Friday, February 28, 2014

selflessness

Dear readers;
I would like to introduce you to my best friend since Kindergarten.


This is Elizabeth.  Liz.  Eli-Funny-Bunny.
We lived down the street from one another from the time we were in Kindergarten until the summer after 2nd grade. I moved just 5 minutes away so we stayed friends, and then we were almost neighbors until the end of 5th grade.  At that point Liz and her family moved to Missouri, and then after a few years they moved to Pennsylvania.  Statistics would say that this friendship wouldn't last.  But somehow we made it work.  We had a long distance friendship until college when she moved back to Utah to go to school at BYU. 

I learned a lot from Liz and her family growing up.  I learned to be crazy, I learned a deep appreciation for music and a variety of music at that.  I learned the true meaning of friendship.  I was taught forgiveness and learned that revenger isn't the way to solve your problems.  

That was all growing up.

I'm learning from Liz, yet again, a very valuable life lesson.
Two weeks ago Liz went to Idaho with a group of friends to stay at a cabin for Presidents' Day Weekend.  While at the cabin they decided to go tubing.  On Liz's first run down the hill she hit a bump and flew off her tube.   She landed on her side and in her words "had the wind knocked out of" her.  She stayed on the mountainside for another 2 or 3 hours while her friends continued tubing.  Her younger sister Maddie was also at the cabin, and tubing with them.  Maddie hit the same bump and flew off her tube.  Maddie and Liz just laid in the snow, patiently waiting while they're friends enjoyed the snow.
That night both Maddie and Liz began vomiting, thinking something was wrong, they did what any smart person would do and went to the ER at the closest hospital.  At the ER they x-rayed Liz's ribs and told her that she just had some internal bruising and must have caught the flu (because of the vomiting.)  Maddie was diagnosed with a concussion.  Liz returned to Provo the next day, and Maddie stayed in Rexburg (she goes to BYU-I).
Liz didn't feel good at all that week, and was in severe pain, so she stayed home from her classes and just slept on the couch all day, all week long.  On Saturday she reached her limit and went to the ER in Provo.  The doctors ordered a CAT scan and found what they thought to be a tear in her duodenum.  Liz went into emergency surgery last Saturday, where they found that it wasn't a tear in her duodenum but tear in her large intestine.  They fixed her up, cleaned her up, and hooked her up to more machines and IV's than I've ever seen a single person be hooked up to ever before. 
My friend Jaci and I visited Liz on Monday, two days after her surgery.  She was just waking up as we walked into her room.  The first words out of her mouth were, "You guys look so good!" and began giving us compliments.  After that she said "Jaci, I've been meaning to send you a note to apologize for ruining your plans the last time you guys came down." Everything that she talked about, was in concern for others. 
Today, after I took a midterm, I went and sat with Liz while her mom went to lunch with a friend.  I had just planned to make a quick visit but was more than welcome to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone.  Again, I walked in her room, to see her struggling with the pain, and again the first words out of her mouth were compliments to me.  Within the first 10 minutes of me being there, Liz began to get very uncomfortable and just didn't feel good at all.  Even in the midst of this, she was still concerned about me.  Asking how school was, what I was doing, and apologizing for being in pain and not better company.  Right as her mom was leaving to go to lunch the nurse came in and hooked up a new pain med. machine for Liz.  The pain medicine kicked in and Liz was out, she apologized saying "Sorry I am going to just sleep now."  Within the 3 or so hours that I was with Liz today she had two other visitors come in, and each time she was more concerned with making sure they were comfortable and asking about them than anything else. 

I learned a valuable lesson in selflessness today.  Whenever I am in pain, or don't feel good, I want people to know! I don't want to know about them, and I don't care if they're having a crummy time.  All I care is that I'm not feeling well.  Liz taught me that even in the worst of situations we can still put others first.  We can make sure that others know that we love them, even if we just want to be loved.  Her selflessness speaks volumes of her entire character.

*Please keep Liz in your prayers, while she is improving the Doctors still have some concerns. They were hoping to have her out of the hospital by now, but she's going to be in through the weekend, and still can't eat anything.*

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