Operation Smile 4-20-14

This week has been one of the hardest weeks for me. One of my childhood best friends had a stroke and was rushed to the emergency room. They found out that she has Fibro Muscular Dystrophy, it is a condition that causes the smooth muscle in the carotid artery becomes hard like pearls and begins to constrict. They believe this has been going on her whole life and just never knew it. Jordan and I fell a part when we started high school and just hung out with different people. When her sister called me to let me know, it was like nothing ever changed. I left class early to rush over to her room to see her. On 4-18-14 she was released and they believed she was out of immediate danger of having another stroke. That night I went to visit her and sat with her for an hour or so. We reminisced about all the fun times we had and how much we missed being friends. On 4-19-14 she was rushed to the E.R. at 4:20AM with another stroke. She was rushed into emergency surgery where a stent was placed in her carotid artery. She was allowed no visitors besides immediate family. I was worried sick and just wanted to visit again, we are so young to be going through this. On Easter she was allowed to have visitors and I knew that it was my chance to go see her. To much surprise she was improving tremendously. She was able to begin writing her name again and eating with her right hand. I brought her a get well gift, nothing special, but I just wanted to see her smile again, like when we were kids. I spent a few more hours with her talking and reconnecting. Unfortunately it took something so traumatic for us to see how important our friendship is, but I would change the bond we now have together. Operation Smile was designed to make other people around me happy, but I can't begin to explain how happy it is made me. The smile Jordan gave me when I gave her the bear and balloon is something I will treasure the rest of my life.