I've got friends.....

A few weeks ago, my friend Lore and her kids came and spent a weekend with me. A late evening ended with this stroll down skydiving memory lane....

When Claire and I started skydiving, there were not many women skydivers. In fact, after we started, the female population on the drop zone tripled. To three: myself, Claire, and Lore. Yup, Alaska may be the place to move to find single men, but the drop zone was a whole lot closer! Lore, with over 200 skydives at the time, was a Sky Goddess. She drove a cute little Fiat with personalized plates (Im Lore), had a killer smile, danced like a fiend, and skydived like a bird. If she wasn't so nice, you'd almost have to hate her.
But I didn't. And I couldn't. In fact, my surviving "THE ACCIDENT" is in large part due to her resilience:
She came to see me after the surgery. I remember talking to her, and having difficulty breathing - it was as if I had run a race. Like I somehow couldn't get enough air in my lungs. I kept dozing off, which I blamed on the anesthetic wearing off. Lore left during one of these naps. She says that something seemed wrong--she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she stopped at the nurses station, voiced her concern and asked them to check on me. They assured her that it was only the effects of the anesthetic, and that the Doctor would be making rounds in an hour or so. Lore headed for the elevators.
And stopped.
Returned to the nurses station, and insisted that someone go and check on her friend right then. Pretty gutsy for a 21-year old, eh?
With much attitude, a nurse came to check on me.
I remember she cussed when she saw me, hit the call button, and all hell broke loose.
I had developed a pulmonary embolism-- the gunky stuff in the middle of my femur had migrated to my lungs, filling my lungs with goober and fluids -- which all really wanted to have a party in my heart. Good party, but deadly.

Ya' know those cool Doctor shows on TV? Where the patient is wheeled down a hallway and you see the fluorescent lights flash by on the ceiling? The ones where some handsome doctor says, "We've got to intubate her!" and he does it easily to the unconscious patient?
Well, 2 out of 4......yes to lights and handsome. But it was three trips down the throat of a totally conscious and terrified Airplane Jayne.
Blah, blah, blah, if you want to know more about that story, go here -- but my point is, thank God Lore stood up to the staff. The other night, she was remembering how she felt that they felt she was wasting their time -- and she almost felt the same.

Thank you, Lore. I still say, "You saved my life."

This Da Count is for friends who stand up for you, even when others disagree.