Day 5

So it's Friday and I am sitting in my second class where all of a sudden, I feel really weird. No tummy ache, no head ache, nothing aches..but I can tell that something is not right in my body. As soon as Father Ted lets us out, I almost run to my car, turn on the ignition and head home. As soon as I walk through my doors, I tell my parents I do not feel well and I go and just fall on the bed. For the next seven hours, I do not move an inch. I lay in bed feeling quite helpless. I feel so queasy but nothing I am doing is making me feel any better. I continue to feel the exact same way for another 72 hours. It's Monday evening - I finally eat my first real meal in 4 days.

But this blog is not merely to rant about Rachel Chacko catching some weird virus. Getting sick like that and feeling completely helpless really made me think about all those people that come to the San Jose Clinic. The patients at the Clinic are not nearly as fortunate as I am. At the very least, I have a mom who is an R.N., who is ready to do anything do for me at a moments notice. Many of the patients who come to the clnic have no education about how their body operates and do not even know the most basic of steps to do when sick. And even if they did, many of them simply cannot afford it. In many ways, they are so helpless, much worse than I was laying on my comfortable bed, in the comfort of my own home.

Everytime I see a patient come towards me at the clinic and begin speaking in Spanish, I all of a sudden feel so sad. I am not sure if its the language barrier that adds to this feeling. But I always feel like without that clinic, many of these people would feel absoutely alone and would simply suffer in pain. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a few hours at this clinic every week. I know that it is not really a big deal to volunteer for a couple of hours. But I like to tell myself that no matter what I am doing, in some small way, my time at the clniic will help touch the life of someone who really needs a helping hand.

And that is all the things I learned from catching a stupid virus that destroyed my entire weekend :)