Griffin Carew
9/12/07
500-word essay
Introduction to Literature


A major event that changed my life was when I almost died last spring. I kept having reoccurrences of tonsillitis so the doctor decided I should get my tonsils removed. He told me all the risks including the one in a millions chance I could hemridge an artery. So we decided to go ahead with the surgery. I hate needles and was freaked out but the fact that I was going to miss about a week and a half of school because I couldn’t talk wasn’t so bad. After having all those IV’s and having my tonsils removed, I went home with my step dad, my mom, and my grandpa. My very old and tired grandpa drove us. Now we almost died that time about 7 times on the way home. I was still really drowsy from my anastesia and I was even scared. In the waiting room he spilt his coffee all over his crotch cause he fell asleep with it in his hand. Now back to the life threatening experience. So eleven days had gone by and I was ready for some real food since id been drinking shakes for eleven days. So my grandpa took me out to a nice restraunt for a nice fish and steak. On the ride home my throat was irritating me and I was coughing. My grandpa said to stop so I did. When we got into the light I put some spit on my fingers and it was a little pink. So I called my mom and told her. She said if it doesn’t stop or gets worse go to the hospital, but you know I thought she was just being a hypochondriac. It stopped and then I took of my nice shirt and was just chilling out and then I felt something in my throat and tasted blood, I ran into the bathroom and spit into the nice white sink. All I saw was dark red blood (I have a fear of blood). I told my grandpa it was time to go to the hospital. On the way there he gave me his St. Michael medal, the patron saint of warriors. I’m not a very religious man but this made me feel good. By the time we got to the hospital the bleeding stopped, but they were going to check me out anyway. So my mom and my grandpa were hanging out in the hospital with me and my dad was in Phoenix. They started to ignore me (the doctors) and then the bleeding started up again and started to get really bad, I was really scared and upset but I couldn’t really express it cause I was spitting up blood into a trashcan. They were still ignoring me and my grandfather, a person who usually never hassles people, was so mad yelling for someone to help me. So here I am in Michael Jordan sandals and nice dress pants and a white t-shirt spitting up blood. When the EMT finally came and started yelling at everyone, he immediately clamped it temporarily and put me on painkillers through an IV. Then after the painkillers kicked in I got sick, then I started projectile vomiting blood and my dinner of fish into a trashcan, and I’m talking pints of blood. At this point the doctor realized how terrible the bleeding was and that only the tip of the iceberg was I spitting blood, I had hemridged an artery and was bleeding into my stomach. So he immediately sent me into emergency surgery after having vomited 4 pints of blood. Then I missed my former stepsisters bat mitzvah (that I had a tuxedo for and I have never worn a tuxedo before and I was pumped). So what I learned from this experience is that I can actually be hurt, or worse have my a near death experience and even die no matter how much I want to deny that it could actually happen to me. So now imp much more careful and have a much different view when I do something that could potentially be stupid and dangerous.