March 24, 2015- Memory

A memory I will never forget...

Finish this sentence.

A memory I will never forget is when I was 15 years-old. I was getting ready to have scoliosis surgery. I had to do a bunch of tests to make sure I was healthy enough to have surgery. One of the tests I had to  do was check my lung capacity. They wanted to see how much capacity the scoliosis caused me to loose. They also wanted to make sure that if they were to remove my two lower ribs to use as the bones for the fusion instead of donor bones that I would not be left without enough lung capacity, and that I wouldn't have breathing issues. Ultimately they found out that I only had about 60% lung capacity left and that I would need to use donor bones.

That is not the memory I will never forget nor is the actual test. It was the ride home. I has been given a nose plug during the test. Somehow I ended up bringing it home. In an effort to make light of the situation, and to occupy myself while we sat in traffic going home, I started putting the nose plug on and was making funny faces at my mom. She thought it was funny, so I decided to try and get the attention of other people in their cars while doing this. It wasn't working to well. We then come up next to a school bus. A younger boy looked out his window right at me and started laughing. You could tell he is was not expecting it. I waved to him and he waved back. 

I can't remember if I got anyone else's attention, but I do remember making him laugh. It was a nice little break from all the was going on as I prepared for back surgery. I'm not sure if he remembers it. He probably doesn't. For me,15 years later, I still do and I still think about it from time to time. When I do, it always gives me a little chuckle and puts a little smile on my face.