Hey everybody, welcome back to my blog. This week we recreated our last blog as a “what if” (counterfactual). The links will be left below so you can get a better understanding. The “what if” questions for this blog is “what if the doctors had caught it the first time” and “what if I had answered the phone when she had called me that morning?”
Every summer my aunt Lauren comes from Canada and visits us for a while in the U.S. She always tells us that one day she’s going to move back home (in the states) and how she’s homesick and misses everybody. This time when she came to visit and she complained a lot about pain in her leg. My mom being the worrisome older sister tells her to get it checked out immediately and make sure that it isn’t anything life threatening. Fast forward to the end of the summer which is always the saddest part of the year when my aunt left to go back to Canada, she went to her doctor and got everything checked out and the test came back “normal”. Two weeks later on September 17th my aunt called me but I didn’t answer because I was just waking up on my way to school. Later in the day I called back and got no answer at all. Then unexpectedly I got a call from her father who told me that my aunt is in a coma. So immediately the next day me and my family flew to Canada and met my aunt in the hospital. “Why didn’t the doctors catch this sooner when she came in the first time.” says my mom hysterically in tears. “I wish I could tell you, but only God knows why this happens the way it did my child” My grandmom replied. *The doctor walks in* “Hello everyone i am sorry to say but Lauren has not been showing any brain activity and most likely will not make it. Is the mother here somewhere?” “I am here.” She replied. “Can you explain to me everything that has happened to my daughter?” “Yes ma’am sure.” The doctor replied. “Your daughter Lauren had a blood clot in her leg which overtime traveled up to her lungs causing a pulmonary embolism. Now you do have the option of letting her go naturally or pulling the plug now, take your time and let me know what option would be best for you. I am sorry this has happened.” “Oh no I am not letting my daughter go! I refuse to end her life. She will make it a miracle will happen!” My grandmom cried out. Two days have past. It is now September 20th 2018. At this point everybody was filled with grief and lost all hope that my aunt would make it out of this coma. Days went by more family flew in and she still had not woken up. I didn’t want to give up on her just yet so I made it my duty to still talk to her and make her feel as comfortable as I could. My mom was right beside me and never gave up hope either. From time to time my aunt had little movement going on in her hands and legs but not much. “How long will this coma go on for?” I asked my mom. “I don’t know baby days,weeks or even months but however long it takes it will all be worth it.” “I don’t want to go back to school until we are all out of this hospital.” I replied. “Where is aniyah? It has to be hard for her now that her mom is in this condition.” One of Lauren’s best friends asked. “She is with her dad she should be coming here later on today.” Hours passed by still no change in condition. Some of our family has left to return to their lives and jobs and aniyah is brought to the hospital. Me along with my mom grandmom and uncle and aunt stayed in the hospital. We were still very optimistic that she would make it through this alive. “She’ll make it she’s strong I know she will.” My mom says. “Yeah she’s a fighter she won’t give up I know it.” *Aniyah climbs up on the bed and lays with her mom* “Mommy I love you.” Once those words were said the machine went blank-- “Is… is everything alright?” My grandmom said in a panick. “NO NOT MY BABY NOT MY BABY!!!” Today, my mom now has guardianship over aniyah and she is turning 9 this year! We were able to bury my aunt in the U.S. (her home) where she always wanted to return to one day. I still think about her everyday and know that she is watching over us. Still to this day I think to myself what could’ve happened if the doctors had ran every test there was. Would they have treated her for the bloodclot? What if I had just answered the phone when my aunt called me the first time. Would she still be with us today? I feel like if I had answered then I could’ve made a huge impact on the situation and saved her from dying. Per se the doctors had caught it earlier, everything could have been avoided and nobody would’ve had to be put in this predicament. But Instead my aunt laid there and waited 10-15 mins for an ambulance to finally show up to her house. Now every time I have a faint leg pain or a family member is in the hospital I get terrified.
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Hello readers! This is my fifth blog post. In English Composition I, we read the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway along with many other great stories linked below but this be in particular made me choose the storyI chose. One theme that stood out to me was misbelief. I show a lot of that in my short dialogue too. My short story is about the time my aunt ended up in the hospital very suddenly. There was little that we could’ve done to help her and so we did feel very helpless but tried to keep all hope. Enjoy.
