Diary Entry 15 June 2020
Today something happened to my sister, Amy, where she thought she was going to die, because nothing like this ever happened to her before.
Amy is 13, 1.5 years younger than me. She is someone who doesn’t talk about her problems a lot. Or when she has questions about a certain topic, she doesn’t talk to anyone and doesn’t dare to ask.
Amy’s on her period for about 4 days now. Today she whined a lot because her cramps hurt so much. Often, Amy over-exaggerates, because she doesn’t take pain as well as others might do. When she feels car sick and nearly has to throw up, she exaggerates and always breaths really heavily, moves her head in circles and looks as if she is about to die.
Nevertheless, we planned to go and work on our grandparents’ house, but because the weather was so nice, our grandparents preferred not to work, but instead invited us over for a barbeque.
Dad drove us there and mom wanted to join after work, at half six.
Granny and Grandad live at a lake, and the pathway from their house, on their private property, to the lake is about 200 – 300 meters long. At the start of the pathway, Amy mentioned that she had a stomach pain. At home she had taken a pain killer, but that obviously didn’t help. Oma was a nurse and suggested her to move her body, as it helps sometimes. So we continued, but Amy was always two meters behind us.
When we arrived at the lake, Alana and I sat down beside Amy on a bench. Oma sat on a chair beside us. Alana asked Amy is she felt better, but she turned away from Alana, and didn’t answer her.
Oma saw how pale Amy was and asked me if I could poor her something to drink. We didn’t have any water with us, so I opened the juice. Amy just moaned, and I knew she didn’t want to drink the juice, because of her stomach pain.
Alana sat down beside granny on a different bench. Amy turned away from me and we could see how the red colour faded out of Amy’s lips. Amy leaned forward, swung her head, breathed in and out really heavily. She lost her balance and pressed her body against the bench, but continued breathing so extreme. I looked at her eyes that kept opening and closing. Then she leaned forward again, this time, holding her mouth and making gag sounds. Her head swung, she could barely hold it anymore and she proceeded with breathing so deeply.
That scared me, the breathing. I rubbed Amy’s back, when she made gaging sounds. I said she should nod if she could hear us, she didn’t do anything. Oma said we should go to Opa, so that she could get medicine against dizziness from the front house (the house near the entry of the property). Opa was at the bungalow that is located closest to the lake, which also belongs to my grandparents. I held my hand out for Amy, so she could pull herself up, but she couldn’t. I pulled her up and held her, with Alana at the other side of her. We supported her body on our way to the bungalow. She didn’t say anything and walked wobbly. She was definitely unable to walk by herself, so we continued to support her.
“Amy, if you can hear us, then nod”, I said. Nothing. “Amy, at least nod so we know that you can hear us.” Again, nothing. “Amy, you have to answer”, I said again. ‘Can she really not hear us?’ I asked myself. “Amy!” I tried again. “YES”, she shouted. Ok, something was wrong with her ears. “Amy you have to answer us when we say something and you understand it, or else we don’t know what’s going on”, I protested. “I can’t right now”, she nearly screamed, without noticing it. A few steps further, Alana demonstrated how she should breathe and I told her she should copy what Alana is doing, so she finally stops breathing so heavily, as Oma said it could be the reason why she is feeling dizzy. Oma also proposed that Amy could be sunstroke, because Amy sat in the sun for a long time today.
When we arrived at the back house (the one closest to the lake, the bungalow), Opa sat outside and beside him was a lounge chair, which we used to lay Amy on. Oma positioned the lounger in a way that Amy’s feet were up and she laid flat on her back. I got her a glass of water from inside. When I filled up the glass, Alana asked me in a laughing voice: “Did she drink something?” She meant Alcohol. I was scared and didn’t know if Amy was just overreacting again. I handed her the glass with water and granny was already on the way to the front house. Alana ran after her and I stayed with grandad and Amy. We waited until they came back. Oma brought the car, so Amy didn’t have to walk later on.
It was a chewable tablet that Oma gave Amy. We all sat around her. Alana and I grabbed two more chairs from the lake and held each other’s hand. We could watch how Amy’s lips turned reddish again. She thankfully stopped with the heavy breathing when Alana and I told her to. Her eyes were still closed though.
The first thing we heard from her were slurping noises. We all looked at her and then she said: “I can’t feel my lips.” Everyone laughed and cheered: “Yayyyy, she can talk again.”
After this, she said something every few minutes and after about half an hour, she was back to normal, and grandad started the barbeque. We set up the table once Amy could sit up again. We all laughed and joked and told Amy what she had looked like from our perspective and how she behaved. We all – including Amy- ate a very delicious burger.
Mom joined us about 1.5 hours later. Amy explained she never experienced something this dramatic and that she really wasn’t able to answer. She told us: “Didn’t I answer? I nodded right?” We all laughed. “Amy, you only moved your head in circular motion.” We laughed again. Well… that was an experience.
A tip from a nurse is: when you feel like you are about to faint, lie down flat on the ground, and put your feet and legs up on something. This allows the blood to flow into your head again.
Just now, my aunt delivered her twins – Louis and Mika. They are the cutest babies I have ever seen! I’m even allowed to be Louis’ godmother! I am so happy, he is so cute! (Actually, you are only allowed to be a godmother at the age of 16, but there might be another way, or else the baptism could wait until summer 2021, because that’s’ when I’ll turn 16.) Best wishes to you 4 and welcome to the human world, Louis and Mika.
I am so excited to meet them both!
Thank you for reading, until the next time!
