ER

My Easter break had an unexpected downturn. As soon as I landed Detroit, Paul had to take me to the ER. I've been vomiting since 4am that morning, and I couldn't even drink any more water because nothing seemed to hold. 'Oh Great', I thought to myself, 'perfect way to start what I called my "eating contest" Easter vacation', as I had planned for a really long time to raid every Chinese restaurant in Toronto for my Easter Holiday.
I was really reluctant to be sent to the ER. OK, some of you may know I got a bit of a vomiting problem here. I once went to see a nurse (back in my OSU days, the doctor woulnd't even see you) to describe my symptom and she said it is normal for people to throw up once in a while. And then Paul and I got into a bit of a disagreement over the definition of "non-stop vomiting". He thought I was not doing too bad since I was only vomiting like every other hour or so, and at least I wasn't doing the non-stop vomiting. And since I still had the energy to argue with him, I must have proven to him further that things weren't so serious. So although I was a bit upset that no one takes my illness seriously, deep down I was also convinced that I must have been over reacting a little bit.

And if you've ever watched the sitcom "ER", you'd understand why the word ER gets my stomach cramped. I was waiting to see some serious scary scenes unfolding in front of me. The fear of someone dying before me had momentarily took away my mind from my own pain. And just as I feared, shortly after my admission into the waiting room, a kid got rolled into the ER with some terrifying screaming & moaning. I turned away immediately but couldn't shut out the moaning and the heart wrenching cry from his family. There were even times when this kid sounded like he was not gonna make it. This lasted about 10 minutes or so, and then I heard the doctor said to the mother, "Look! We've got 3 kids and 2 adults crying over a scratch here. If you can stop crying, I guarantee that you guys can be out in no time." A scratch? I thought I was a drama queen sitting in an ER over some food poisoning , guess the kid (and his whole crew of family) just took my crown!

And that was the only incidence that caused some stir. Everyone else seemed pretty fine, no one got shot and no one died. In fact there was a guy who was handcuffed by the police with his face down on the roller, but even he was not shot or bleeding whatsoever. Nothing like what they showed on the TV really. Due to my extreme fear of illness and death, the thought of anyone ends up in the hospital always gets me upset. And besides feeling sad for the person, I often wonder what I have done to deserve a rather hospital-less peaceful and healthy life. So it is kind of funny to see people's concerned face when I told them about my trip to the ER. But truth be told, even during the five-day trip when I was occassionally feeling ill, the one big feeling that keeps occupying my mind was the constant feeling of hunger, not fear or pain. I guess we human beings are way more courageous than we'd thought. Even I, the one with the faintest heart, was able to look forward to the positive aspect of life (food) while being totally deprived of it.