The People You Meet

Life can be funny. Gifts comes in strange places. Support is all around.

Friday afternoon, I tweeted about TGIF, and about my favorite day of the week when I enjoy a nice dinner with my family, a good glass of Cabernet, and 20/20 (my favorite). However, this Friday night didn’t quite turn out the way I had planned. These things always happen to us for some reason. We often have these emergencies, which in the end, turn out to be nothing serious, but scare us just the same.

Friday night at 7PM, we found ourselves sitting in the emergency room– hubby and myself. There’s a point to this story at the end, so stay with me.

It all started with a fall. My husband slipped on the ice leaving work on Thursday evening, and hurt his side near his ribs. We celebrated my mom’s 60th birthday that evening, and despite feeling a little sore, my hubby never mentioned any pain.

By Friday afternoon, he was complaining of a huge pain on his side, he was dizzy, lightheaded and chilled to the bone. By the time he got home from work, he was running over 101 fever and I was started to get a little worried (he can be a hypochondriac so I never know when he’s crying wolf). We called his doctor (who is a family friend) and he told us to go to the emergency immediately, to make sure nothing was going on internally from his fall.

Well, that’s all my hubby needed to hear!!! EMERGENCY! “I don’t wanna die. I love you and the boys and I have to be around for you,” he said to me. Melodramatic much? This is a man who can take 1000 needles in his mouth, but the sight of a needle to his arm has him either gagging or passing out. Yearly blood tests are a real treat. He soaks a shirt every time. But, I would like to point out, that for myself and the boys, he is incredible. Anyhow, back to the story…

My parents were at their weekend house by now, my in laws were out of town and my big son was just panicked watching my husband. He started to cry, and I desperately tried to calm him down as I prepared to leave for the hospital. I told him that daddy wasn’t feeling well, and we were simply going to go see the doctor. The whole leaving with my hubby keeling over in pain was a real scene.

When we arrived at the hospital, he was given a high priority by the nurse. This was good because it meant the waiting time would be quicker than say, 7 hours, but it was bad because it meant they were concerned. The better news– all my old buddies in emergency were working that night! I used to volunteer at the Emergency of this hospital till the day I became pregnant with my son. So, when they saw me, I think they whizzed us in (or so I think).

A blood test, X-Ray and cardiogram later, he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Yes, the whole thing ended up being a coincidence. We had all flown down to Florida with a cough, but my husband’s had lingered. So, the bad pain on his left side was both from the fall, and the pneumonia coincidentally. He was prescribed anti-biotics, and were sent home at around 11pm.

But it’s the beauty that happened along the way that made spending a Friday night in the Emergency room worthwhile. Reconnecting with my old buddies– the doctors, the office staff, and the orderlies from my past was incredible. One doctor that was only a resident at the time, was the doctor in charge of our section of the emergency. How time flies.

The new friends I met were were equally as lovely. Sitting in the family room was another worried mother, also awaiting test results for her 18 year-old daughter. There we were, two complete strangers, mothers, bonding over the love of a family member. We began chatting, only to find out, that our lives- both personally and professionally had crossed in the past, and will probably continue to cross. She is a businesswoman and author (pushing to get her 10-book series which comes out next month to Oprah), and discussions have already begun on future collaborations.

A handsome young man in his early twenties who had taken a bad fall that day came to sit next to us. He was awaiting his own X-Ray results and was desperately hoping it was nothing serious. We also sat next to a very religious Jewish family who had walked to the Emergency on the sabbath. They were also praying for their loved one.

And so my point is, there we were, all different ethnicities and religions, giving up our chairs for one another, smiling, giving words of comfort. I witnessed first hand, that in time of need, people come together. And these moments are very special and ever-lasting. Look at 9/11. The tsunami. Now Haiti. From devastation arises this incredible bond and sense of unity that is both very powerful and very incredible.

So I’ll end today’s Blog post where it began.

Life can be funny. Gifts comes in strange places. Support is all around.

P.S. My husband went back to work this morning, and he is thankfully doing much better.