One of the scariest moments in my life was the car ride down to the Emergency Room at 4:00 in the morning. I had been getting occasional stomach aches for the past couple months, but none of them ever sent to me to the hospital. . . .until now. The pain had become so intense that I could no longer sleep, stand, or lie down. I could only sit down bent over tightly clutching my stomach. Once in the ER, I was put into a bed and immediately put on pain killers. The pain killers made me very sleepy which doesn't sound like a very bad thing considering the lack of sleep I had gotten the previous night. The problem was, when I began to fall asleep the nurses realized that I was not breathing and had to quickly put me on oxygen. I took a couple tests and the doctors found out that I had obstructed bowels, which occurs when your intestines are twisted together. I then went for a very long and painful ride to Kapiolani Hospital.
Unfortunately, the hospital was a very familiar place to me. Due to my kidney cancer when I was 6 six years old, I have been coming to the hospital every year ever since. Surprisingly, a lot of the nurses on my room's floor still remembered me. I was greeted with friendly hello's and smiles, but I was not in the mood for a reunion. One of the doctors came in and talked to my mom and I and said that I would probably only have to stay for about 5 days. I eagerly counted down the days til I was able to return home. But my hopes were crushed on day 5 when the doctor said that I would have to get surgery to fix my intestines. Surgery meant that I would only have to stay in for a couple more days. Not too bad, I thought. But once again my wishes of going home did not come true due to the inside of my stomach getting infected during the surgery.
From that point, I was in the hospital for another month. Despite all the pain I was going through I think my mom was taking this hospitalization the hardest. I realized that I had to be strong for her and had to try and do more things by myself everyday. Up until that moment, I had been taking things that everyone did for me for granted. The whole hospital experience made realize how much people do for me and that I should be very thankful for the wonderful family and friends that I have.
Fortunately, I made it out of the hospital safe and sound. But that point on, I have been much more thankful for everything that I have in my life. I now appreciate my family and friends so much more and I never take anything for granted.
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