Let me tell you about my roommate. ‘B’ went home yesterday. She has Crohn’s disease which is chronic and incurable. It causes incredible pain and complications in the bowel and painful inflammation of the joints.
This beautiful 20-something woman knows more about her disease than most doctors. She has had to educate herself in order to cope. Within a day of being here she was in a wheelchair, with her ankles and knees doubled in size. The worst part about that aspect is that they must test the fluid for infection before they can give her anything for the pain. And there is pain, lots of it.
This is the hand that B has been dealt. While her friends party without worry she deals with flare-ups that land her in the hospital. Fortunately she is on a new medication that is reducing the number of incidents and helping her live more normally. She is so cool. She taught me how to use Baxter, the IV dispensing machine. She taught my nurse how to change my PICC line dressing without causing me pain. She was released yesterday and I hope she doesn’t have to come back. She made my stay here more tolerable and gave me some big laughs, too. She handles her situation well because she has no choice. This is her life. I got really sick but chances are, I won’t get that sick again. For B it’s a matter of when. Â She rocks and I hope they find a cure for her.