Day 25: I Really Hate Surprises

January 20, 2010

A couple of days ago, one of my best friends(if not my best friend) went into the hospital to have his appendix removed. It was scary and everything, but after the surgery was over with they told us he was alright. I saw him as soon as he was brought up to his room and he looked tired, but good. We talked to him for a while and he seemed to be in good spirits. He was joking around with us and I left the hospital with a good feeling. I had talked to a couple of people the next morning about how he was the previous night and they all said he was fine.

The next day he was supposed to have been let go, so I called him up to see how he was doing. When I called him he told me he was still in the hospital. I was naturally surprised, as I figured he would be back at his apartment, or at the very least at his parents house by now. As it turns out, his appendix had burst sometime during the weekend and his body was now filled with bacteria. He didn't sound very good but he also did not sound worried either. He was mainly pissed that he had to stay another night. We talked for a couple of minutes and then I went about my night.

Fast forward to this morning when I get a call from my father telling me that he has pneumonia, but is stable. He told me this because my friend and another buddy and I were supposed to be traveling out of town this weekend to do an interview we had set-up. My dad was seeing if we could get the interview pushed back a bit so my friend could go. We did get the interview pushed back and from everything I knew to this point, everything was good again. Then at around 5:15pm my mother called me and told me that was not the case.

Evidently in the middle of the night a nurse came into his room because he wanted another blanket. When she checked on him though, she found that he was completely blue and barely breathing. They called a rapid response team into the room and even brought a priest in to read him his last rights. He obviously stabilized and came back to it, but was still pretty weak. This news shook me pretty good and even as I write this now, it is still hitting me pretty hard. I immediately drove up to the hospital to go see him. When I got there, he was awake and was talking to everyone. I was happy to see this but he still looked really weak. I was there for a couple of hours before he wanted us to leave. He wanted to finally try and get some sleep as I imagine he is incredibly tired.

I am still shaking from this news, as I am still a little bit shocked by all of it. I had to write this down now because if I didn't, I would not be able to function tonight. I am so worried about him right now. I just pray that the people at the hospital know what they are doing and that he is back home and recovering by this weekend. I realize this was nothing more than an account of my day today, but I just couldn't keep it to myself.