daddy's little girl.

Late in the afternoon, I had finished watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith when I got up to use the bathroom. I discovered it was "that time". I took off my clothes and compression garment and decided to throw a load of clothes into the wash with them while I showered. Wrapped in a towel, I put all the clothes into the machine. My ears began to ring, vision became blurry, and I became lightheaded. I yelled for Brig to get me my soda and some crackers as I sat on the floor in the laundry room. This had happened a couple times the first day of surgery, so I figured it would pass as it had before.

I got up and the wooziness wouldn't go away and I became sick to my stomach. Then the cramps kicked in. I walked into my own bathroom and sat on the toilet. Nothing helped. I layed on the rug in front of my shower just waiting for it all to leave. I had grabbed my phone in case I came near to passing out.
Feeling it was close by, I called my mom and began to cry in despair as I told her what was going on. She called my dad who happened to be pulling in the driveway. I heard my dad enter my room and knock on the bathroom door, "Alex?" I called him in, still crying. "Honey, it's okay. It's okay. Shh, shh." as he covered me with more towels and propped my feet up on the toilet. I felt terribly embarassed, being 18, wrapped in a towel, shower running, lying on the floor in horrible girl pain. I covered my face with my hands and cried. He knelt next to me and ran his hand over my hair to calm me down. "It's okay. You just went into a little shock," he explained, "all the blood rushed away from your brain. Your brain couldn't get oxygen; that's why you were going to pass out. But it's okay now, you don't need to cry." My dad gently pulled my hands away from my face and wiped off my tears. "It's okay."

In all my life, I can only recall a handful of moments like this between me and my dad. As stupid and ridiculous as I felt lying on the floor with terrible cramps, near fainting, and hideously bruised from surgery, I knew my dad loved me. No matter what I do, how perfect or not, he will always love me and be there for me. Though the way in which I learned today was not at all pleasant, I would go through hell and back to know my dad would be there for me.