You've Got a Friend in Me

2014-11-05 Posted By Jenna

Growing up, there was less and less of a reason for me too keep my peers in the loop of what was going on in my life, medically speaking (which was a lot as a kid). It was a downer for them, a lot for them to take in, and a lifestyle that had become (somewhat) normal to me but would shock, disgust and alienate me from them (it’s true!). So, over the years I got very good at being independent, flying under the radar and just getting through it on my own. That is, until university.

(For the parents of someone with a chronic condition, or you are that someone going through elementary or high school - IT GETS BETTER! I just happened to be someone who put too much weight on what other people thought about me and let it get me down. Lesson - do what makes you feel confident, remember in that moment you are confident, and people will be drawn to you!)

I was fighting a very bad common infection, a UTI (urinary tract infection), over Easter weekend 2010 when this little…bugger… would. not. let. go. I was in my dorm room trying to appreciate the rare silence of nobody being around to try and sleep, not having kept a thing down for three days straight and my temperature RISING - I was into trouble. The most obvious solution took awhile to cross my smokin’ hot brain - if I do say so myself!

Believe it or not, even at 20 and having a congenital condition (from birth) - I had never ridden in an ambulance. So I thought, I’m sick and DEFINITELY need to go to the hospital so I’m gonna ride… in style, I deserve it! And let me tell you, what service! There was a bed back there that was WAY comfier than the one in my dorm, they were giving me as many blankets as I wanted (no charge), they knew how to fold my wheelchair without instruction or breaking it, and they got me there quickly with that nifty siren (I really need to get me one of those for my chair AND car). It was luxury like I had never seen (within the healthcare system). I was almost sad it was over - sorry, bad word choice for the end of an ambulance ride…yikes!

Remember my mentioning my propensity for independence? Well, I do have to confess that before the ambulance came I had packed a bag of supplies, tidied up my room (which my mother now realizes takes a medical emergency and the potential of good-looking paramedics to get me to do) and jumped up onto the gurney faster than they could offer to help. Nothing shoots a nearly lethal amount of adrenaline and testosterone into my system faster than when I know people are going to assume/know I need help - 104 degree fever and extreme dehydration… what’s your point? However, I did learn that night that I did have limits to my independence because as I’m blowing up my cell battery trying to persuade my parents - on the other side of the country that I was fine and that they didn’t need to come, my battery was quickly dying. I had forgotten my phone charger when I was packing. D’OH!

So, what's a person do at 6am in the morning on a holiday weekend to solve this problem? With fingers crossed, I called my best friend who was very quick to point out the fact that if I had called her earlier, since I needed HELP, I would have found out that she had been in town the wholeeee weekend; I really wanted to point out to her how awesome the ambulance ride was, but quite out of character for my maturity level, I was able to establish this was not the time to do that. So after her making her point, and me keeping mine to myself, I begged her to grab my phone charger so that my phone wouldn’t die and have my parents think that the same fate befallen me.

Within half an hour, she was there with a phone charger, an extra laptop, a mountain of DVDs and an offer to get me the breakfast of my choice. This was the first time, really since elementary school, that I had let a friend into my “sometime world,” and it felt like freedom.

Now I could end this post on a warm and fuzzy note, or add some funnyness. Yes, I spelled funnyness wrong but so did “The Pursuit of Happyness” and that movie didn’t do half bad, now did it? Imagine that the above post was your typical, drama/comedy/psychological thriller/documentary/love st…(I wish!) and the following is a blooper:

Before my friend was about to go get my breakfast a nurse came around the curtain to ask me the standard questions. My friend isn’t particularly eager to leave me seeing how crappy I look, so I let her stay to show her how mundane the questions are.

The nurse asks “Do you drink alcohol?” I honestly responded, “Maybe a glass of wine once a month” which she takes note of.

The nurse then asks me, “Do you smoke?” I vehemently denied that I did (I really don't). She doesn’t really look like she believes me but nonetheless moves on to her last question.

“Do you do drugs?” I was started to feel like I had done a disservice to my university experience as my answer was yet again, “No.”

Thank God I had my friend by my side when the nurse responded to me, otherwise no one would EVER believe me, she turned to me and said, “Girl, you gotta get a life!”