A Life Changing Event
by Keith Zimmer 

  *Note to readers* I wrote this as a memoir for my 12th grade English class - I felt it was a life changing event. Now for the first time I will share it with all of you. 

The hospital waiting room, a place of discomfort and mental anguish—it was a cozy room with a slight chill in the air, off to the side sat a television with the sole intent of easing a patients troubled mind. The impending ear surgery had a venomous grip on my mind, body, and soul. I see my parents to the left of me -- I can tell they are trying to be strong for me, but I can see the worry through the blank expressions on their faces. As the nurses feverishly work to do their jobs skillfully—with a hint of joy in their voices to lighten the mood, I notice the IV slightly itches at the point of contact with my wrist. The four hours of waiting felt like a decade of despair--the thoughts racing through my mind wondering what course of action my life would take after this day. 

 The surgery itself was four hours in length and of a very complex nature; over a ten year period a cyst had developed in my inner ear creating a very dangerous infection that not only destroyed my hearing but also easily could have caused me facial paralysis. The surgeon, a thirty-year veteran of the medical profession from the country of Pakistan, even had his doubts if I would come out of this in the same form as I had before the surgery. 

 The last thing I remember before actually going into surgery was being wheeled from the waiting room to the ice cold morgue-like room where my surgery would be performed—my thoughts raced, I thought of everything I deemed important in life, truly just trying to think of something different from the impending "hell" I was about to face. 

 The next thing I remember I awoke in a state of confusion; my mind had not yet caught up with my eyes that were trying to once again open to the free world. Over to my right I see my parents; my mom with tears of joy in her eyes; my dad as well as my step-dad stand with wide eyes and closed mouths—not showing much emotion, playing the man's-man character so to speak. 

 After clearing the cobwebs, I surveyed the damage; I found an abnormally huge bandage that completely covered my ear as well as most of the left side of my face. After feeling the bandage that was soaked with clear drainage, which came from having my ear canal widened, I turned my attention to behind my ear where the surgery was performed. Upon feeling behind my ear I found many stitches that were rough to the touch feeling almost as how rusted barbed wire would feel on bare flesh. 

 The next eighteen hours were the most painful of my life; for the first few hours the pain wasn't that bad as I had my parents and many other visitors talking to me at all times, not to mention the steady dose of painkillers they were giving me. As the night came and my parents left, the pain started to intensify; perhaps it was the night air, or maybe it was the fact of being all alone with the only comfort being the television on the wall. It was an endless night, with sleep not being an option. Every couple of hours a nurse would come in to change my IV or give me something to subside the physical pain. When morning finally came I realized that in only a few short hours it would be time to go home and try to move on with life. The doctor had told my parents that in his thirty years of performing this surgery that I was one of the worst cases he had ever had—and that it was a miracle that the surgery turned out as well as it did without any damage other than some hearing damage and no facial paralysis. My mom came in mid-morning, looking much better than the evening before; perhaps now she knew everything would be ok. The nurses as well as my mom tried frantically to get me to eat and walk two things I had no desire to; actually if I could have stayed in that hospital bed without moving for a week I would have, I actually never felt that down and out before; surely it was a helpless feeling. Finally after much resistance I agreed to eat and walk around. 

 The first mistake I made in agreeing to this was that I actually had to eat the hospital food; that by it self could kill a man. The food basically made the weight watchers program seem like a four star restaurant. On the other hand, the walking part was where it became interesting and rather pathetic; the doctor said that I would experience somewhat of a balance problem at first due to your hearing being connected to your balance, but what I experienced was nothing compared to what I thought it would be. As I started to walk I realized my legs felt like rubber, I was walking like an old man who had too much to drink. A simple thing like walking quickly became very trivial; once again I felt like an infant taking his first steps.

 I figured it would take forever to regain my balance, but much to my surprise after two laps around the hospital I felt a little more confident, but still I was unsure about the legs under me or the life in general that lay ahead. 

 By late morning I was discharged from the hospital; finally it was time to leave and start my "new" life. I never really thought anything like this would ever happen to me; I thought I was just another healthy adolescent with a bright future ahead. Sometimes in life you need something major to happen in order for you to learn reality of the hardships you can be faced with in life; for me this was it. This surgery made me gain a newfound respect for life; I realized the small things shouldn't matter and that everything you thought you knew about life could be changed in the blink of an eye.