TFIOS Part 2: A REALLY Good Book!
If you read my last blog post you know that I was talking a lot about the movie "The Fault In Our Stars" or TFIOS. I talked about how one of the reasons I connect with the book so much is that i've had my own share of some of the things they talk about, such as hospital visits and bad nurses. One recent example was the midnight hospital run. In the book, the main character, Hazel wakes up in extreme pain and screams for her parents who come running in and then an ambulance comes and she wakes up in the hospitals ICU (intensive care unit) a day or so later. Hazel is crying and screaming and her parents are really worried. When I was sitting in the theater watching this scene unfold it was almost too real. Watching her go through this sent me back to every time i've woken up with a high fever and chills in the middle of the night.
I had the chance to compare fiction to reality last week when I woke up with a fever. For those of you that have never had a central line infection, which i'm hoping is most of you, you generally feel a little weird before you go to bed that night. This time I was feeling weirdly cold. It was a pretty warm summer night and I was wrapped in a blanket. I went to bed that night with extra blankets and while the thought did cross my mind that this could be a line infection, my mind has learned to jump to conclusions and I thought I was just being paranoid. Later that night, around 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up even colder. I turned my fan off and tried to go back to sleep. At around 5 o'clock I was shaking so much that I finally accepted the inevitable and went to my parents room. At this point every joint in my body is shaking, my teeth are clenched to try to keep still as my body feels like it's trying to fall apart.
My parents have over the years become light sleepers due to the midnight medical alarms. Pretty much the second I walked into their room they were awake and finding a thermometer as we followed the protocol that has been in place since my first line infection. My dad and I got dressed and drove off into the early morning. We arrived at the emergency room where we would spend the next 4 hours of our lives dealing with doctors that were convinced I was fine, nurses that did not know how to start an IV in my arm and fellow emergency room patients.
I connect with TFIOS because John Green somehow seems to understand kind of what its like to be a teenager with a chronic medical condition. I am fine now, it was a rough bug and I ended up spending a night in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) due to low blood pressure, but I am now finished with my antibiotics and back to focusing on enjoying my summer. Sometimes when people see kids in the hospital they see poor little angels that should be pitied for their lot in life. Other times people see this little super hero, fighting with super strength to get better. But the way I see it, kids in the hospital are strong and brave, they are faced with intense adversity, but they are also just regular kids that worry about regular things. People can connect with TFIOS because it has things for people with medical conditions to latch onto and connect with, but it also gives others things to connect with.
Basically what I'm trying to say is... ITS A REALLY BOOK! Thanks for reading.
I had the chance to compare fiction to reality last week when I woke up with a fever. For those of you that have never had a central line infection, which i'm hoping is most of you, you generally feel a little weird before you go to bed that night. This time I was feeling weirdly cold. It was a pretty warm summer night and I was wrapped in a blanket. I went to bed that night with extra blankets and while the thought did cross my mind that this could be a line infection, my mind has learned to jump to conclusions and I thought I was just being paranoid. Later that night, around 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up even colder. I turned my fan off and tried to go back to sleep. At around 5 o'clock I was shaking so much that I finally accepted the inevitable and went to my parents room. At this point every joint in my body is shaking, my teeth are clenched to try to keep still as my body feels like it's trying to fall apart.
My parents have over the years become light sleepers due to the midnight medical alarms. Pretty much the second I walked into their room they were awake and finding a thermometer as we followed the protocol that has been in place since my first line infection. My dad and I got dressed and drove off into the early morning. We arrived at the emergency room where we would spend the next 4 hours of our lives dealing with doctors that were convinced I was fine, nurses that did not know how to start an IV in my arm and fellow emergency room patients.
I connect with TFIOS because John Green somehow seems to understand kind of what its like to be a teenager with a chronic medical condition. I am fine now, it was a rough bug and I ended up spending a night in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) due to low blood pressure, but I am now finished with my antibiotics and back to focusing on enjoying my summer. Sometimes when people see kids in the hospital they see poor little angels that should be pitied for their lot in life. Other times people see this little super hero, fighting with super strength to get better. But the way I see it, kids in the hospital are strong and brave, they are faced with intense adversity, but they are also just regular kids that worry about regular things. People can connect with TFIOS because it has things for people with medical conditions to latch onto and connect with, but it also gives others things to connect with.
Basically what I'm trying to say is... ITS A REALLY BOOK! Thanks for reading.
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