It is uniquely concerning to receive a text from one's child describing potentially life-threatening illness symptoms.
Headache, stiff neck, fever, lethargy, vomiting.
These are not a good constellation of descriptors.
Especially when one is a physician who has both treated and seen the aftermath of meningitis--the illness often associated with the constellation of aforementioned descriptors.
Now, add in the fact that one's child is roughly 2, 334 miles away, in a third world Central American country.
And, that one's child is barely eighteen years old.
As you might have guessed, I received just such a text. The past forty-eight hours have been interesting, to say the least.
My child is currently in a Guatemalan hospital awaiting the final results of his spinal tap. Fortunately, preliminary results were negative for meningitis, and he is scheduled to be released today.
The presumed diagnosis (sinusitis) is much less severe and more easily treatable than the one I had feared.
To know that my baby was far away, and I was completely unable to help him, certainly gave me pause.
What also gave me pause was that both his roommate's mother (Jan) and his roommate (Nico) contacted me via Facebook to give me updates on my son's condition.
Both offered up Nico's contact phone number.
Nico told me that he was taking time off from work to make sure that my son was ok.
Keep in mind that I've never met Jan, and spent only brief amounts of time with Nico during my visit to Guatemala last Thanksgiving.
But these kind souls became, in my moments of parental concern, the friends I needed.
They were friends that I didn't realize I had.
We should all be so fortunate as to be loved by those who owe us nothing.
Our lives, even when seemingly threatened, often reveal themselves to be suprisingly, powerfully blessed.
Campbell & Nico
Guatemala 2011
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