Unexpected situations can open your eyes

I'd like to share a story which shows one of these times when you realize that you are not alone and people care about you.

Some years ago my family doctor back in Landshut (Germany) found during a routine examination a few galbladder stones. They were small and didn't bother me, so we didn't do anything about them. In September 2006 I was in Nijmegen, where I study, and I got a colic in my stomach. That was on a Tuesday. I found a doctor not too far away from my home. I swung on my bike and could see him almost right away. He gave me a prescrption for a medicine for colics. That helped only partly: the pain decreased a bit, but didn't entirely disappear.

It was a college week, so I had to go to class the next day, but I didn't feel well. Somehow, the pain didn't want to go away, like it used to in the past months each time when I had such colic. I also noticed that the pain had shifted location; it was no longer in my stomach but now top right instead. I went home a little earlier on that Wednesday, and I was glad that I had a day off on the Thursday after that. During the afternoon of the Wednesday the pain started to increase again. I called the doctor's office, but as the doctor's system in the Netherlands is so awesome *cough cough* they waved me away, telling me I should call back in a few days again. Fine.

Meanwhile, the colic-medicine didn't work at all anymore, and Rennie didn't work either. I was stuck with the pain, great. I was still hoping it would go away by itself, it should be fine the next day. I was telling my boyfriend about it on the phone, but he couldn't really help me since he was on a short conference in France and would return only on Friday. I didn't alarm anyone else since I still thought it would stop by itself. mhm … on Thursday the pain only got worse. It felt like a small ball of pain top right of my stomach. The pain was irradiating non-stop, nothing that I did could relive it: sitting, standing, lying, eating, warming it, cooling it, moving it … nothing nothing nothing worked. Not a tiny bit. By that time I was in so much pain that even slow walking hurt … dragging myself very slowly around my 11 m2 room or to the toilet I was holding my right side so it wouldn't wobble around and hurt too much.

That night (Thursday to Friday) I couldn't sleep from the pain. I was awake the whole night long, rolling from side to side, trying to lie on a pillow, or a pillow on me, and with each turn I felt that small ball of pain rolling in my stomach with me. Waiting for the first ray of sunshine I called the doc's office as soon as they activated their phone system. I think she heard the pain in my voice and knew I wasn't making this up whining. I could come right away. Yeah, I thought so already, I was waiting fully dressed for an hour already.

So I swung back on my bike again. The doc reached quite quickly a conclusion: acute stomach, emergency room right away. He gave me a nice little letter and sent me off … with an acute stomach on a bike, I'm still wondering if that was actually the right way to handle such a situation?? But okay, I just wanted to get rid of that damn pain finally, so I rode off.

Around 9 o'clock I arrived at the emergency room and I had to do all the tests once again, this time in an extended version, and answer lots of questions. I was still in pain because I didn't take any paracetamols since this whole fiasco started … I didn't want to numb the pain and not be able to give detailed information about its intensity and location. When all the tests were done I finally was allowed to get some pain-killers … morphine into the leg, wow that stuff is great. Got an allergic skin reaction to it, but hey, my pain was numbed a great deal for the first time since days, so I didn't care about the itchy spots.

About one hour of lying around in a quiet and almost painless emergency room later I had some docs visiting me. They told me my galbladder was inflamed and had to be cut out before it burst and infected my whole stomach (that last part they didn't mention of course, but I got the picture). Uhm … operation … I thought they were joking. I thought all I needed were some stronger pills, but an operation never crossed my mind. I was set on the emergency list and would be operated as soon as a spot became available. They asked me if I had anything in my stomach … no, for sure not, I ate one apple on Wednesday and one tiny piece of bread on Thursday, so I assured them my stomach was empty.

When they left me I started thinking about the operation. I've never been operated before. They told me it was a simple operation, no big deal. But still, it involved cutting holes into my stomach, one of the parts of your body that includes lots of vital organs and pathways. Thinking about what could go wrong I was getting nervous.

I also thought then, now it was really time to alarm some people. I called my boyfriend (he would be soon on his way back to the Netherlands again) and my dad back in Germany. My mom was out with my brother, and I was glad for that, since my dad is the more rational of them. We were considering if we should tell my mom at all about my operation, since she is always worrying and it sounded like a small OP and besides, I was 700 km away. In the end, my dad made the decision himself and left me out of the loop. A few hours later he told me that she was in the car, on her 700 km way to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, my boyfriend informed his side of the family. They directly called and shared their concern. They set a scout on the train to come to me so I wouldn't be alone at the hospital (my boyfriend's youngest sister). But, ironic universe, a few minutes before she arrived they wheeled me off to the operation chamber.

A few hours later I woke up again, it was around 22 o'clock … and I was not alone anymore. My mom and my brother had arrived, my boyfriend was back from France and directly came to me, my boyfriend's dad and his wife and the youngest sister were there. Only by a few hours notice, everybody came when I needed someone.

Many people take love and affection for granted. But it is only in the hour of a crisis that you notice who your true friends are and whose love and affection is not fake, but very real.

At this point I would like to thank those true friends again for being there for me without questions nor 'buts' when all I needed was a shoulder.