Be Here Now: Worried about a Friend in the Hospital

I am sitting here in the dark worried about my LYLAS best friend Cyndie.  Right now she is in the ICU at Northridge Hospital.  She faces surgery in the morning.  That's when the doctors are going to find out just how serious her situation really is.  For now, she gets IV fluids, IV antibiotics and morphine for her belly pain.

I found out about her condition when she instant messaged me from the ER around 7:45 PM.  I couldn't reach her so I called her roommate and got to talk to her for a few minutes while she was down in the ER waiting to go to the ICU at about 8:45 PM.  She sounded in good spirits, but a little groggy from the morphine they had given her for the pain.  Her roommate called me around 10:30 PM and recounted for me the information the doctor shared with her in the ER.  Then I called her, via the ICU Nurses Station (since they turn the patient phones off a 9 PM,) and chatted with her for about 10 minutes at around 11:15 PM.  I wished her well for her surgery, told her I was saying prayers for her and told her I loved her before I hung up.

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After turning on my computer to send an email to her work to ask a friend and co-worker to notify her boss of her impending absence and get the disability paperwork process started, I did something foolish.  I looked up what is wrong with Cyndie, which brought a whole new wave of worry crashing over my head.  Her situation is serious and there is potential for major complications.  

When I talked to her, I asked her if she was anxious about her surgery and she said no.  The morphine is probably helping her to feel calm and she isn't surfing the Internet reading up on what is wrong with her!  I wish I had some to help me get to sleep tonight.  Knowing in great detail what is wrong with her is making ME feel anxious.  This information overload is making me almost grateful that the Internet wasn't really around back in 1988 when I went through my cancer treatment.  


Why do my friends get sick?  Despite my constant reminders to my friends that I am accepting the role of being the "sick one," some of them turn around and have medical problems themselves.  Why don't they just take me up on my offer so I don't have to worry about them and their health problems? 


Seriously though, I know this really isn't about me, it's about Cyndie.  I know that me worrying isn't going to help her get through her surgery and get better.  I just wish I could do something more than just talk to her on the phone and send prayers and healing thoughts her way.  I wish I could be there at the hospital with her but I can't drive that far because of my (stupid!!!!!) fibromyalgia.  I would feel so much better if I could be there with her to be a second pair of ears when the doctors talk to her, a second pair of hands to write a list of questions to ask, I second mouth to ask the nurses for some help and a second pair of legs to walk down the hallway and go get her what she wants from the cafeteria, the gift shop and her house.


What I can do is ask you to please say a prayer or send a healing thought to my friend Cyndie.  She needs a little divine intervention today.