LOVE ACTUALLY

It’s been five nights since I’ve been out of the hospital, but the past five nights felt like five weeks. I’ve been prescribed to these medications that won’t let me live a normal life and they’re driving me up the wazoo. One’s Cipro, every 8 hours, and the other’s Flagyl, every 12 hours. If you do the math and put them together, that’s 6am. 8am. 2pm. 8pm. 10pm. And never on an empty stomach. The discipline of watching the clock is the easiest part. It’s the dizziness, headache, and incredible amount of nausea that they both leave me with that I can’t seem to get through. Nausea 24/7. I spent 20 minutes in the bathroom around 7 this morning, head hung over the toilet like it was my job. By 7 this evening, I was ready to call it quits and chuck my medicine out the door, but then in walks my dear beloved parents…

I get up from my unsuccessful nap as they walk in from their long day’s hard work, and after moaning about my present condition, my dad starts poking fun at my mom on cue in an attempt to distract me of my pains. He starts complimenting my weight loss and turns the attention towards my mom about how she’s getting fatter while he pokes at her mid-section. She then turns to me to say that she’s only like that because your dad (emphasis on the ‘your’) keeps buying fried chicken all day during work and has no choice but to eat beside him. With eyes half open, I watched them as they playfully harassed each other for my sake, and amidst the throbbing headache and constant nausea, I was able to laugh. I guess you could say the warm fuzzy feeling that most people refer to as love (in the non-cheesiest way possible) overrode the knots in my stomach, and I was able to fall asleep, successfully distracted by thoughts of kindness.

I’m obviously not writing this to say that I have it so bad, because in comparison to other pains, I know I don’t. But I write as a reminder to myself that I actually have it pretty good, in the most undeserving way… and that love actually, not only works in your favor, but is the medicine to all diseases, if you’re willing to acknowledge it.