My Little Buddy

This is my little brother Andrew. Well he is not so little anymore, he is actually bigger than I am, but he is still my little buddy. Andrew was always my little doll I would tote around. I thought he was so precious, I was in love with him. I have a certain connection to Andrew and he is so special to me.

When he was 3 or 4 years old and I was 13 or 14 Andrew decided to almost die. It was a Sunday and my little sister's birthday and we were having a family party that afternoon. After church my mom asked me to take Andrew upstairs and help him change into some play clothes. Andrew climbed up onto the top bunk and I started rummaging through his clothes to find him something suitable to wear. I sang all the time then, and I remember singing as I looked through his drawers. I then stopped and asked Andrew a question and he didn't respond. I asked him again. No response.

I climbed up the white metal ladder of the bunk bed and saw Andrew laying face down. "ANDREW?!" I noticed that his ears were purple. I rolled him over, his face was white, his eyes were rolled back and he had blood oozing out of the side of his mouth. I don't remember how I got off of the top bunk but I was in the hallway screaming "DAD! DAD! ANDREW IS DEAD! DAD!" My mom and dad ran upstairs pulled Andrew off the top bunk and proceeded to perform their version of rescue breathing. My dad hit him hard on his back a few times and he finally came too. We thought maybe he had chocked on a Lego since there were some up on the bed, but a sweep of his mouth found no foriegn object.

Of course my parents rushed Andrew to the hospital where it was determined that he had a seizure and he would continue to have seizures for months to follow. My dad would stay up with him all night, so he could have sleep deprived brain scans. He had lumbar punctures, CT's and MRI's, the results were all negative. They couldn't and still haven't found out what caused the seizures.

I was determined to find out. So I decided then, in my thirteen year old brain, that I would become a neurologist, so I could figure it out. I have always been the kind of person who needs the answers and who isn't happy with faith alone. Because of Andrew and his seizures I took the course work that has lead me down the career path that I am on now. I have often thought, I would enjoy art or music more than a science based career. But the passion to change the world and to find out why and to solve the problems is still there.

And Andrew is still here. Causing havoc like most teen-aged boys do. He will always be my little buddy, and I will always be his little [big] sister. And I am so grateful for that.

P.S. This isn't one of those hats that has fake hair attached to it so you look redneck.
It's real hair and a real hat and a real redneck.