Friday, April 30, 2010

Little Mize

Last year while in the States, I came down with appendicitis. Within the course of 24 hours, I was out of the hospital with a well-fed belly and nothing left to show for my big ordeal but 3 tiny slits in my gut, pictures of my ovaries, and loads of paperwork to petition for financial assistance for the $32,000 bill (which the hospital paid!!). 3 days after my operation, I was dancing (well, that's the closest word for it...) at my sister's wedding!

And I was grateful. I was grateful that it happened while I was in America. But NOW I am REALLY grateful because I've seen what it's like in Albania!

Today, I went to visit sweet little Rai, an 11 year old girl from the Safe House, in the public hospital. Yesterday, Raj got appendicits. Although she is hanging in there, my little "Mize" was in a lot of pain. One day after her operation, her stomach hurt, she was throwing up vile, she had no sort of pain killers, no IV, hadn't eaten or drunk (drunk? drank? drinken? huh...how do I not know this?!) anything for 24 hours, and she had a rubber glove attached to a tube that was draining blood and infection from her wound-site! Oh, and she wasn't allowed to have a pillow, or her bed raised! Poor girl! Although the hospital did offer a clean bed and a clean room, our staff had to bring changes of bedding and diapers, etc. for poor little Raj, who will most likely be there for about a week!

And for the sake of not making this political, which is the only way I see this going, I'm going to end this here! Te shkuara Raj!! Get well soon Raj!

2 comments:

Heather said...

Oh my. Poor little girl. That is horrible.

ajplays said...

I remember when you called me to tell me about your appendix, I was in shock and didn't say anything

You were like, "I'm so sorry," I guess because of the timing? You seemed concerned that I might be mad at you.

I said, "I'm just... grateful... that you were here" (the States) and then we both started to cry and Dave & I whipped over to the hospital and it was practically over by the time we got there. I felt really lucky.

Hard to believe that was almost a year ago!

Te Shkuara Raj! I hope she recovers as beautifully as you did.