Family Makes it All Better
I woke up in the middle of the night in my room. I had a bad stomach ache. It was a sharp pain in the center of my stomach. I wasn’t really sure what to do. I just laid in the darkness hoping that it would go away. I had a big supper only a few hours before and so I was thinking that it was just from all that food. Or maybe just a normal stomach ache from a virus. I was alone and scared in my room and unsure why I was hurting.
Finally, after laying in bed for a while and not being able to fall back asleep, I decided to go and wake up my mom. I slowly got out of bed with the pain hitting me harder when I moved. I gingerly made my way up the steps. Our house was completely quiet and the noise, I was making seemed out of place. Walking into my mom and dad's bedroom, I could hear only my mom sleeping since my dad was working out of town. I tried to wake my mom, “Mom, Mom,” Gently shaking her.
Finally she shoots up, scared about why she is being awakened. “What! What!” my mom says.
“I have a stomach ache and it really hurts,” I tell her.
“Do you want something for it?” she asks.
I told her, “Yeah, it hurts pretty bad.”
She climbs out of bed and goes into the bathroom and to the medicine cabinet. She asks me where it hurts, and I tell her almost all over. That's when pain really felt like a knife was poking my insides. I just laid down in a ball on the soft carpet of the bedroom. A few tears slowly rolled down my face. I was in so much pain. I looked up at my mom and I could see the worry on her face.
My mom gave me some medicine. She then helped me to get up and go in the living room to lay on the couch. Her touch was comforting to me. It relaxed me and was able to make me feel better. The last thing I remember from that night was falling asleep to my mother’s calming hand going through my hair.
I woke up the next morning to my brother staring at me, confused. He asked my mom what was wrong with me and she just replied with, “She doesn’t feel good.” That brought back the events of the night before. I thought about my pain, and it was a lot better. I figured that it was probably nothing, just a normal stomach ache.
My mom came and kneeled by me and asked, “Are you going to go to school today?”
“Well yeah I am, there's softball tomorrow,” I replied.
We had our home softball tournament the next day, and if I didn’t go to school, I wouldn’t be able to play. And I really wanted to play. I felt ok anyway, so I figured that I would be fine. I got ready and went to school as normal. Before I left, my mom said to let her know if it began to hurt again.
I got to school and was hurting a little bit. It wasn’t a bad pain though, so I figured it would go away. I really wanted to play the next day, so I was determined to stick it out. Third hour came around though, and I knew something was up. I called my mom and she called the school. A few minutes later I heard my name get called over the intercom and so I left Spanish to go down to the office.
In the office was Angel and my mom. Seeing my mom at the school was strange, but it was nice and made be feel a little bit better. We had a short conversation about what was going on. Angel told me that if I left now and was fine she would make it so I could still play the next day. With that,my mom and I left the school and went off to the hospital.
Walking through the dark sliding glass doors of the hospital, I was instantly hit with the distinct smell. Disinfectant, sterile, cold. It made me feel nervous. My mom checked me in while I sat down in the waiting room with others. She soon met me there. We waited for awhile and finally I heard, “Tara,” a nurse in scrubs was calling my name. She took my height, weight, the typical things. She left and a doctor came in. The doctor pushed on my stomach with cold, bony fingers. It hurt. She said that it could possibly be appendicitis but they would have to get scans to see for sure.
In what felt like no time I was done with that doctor. I was on to get a CT scan of my stomach. The machine was big and white. I laid on a sort of bed and was pushed into it. They gave me a contrast that helped them see my insides. It instantly made my whole body warm and it gave me such a weird feeling. I could hear the machine speed up. It was going around and around my stomach at a high speed. The CT scan would tell them what was going on inside of me. After the CT scan I was put in a wheelchair and pushed down hallways to another room. Another cold, unfamiliar room.
Sitting in there alone with my mom made me feel good. Just her presence changed the mood. After a while, Dr. Smith came in. He told me that I had appendicitis and needed to get my appendix out. He also said that he would be the one taking it out. I know him from sports, and my mom works with him, so I felt good that he would be doing the surgery. It made me sad to have to have the surgery. I was nervous about what was going to happen. It also meant that I’d be missing softball and that really hurt.
My mom works in the hospital and so while I was waiting, I had many visitors. Co-workers of my moms that were just coming to check things out. We sat and talked, joking around. It was nice to get my mind off of what was about to happen.
I almost forgot about it until a nurse came to take me back in the operating room. My mom's soft hands grabbed my arm and she kissed me on the head. I didn't want to leave her but I had to. I told her, “See you in a little bit.”
“I love you,” she replied with.
Then they took me.
The O.R. was cold. Everyone was in masks and that added to the coldness. Looking up the ceiling had uniform holes all over. It looked like the ceilings of school buses. The guy who put me to sleep was sitting above my head. He was joking with me about how my mom and dad should pay me more for babysitting my brothers. While we were talking, he put a mask on my face told me to keep breathing normally. Just like that, I was asleep.
After a good sleep, I finally woke up to my mom and dad softly saying my name. My dad had come home and it was nice to see him. My mouth had an iron, blood taste in it and was very dry. I couldn’t feel much else. I was still drowsy and wasn’t completely with it. I slowly drifted back off while they rolled me to my room.
I woke up awhile later. I was a bit confused, but then finally it all hit me. Where I was, what had happened. My pain was a little more tolerable. My room was filled with some of my family members. Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and my brothers. I was reminded about how great my family is and how much they love me. It was comforting to have them in my room. My mom was sitting next to my bed, talking with my grandma. I liked hearing her voice. It made me not scared to be in the hospital at all. I felt happy to see these people who care about me. Family is so great, and if I didn’t have them, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today. That moment in my room I felt lucky and a little bit special to have all these wonderful people.