I have a very dear friend who is ill. We’ve been friends for what will be 19 years this September. About eight years ago, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
How the brain tumor was found is straight out of a book. She worked for the local transit company doing bus maintenance. One night, a faulty door holder gave way, and the engine door fell and hit her on the head. When the ensuing headache did not go away after several months, an MRI was done and the tumor was located. Had the bus door not fallen on her head, the tumor would have killed her within a year, two at the most.
What does this have to do with books, you might ask?
A biopsy revealed that the tumor was pre-malignant and inoperable. A drastic course of radiation followed, but in the course of the biopsy, nerve damage had been done. My friend was left with a headache that would last for the next nine years. As those who deal with chronic pain know, it’s easy to become sad and desparate and angry and reach out for anything that makes the pain go away. My friend was prescribed oxycontin to deal with the pain. After a time, her doctors decided in their infinite wisdom that she should stop taking them. By then, she was addicted. When her supply ran out, she looked for other avenues to relieve the pain. That led her to heroin, and another addiction. In the midst of this struggle, a new MRI showed that the tumor was growing again, this according to her oncologist. (It turned out that it wasn’t.) He put her on chemotherapy, and the combination of the self-medication with heroin and the chemo medication gave her seizures.
She’s been clean and sober for a few months now. AA helped her tremendously. But the seizures remained. She’s currently on three different anti-seizure medications, the side-effects of which include severe headache. So we’re back to square two. And over here on square one, a radiologist told her there was no change between her post-radiation MRI and the one that preceded her chemotherapy, so the chemo was totally unneccessary. Big pharma, anyone? I wonder how many times the oncologist had to prescribe that particular drug before he got a trip to the carribean or a new set of golf clubs?
My friend is slowly weaning herself off the anti-seizure meds, and the seizures are becoming less frequent and less severe. The headache has reduced quite a bit too without the aggravation of the anti-seizure medications. She’s getting Reiki treatments weekly and plans to get acupuncture. She’s still unable to drive herself anywhere. She needs to be six months seizure-free to get her license back. She’s on permanent disability and is unable to work. The good news is she gets disability pension from her employer which includes health insurance, and she’s now getting social security disability. But the experience has ruined her life, has changed her from a beautiful, vital woman into a sick, frightened, desperate woman. What keeps her going? Her incredible sense of humor. Even when her seizures are at their worst, making her laugh stops them in their tracks. So she laughs as much as she can, and she can laugh a lot. Best medicine, and all that.
Which brings me to the point. (Yes, there’s a point after all!) Friends in literature. My friend’s story is still being written, and who knows, I may write it, or at least write it with her. One of the main things that made us friends was love of books and reading, and we still have many of each other’s books that were loaned ten years ago.
Have you got book friends?
What books were written by friends, about friends?
Are there books written about friendships that have stuck with you?
And as always, what have you read lately?
