On Saturday, September 10, I awoke to my worst nightmare. It was 10 a.m. and my phone already had 18 missed calls. My heart dropped, I already knew that something was terribly wrong, but the worst was yet to come.
A relative I am very close with fell down a flight of stairs resulting in numerous serious injuries. I had already been planning on going home this past weekend, but that call changed everything. That Saturday I couldn't stop crying, I kept hoping that it was a bad dream and that maybe I would wake up and it would all be over.
Nothing prepares you for this sort of thing. It is like a tragic scene out of an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Walking into the ICU made me feel as if my body was going to collapse. The setting is grave, most people are on the brink of life or death. It is a quiet floor with just the humming of machines and the occasional chatter from nurses. When I walked into the room and saw my relative I was devastated. A person once full of life and laughter was confined to a bed, covered in bruises, and hooked up to a respirator, unable to speak. There were times where it seemed as if she was barely conscious. She was on the fine line between life and death. I left the hospital that day not knowing if I said my last goodbye.
I am happy to report that it has been five days now and she is stable and making little improvements. Something that we often take for granted like someone giving a thumbs up is now the highlight of my day when I heard she gave the nurse one. Still, my family and I have no idea what the final outcome will be. Will she be able to speak again? Will there be a personality difference? There are so many unknowns that it is too stressful to keep thinking of them. We take it a day at a time; for some of us, an hour at a time.
My biggest regret is that I didn't respond to her texts as often as I could or should have. No matter where I was in my life, she always took the time out of her day to send me a good luck text, a care package, or a simple email to see how I was doing. I wish I had done the same. Now I don't know if I will ever be able to do these things with her again. I keep looking at my phone hoping that a text from her will pop up but I can't say for certain that it ever will. All I can do at this point is hope and pray that things will one day be as they once were.
The one thing I hope everyone gets out of this article is the reminder to stay in contact with loved ones and appreciate every moment that you have together. Appreciate life and all of its blessings. I do not ask for your sympathy, but I do ask that you all hug your loved ones a little closer tonight and call your loved ones more, like I wish I had.
