvious that these were the kind of sleepovers we did not have enough of in our past life.
I witnessed her get stronger in the few days I was with her…and when it was time for me to go..I realized that I did not want to leave her. There was something strangely calming about being right next to Lori as she went through this journey of recovery. I can see and feel how hard she is fighting to stay strong and to get back on her feet. But I could also be there just to listen to her frustrations of how limited her life suddenly felt. So the visit ended in the same way it started…With me driving in my car on the verge of tears.
Lori came home from the hospital just in time to celebrate Mother's Day. The kids were ecstatic to have their Mommy back home where she belongs. I get daily updates from her and she sounds like she is back to her old self.
No comments:
Post a Comment