Someone tell her this isn’t a competition.

When I was in the third grade, I taught my sister – who was four at the time – how to count money and make change for a dollar. I remember my mom and the other grown-ups thought it was quite remarkable. I didn’t see why. I knew how and I taught her. She seemed good with numbers, why shouldn’t she learn? I didn’t quite pick up on the age difference and why it was more remarkable because she was four years younger than I was.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that was when my sister and I began our informal (and for the most part, friendly) competition of wits and accomplishments. I won the city-wide science fair, so did my sister. I was in chorus, she sang solos. I aced English, social studies and language; she matched my record grades and raised me math and science. I graduated fourth in my class, she was valedictorian. So it was and so it shall be, world without end, Amen.

Yesterday my sister had an early morning doctor’s appointment to get some stomach trouble checked out. She kept me apprised of her situation throughout the day. She was in triage waiting to pee in a cup right around the time I was doing the same thing (peeing on command, not waiting in triage) at my pre-op. Mid-afternoon she advised she was still at the hospital, but waiting for a pelvic exam. A bit later she texted to say she was waiting on a CT exam. (To which I helpfully responded that it would be hysterical if she ended up with a matching kidney stone.) Finally, after I was home and feeding the girls, she called to let me know she did indeed have acute appendicitis. The first thing we had guessed on Friday when she made the appointment. Her symptoms were all abnormal, but when were we ever normal?

If I didn’t have my thing scheduled for tomorrow, I would be on a plane right now, rushing to be by her bedside. Heh, maybe we’d get a 2-for-1. Then we could lie in her apartment, moaning, arguing who had to get up to get some more chicken soup. Hey, maybe we could import our baby sister and boss her around! Ooh, wait. No. We’d both be prone, lying helplessly before our baby sister’s pent up desire for revenge. Gulp.

Obviously, I kid, but I really think my sister and I better rethink this “Let’s be each other’s emergency contacts!” deal. Because it isn’t working too well right now. But for the record – I totally had my surgery scheduled first! So there!

Tags: appendicitis, family, health, kidney stones, sisters, surgery