It is the night of September 18th 2018. We are in Toronto, Canada in a hospital visiting my 28 year old aunt who suddenly fell into a coma. It is a warm summer night, the temperature is about 70 degrees. In the hospital there is my mom, grandmom, aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends and myself. We are all heartbroken by this sudden tragedy, and pray and hope my aunt wakes up from this coma. “Why didn’t the doctors catch this sooner when she came in the first time.” says my mom hysterically in tears. “I wish I could tell you, but only God knows why this happens the way it did my child” My grandmom replied. *The doctor walks in* “Hello everyone i am sorry to say but Lauren has not been showing any brain activity and most likely will not make it. Is the mother here somewhere?” “I am here.” She replied. “Can you explain to me everything that has happened to my daughter?” “Yes ma’am sure.” The doctor replied. “Your daughter Lauren had a blood clot in her leg which overtime traveled up to her lungs causing a pulmonary embolism. Now you do have the option of letting her go naturally or pulling the plug now, take your time and let me know what option would be best for you. I am sorry this has happened.” “Oh no I am not letting my daughter go! I refuse to end her life. She will make it a miracle will happen!” My grandmom cried out. Two days have past. It is now September 20th 2018. At this point everybody was filled with grief and lost all hope that my aunt would make it out of this coma. Days went by more family flew in and she still had not woken up. I didn’t want to give up on her just yet so I made it my duty to still talk to her and make her feel as comfortable as I could. My mom was right beside me and never gave up hope either. From time to time my aunt had little movement going on in her hands and legs but not much. “How long will this coma go on for?” I asked my mom. “I don’t know baby days,weeks or even months but however long it takes it will all be worth it.” “I don’t want to go back to school until we are all out of this hospital.” I replied. “Where is aniyah? It has to be hard for her now that her mom is in this condition.” One of Lauren’s best friends asked. “She is with her dad she should be coming here later on today.” Hours passed by still no change in condition. Some of our family has left to return to their lives and jobs and aniyah is brought to the hospital. Me along with my mom grandmom and uncle and aunt stayed in the hospital. We were still very optimistic that she would make it through this alive. “She’ll make it she’s strong I know she will.” My mom says. “Yeah she’s a fighter she won’t give up I know it.” *Aniyah climbs up on the bed and lays with her mom* “Mommy I love you.” Once those words were said the machine went blank-- “Is… is everything alright?” My grandmom said in a panick. “NO NOT MY BABY NOT MY BABY!!!” Welcome back to blog post #4! Thanks for hanging in there with me so far guys. this week we focused on the writing process. I read three different articles (linked below) about the writing process. Every writer had a different view on what it consist of and it was very interesting to see. This was one of the more difficult blog post to write but like any other I had a lot of fun coming up with this skit. I hope you enjoy reading this. One afternoon my friend and I decided to go to the library and get some homework done. My project was a narrative essay that i was totally confused about. I turned to my friend and said “I'm so stuck I don't even know where to begin, help me.” As soon as my friend was about to help me out we both overheard a voice say, “almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” We quickly turned to see who it was that gave their input and to my friends surprise it was Anne Lamott. She was accompanied by another woman (Mary Karr) and a man (Don Murray).
“Oh my gosh! Anne Lamott I'm a huge fan!” my friend said filled with excitement. I had no idea who these people were at first but soon after we exchanged hellos they all began to give me more advice on writing. I asked her why I could not think of a great first draft to write and why am i so stuck on writing a simple narrative. Ånne replied “shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts." I had no idea that even the best writers like herself go through this issue of having shitty first drafts. Don Murray added, “the writing process itself can be divided into three stages: pre-writing, writing, and rewriting. The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say.” He continued by saying “when you complete a draft you know how much, and how little, you know.” I responded to that comment asking “why is it harder to write this narrative for my college class when i've done it numerous times throughout high school?’’ Don said “what works one time may not another. All writing is experimental.” I nodded and proceeded to ask my next question. “How can i make sure i've done the best that i could ever do on this assignment?” Mary Karr said “Revision is the secret to their troubles—and yours. That, and a sense of quality that exceeds what you can do—that gives you something to strive for. Actually, every writer needs two selves—the generative self and the editor self”. I commented on that statement by telling her i do revise but still can never get the grade i desire on this specific paper. She said “every writer I know who’s worth a damn spends way more time ‘losing’ than ‘winning’ ”. The way that I interpreted this is that all I need to do is keep practicing and revising until I get the grade I want. Never give up. All of this information was greatly appreciated and helped me alot. She continued by saying “other than a few instances of good luck, good work only comes from revision.” I started to get the feeling that she focuses on revising her work more than anything. Hearing everybody's advice calmed my nerves and I felt much better about writing my paper. Before the three writers left Anne had one more piece of advice to give me, “I always show my work to one of two people before sending a copy to my editor or agent. I feel more secure and connected this way, and these two people get a lot of good work out of me.” After she said that she winked at my friend and walked out of the library with Karr and Murray. |
Alexus MarkI use this blog to express my inner writer and help people see the world through my eyes. Archives
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