A Brother's Struggle

by DH

Claremont Middle School. I've been here for two years now, and I’m finally leaving in 2009. I've awaited this for so long now, I even kept track of the passing days up until now on my personal calendar. I've been through a lot of exciting stuff in my middle school years but I wonder what it would have been like if I never had came to Claremont Middle School.

Through days, days and days I've awoken in the mornings having a sense of unfinished business, never being able to figure out what it’s about. But I do know one thing, and that is: it has something to do with school. 7th grade was a drag, I got sick a lot and I had a lot of stomach pains so I missed a couple of days from that. I also had severe headaches almost every day and had to go to the doctor for that about four to five times in half a year, but I got the problem fixed with some stronger medicine. Soon I got back in school but then a new problem surfaced: my brother got badly sick.

My brother Simon had to be rushed to the hospital because of his neck pains, which turned out to be worse than I had thought. He was eventually diagnosed with pneumonia, and it was severe, too. I had to miss a couple of days because of this, too. Finally he got better, I was glad for him. Just about one or two months later, just when I thought it was over, my brother got sick again with pneumonia. In fact, he got it seven freaking times all together, all at the age of eight. It’s really unbelievable. So for that I missed a huge amount of days of school, because my dad had to work and my mom had to take the other car and go to the hospital and spend nights with my brother Simon. My older brother and I went there too, but we were not allowed to stay past 8:00 because we were too young.

On the final time my brother got sick, they also had a specialist come in and see him. Since he’d had the pneumonia seven times, the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him. The doctor told us that a fluid had entered Simon’s left lung and that was giving him beyond severe chest and neck problems. My brother has been through a bunch of things but this is the one that scares me the most. When he born doctors determined that he needed heart surgery immediately because it turned out he had a heart defect. He had the surgery in Spain, because he was born in Portugal, but they didn’t have the technology there. The surgery was a success, but then just about one year later he got some sort of eye infection and he couldn’t open his eyes for months. My older brother, my dad and I picked out a stuffed animal for Simon that he still has to date. He’s a lot better now from that.

So now the doctors are testing him for TB to see if he has it, and they tested him for a bunch of other stuff. A few days later the doctors gave us their final report, stating that the fluid never left Simon’s lung, so they put him in intensive care awaiting surgery. I told him to “Be brave and just relax, we’ll be by your side every step of the way,” just before he went into surgery. The surgery was a complete success. They connected pipes to his side to drain the fluid for a couple of days. People from my school sent him get well cards, and I even think a few teachers did, too. A lot came from his school, also. Days later he was better, up and around walking, playing, and talking. Even one doctor came and brought him a free Nintendo DS and a game. Another let us make a movie together, and while we were filming it Pixar sketch artists and movie directors came and did drawings for us, and autographed them. We also got this really good sketch that’s in a picture frame, and autographed. We already know that its worth a lot of money, but we’re not going to sell it. Simon was getting better than ever, walking, playing and laughing. We got to go to a party and present our movie with other kids who had movies and documentaries. I finally got back in school, but there weren’t really that many school days left anymore.

8th grade went by fast and boring. I was so glad to get back in school to after school P.E.- it’s my favorite class, and I have it this year, too. I am going to miss it, but I can’t wait for high school. All the stuff that happened to my brother over the last few years has really affected me in middle school. I hope he never gets sick like that again. It also taught me that you should love your brother every second you get, because you never know when you’ll lose them.