THINGS YOU LONG FOR WHEN YOU’RE SICK

Having experienced being hospitalized for the first time in my life, I listed some things that I wanted so bad during my lonely and painful days (and can you believe it, it was all because of a bite from a small animal called mosquito!):

-My Mom with her smile and soothing words that could motivate me to want to smile back at her soon without wincing from the pain

-Visitors who would cheer my low spirit with their laughter, encouragement and funny jokes

- Someone to sing me a song about the Lord, because what kept echoing on my mind was ‘How can you mend a broken heart?’ of Michael Bubble (Why, I’m not even a fan of him!)

- Someone to read me a book (the complete book of the Chronicles of Narnia was laying on the table next to my bed, and I couldn’t even read a page without getting dizzy), or a Bible passage

-Good appetite like I’d always had. It was so frustrating to feel nauseated even when you just imagine your most favorite food, let alone to smell it and try to eat without throwing it up a second later. Even lasagna and tacos sounded revolving at that time

And I prayed for those all the time, and God did this:

-On the third day my appetite gradually came back, and I ate like crazy. My sister always came after the hospital meal time and brought me more foods (soup, French fries, fried chicken, porridge, guava juice etc etc) everytime…and I thought my stomach would blow.

-My colleagues visited me an hour before the official visiting hours, and we thought they could bend the rules, just like Indonesian habit, but apparently not in this international hospital. So they waited a bit and then came up to see me.

- Along came my roommate, a sweet Bataknese girl with a great voice, and she sang ‘I want to love Jesus forever’ in the mornings. (I was so impressed with her voice that I told her to try her luck in the Indonesian Idol).

-My dizziness was slowly vanishing so I could read for myself. And later at home I finished that super thick Narnia book.

- Mom picked me up and I got to spend the whole two weeks at home afterwards, being indulged by her great foods and was not let to do anything except eating and sleeping. So I felt very much like Garfield.
And God did more than that. He made me feel nothing painful when they injected IV and some other liquid thing through my vein, though the nurse kept telling me that it would hurt a bit (when the nurse or doctor said ‘a bit’, they usually meant ‘a lot’ – so I consider it a miracle).And I have come to appreciate life better.

Never had I found myself so full of awe to feel the breeze blowing and the green leaves rustling on the trees as we drove out of the hospital on that triumphant day. And even the whining voices of my hyper nephews was like a music to my ear, as they fought over some fruit left on the basket that I hadn’t had a chance to nibble on.