I know. There seems to be a lot of death being discussed in this section lately. But tonight I just got told that a friend who's been in the hospital recently - a friend who's almost been in the hospital more than she's been out of it - has been given 2-6 months.

She's had two liver transplants since she was 14, and now her spleen is enlarged, her kidneys are failing and so is her liver.

She's only about my age: 23-24. I'm kinda finding this hard to take in. I'm sad, but it's hard to imagine someone my age dying of something like this. Easier to imagine them dying in a car crash - easier if you haven't seen them in a while... (like the younger sister of my brother's best friend I mentioned in another post).

Has anyone else dealt with a friend dying of something like this?

~Anna.

Anna, I'm sorry to hear that. I have no experience with a friend dying of an illness, but it's always tragic when such a young person has to die.

I do have two friends with heart problems. One of them, my brother's ex-girlfriend, had to undergo heart surgery when she was just a child and now has a checkup every year. His current girlfriend has a (rare?) disease which also has to do with her heart and for that reason it could be too dangerous for her to have children (because of labour being too much for her to handle).

I hope your friend can still enjoy her last few months, and maybe do some things she's always wanted to do. And unlike with car crashes, you can make the most of those last months and say goodbye in your own way.

I'm so sorry, Anna. My friend's almost two year old son died of liver failure 3 months old. A horrible loss for them and everyone who knew him. Things like that just shouldn't happen.

Yeah, I kind of know what you mean. My cousin and I are about 4 weeks apart. She has cystic fibrosis. I watch her go in and out of the hospital umpteen times a year, and you wonder one day when you're finally going to get that phone call... Even more than that you wonder why the luck of the draw fell in your favor and not theirs...

JD

Anna, I'm so sorry about your friend. I've never really lost a close friend to illness, but my sister had a couple of friends that died in high school - 1 from cancer, 1 from suicide, both tragic.

Being a pediatric resident I also watch families suffer through their children's illnesses on a daily basis, but watching the pain from the outside is obviously a little different. I can only imagine the heartbreak that these families and friends are coping with. It really breaks your heart and makes you feel like the world doesn't make any sense at all.

I'm so sorry for what you, your friend and her family are going through.

Jill

That's true, An. Thanks for reminding me. It's hard sometimes to get in to visit her, but I'm going to make the effort. She thinks that she's going to be in the hospital for another few weeks, then I guess they're letting her go home...

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I guess for quite a while she was in and out of the hospital, but they always seemed to make her better in the past. It's kinda weird to think that this time they can't.

Thank you again.

~Anna.

*hugs*

I'm so sorry to hear that, Anna.

See ya,
AnnaBtG.