Life without a Net

My friend, Curly Haired Heidi, I had heard of before I met her. She is a walking medical miracle. To look at this beautiful, vivacious young woman you would never guess the trauma she has lived through. Because she is also a unique transplant recipient, friends first told me of her before we were actually introduced.

CH Heidi and I worked at the same place. For the shared obvious hatred of labels I will not call her Transplant Heidi. She is so much more complex than that. While I was impatiently awaiting my new organ she was adjusting to a dramatically different life with the new kidney her body depended on. And fighting for her survival due to complications. Unlike me, she did not have the choice to undergo this procedure. She was blind sided early in her young healthy life with a fast moving self destructing disease. One that is seldom properly diagnosed in time for treatment. CH beat the odds, not that she was even given any, having being clinically dead for a bad five minutes.

Quite the accomplished actress this CH Heidi. When I first seen a picture of this thespian, her role as a seductress where we performed was a hard reach for me to imagine her playing. She brings to mind a sweetly innocent Hermoine Granger. Intelligent, with long curly brown hair and twinkling eyes, if it wasn't for her stop traffic curves you expect her to try selling you girl scout cookies. Then you wish she would just so you could hear her selling line.

CH's hardest role is though playing sick. She is new to this so the down time that she experiences frustrates her. She could be cast as a young me in the way she is impatient when it comes to self-maintance. After recovering from a set-back she retaliates with seemingly limitless vigor to make up for any lost time. At these times there is no stopping her. She has big plans and aspirations for herself and her family, and the game plan to accomplished them.

Every once and awhile she will mention what her life was like before her illness. Almost if describing another person, she will off-handedly reminisce of the waist lenght hair she sported before her chemotherapy. Her measurements, before her numerous surgeries, were the exact same as Marilyn Monroe's. Of never missing a day of fun from catching a simple cold. I never met that before Heidi. I only know the after. And I don't believe you can be anymore beautiful than the after Heidi.

Recently though CH Heidi has been feeling some difficulties of her illness, spend more time than usual in Dr's offices than she would like. This causes her to yearn for a new feeling. Something other than the pain and fear of late. Heidi is longing to experience an adrenaline rush of exhilaration to remind her that she is alive. She wants to grab the world by both balls and squeeze hard just to feel in control and hear a good yip. As much as she longs for a wild night partying on the town without abandon, it could might prove to be determentale to her precarious health. Second hand smoke and germs could damage her lungs beyond repair. Alcohol would be lethal. Other physical riskes have to be weighted and measured. As much as she wants a new thrill , emotional or otherwise, she must consider the reprecutions involved. Not that Heidi has a history of jumping headlong into anything without thinking of the consequences mind you. She has the heart strong enough not to cause others pain and the brain to not hurt herself. She is anything but shallow.

As much as I want to supply her with this excitement I cannot live it for her. "C'mon", I tell her, "I'll give you a nice fast ride on the back of my Harley?" Fun sure, but she would be a spectator, not a doer. "I'll teach you to drive it?" Hesitation. "How bout I take you clubbing in the city? I'll take you to see a transvestite show?" Nothing like a good freak show once and awhile for something different I'm thinking. "The chemical, my lungs", she explains. I know better than to offer her the physically extremes of ridding my bull or tubing behind my boat. I would undoubtedly mother her to death anyway in the process, eliminating all the elements of risks involved. By the end of that conversation the best idea we came up so far is if she retaliates by conforming to a tattoo. Edgy but not detrimental in any way. I will be more than willing to cheer her one from the sidelines.

Maybe I will come up with the opportunity to take her bungy jumping or some other activity so thrilling she pees her pants just for the fun of it. But in the meantime I have this image of her I can't quite shake. She is Haley Barry, dressed all in leather and highheels walking along the edges of darkened rooftops in the middle of the and looking for trouble. "Dangerous" is playing in the background. Strong, sexy, and only as good as she wants to be, I know CH Heidi is catwoman while we all sleep. Life without a net. Here's to the next eight lives. Crack that whip while you can Heidi girl, crack that whip.