Well, I haven't written in over a week, and I told you I probably wouldn't. However, I only said I wouldn't be writing over the weekend, where I had an amazing time back home in the great snowy north. But then I didn't write all week either, and there's really no excuse for this, except I was pretty lazy. Well, I'm back to tell you all about it, whatever "it" happens to be.
No matter how much fun I had back home, the whole thing gets put into perspective when you get news that a good friend has come down with a serious illness. My dear friend Chris was diagnosed with Meningitis, which last I checked, can cause serious, long-lasting physical harm, and can even cause death. I was always aware of the sickness, but never really knew much about it, and to be honest, I still really don't. The first time I was made aware of the severity of the illness was when I was reading the extremely depressing website called www.mydeathspace.com. On that site, there was a Myspace of a young man, I believe he was a college student, that had died very, very suddenly from Meningitis. This shocked me, because he was just sick, and no one would have thought it was as serious as it turned out to be. Just a healthy dude, and suddenly sick, and suddenly dead. Scared the shit out of me.
Well one of my close friends lives in Lansing, MI, where they are starting their family together. When I got home from my vacation, or maybe it was when we were traveling home, I was informed that he has Meningitis and was in the hospital. They didn't know if it was viral or bacterial at the time, and I knew from that research before that the viral one was the deadly one, but that either way, this was not a good thing. All of a sudden, everything I had just done, all the good times I had just had back home was absolutely secondary to what the young Wright family was going through. What I'm ashamed of is my immediate non-response to the situation. You see, we're all connected from everything like Facebook and Twitter, all the way down to good old text messaging and phone calls. There is no excuse for me not to send my best wishes and thoughts and prayers to Chris or Cindy. What the fuck was I thinking? I think part of me was scarred shitless about the whole thing, so I froze. I don't know, but I felt/feel badly. I'm sure it doesn't matter, as my response is the least of their or my concerns. But I still feel like I want to do something.
What I really want to do is give Chris and Cindy and Vada a huge hug. I want to be there with them to help out, even if I don't know if there's much I could do. It just makes you realize how lucky we all are to have friends and family and health and happiness. It's yet another reminder to never take life for granted, because things happen out of the blue. The fact that Chris is up there in some hospital, not really doing all that well, it makes me so sad to think about. How can Chris not be his normal self? It's so scary. This was my best friend for years and years.
I don't know about God and all that, but if there is a god of some sort, please, I beg you, be nice. If there isn't, I don't know who to look to. We all feel like we need a higher being to take care of us in these situations. I guess that's what we all need sometimes, to know, or hope, that this thing we cannot control is being controlled by someone that has the power to make it right or at least make it comfortable. I thank the doctors that are taking care of Chris. I don't know all the details, but I assure you, whatever they are doing to help him, they are truly wonderful people who get to save a life of a friend and a father and a brother and a son, and that's their job. My job consists of doing nothing and getting a paycheck for it. These people have made a decision to save lives on a daily basis. That's pretty fucking sweet.
I don't know what else to say, but I think we should all pray for Chris and Cindy, for whatever good it may do. They are going through a lot right now. I just want everything to be normal again, and I'm sure they do, too. I hope that day comes sooner rather than later.
I think that bacterial meningitis is the shitty one. He has viral which is way less worse.
ReplyDeleteHey Brad. This was really sweet.
ReplyDeleteWhat Chris has is actually Herpes Simplex Encephalitis. Basically it's the cold sore virus on his brain, which unfortunately is much more severe than viral OR bacterial meningitis.
Today marks a full week that he's been in the hospital, and he's not showing that great of an improvement. He's having a hard time naming things (you show him a cup and he knows what it does and how it works, but he can't say "cup"). The drs think he's having seizures, so he's on an anti-seizure medication now. His brain is swelling, which is adding to his confusion.
I'm happy that his friends are thinking of him. He's in a lot of pain and is pretty miserable. I appreciate the good thoughts for me, I'm trying to stay tough and keep a happy face on for our little girl, but it's hard.