Issue #20 (2011) PDF - myweb - Long Island University

Lisa Rogal
SO MANY THINGS
―You ever heard of Necrotizing Fasciitis‖ Kat asked me over the Coke-bottle bong. I hadn‘t.
―That's flesh eating bacteria. It literally eats your flesh, eats you alive. I mean, that's some
science fiction shit. But it's real. I heard about this girl our age, had a cut on her foot and caught it
dancing barefoot in the grass at a wedding.‖
I ran my finger along the rim of my water glass and began to tune her out.
―– had to remove the whole leg. She didn‘t even have time to call her parents. And she was
one of the lucky ones. Get that shit on your face or stomach and you‘re screwed.‖
―What‘s it called‖
―Necrotizing Fasciitis. God, just the name. And, I mean, that‘s a rare one, but just that it‘s out
there.‖ She let out a smoky breath. ―Just talking about it.‖
―Terrible.‖
―My heart feels funny. Do you ever get that, those heart pains I get worried I‘m having a
heart attack.‖
―You won‘t, you‘re way too young for that. I mean, people our age don‘t really get heart
attacks.‖
―I guess not,‖ she said, croaking to hold the smoke inside. ―But it‘s possible. There are just
so many things. I‘m always shocked something doesn‘t happen.‖ The cloud poured from her lips,
settling between us like fog.
―When I was in college,‖ I said, taking the bong from her, ―the end of my senior year, I
started to get these arm pains.‖
―What kind of arm pains‖
―It was like electricity running down my arm.‖ I listened to the bubbles breaking in the
reservoir as I sucked.
―Yeah‖
―Sometimes I would have to stop what I was doing and just concentrate on breathing until
they went away. Everyone was getting fed up with me always panicking that I was having a stroke or
something. So, I went to the doctor and she did a whole exam and told me I was fine.‖
―Oh.‖ She gestured for me to pass.
―But of course I wasn‘t convinced. I was sure she had missed something. So I went to
another doctor to get a second opinion. My boyfriend thought I was crazy. He told me he thought I
wasn‘t that kind of girl.‖
―My friend‘s boyfriend broke up with her when she thought she had breast cancer. She
wouldn‘t go to the doctor because she was too afraid of the diagnosis and he got sick of trying to
make her go so he left. Then it turned out she actually did have a lump. A benign lump. But she had
to have it removed and he came to visit her and all he could say was ‗I told you you didn‘t have
cancer.‘ Can you believe that‖
―No. I mean, no, he didn‘t break up with me. I think he was kind of relieved actually –that I
was that kind of girl. It was all very amusing to him.‖
―Huh, yea,‖ she said without exhaling.
―So, I got the second opinion and this time I had her do a full neurological work up and
everything. She said I could even order cat scans if I wanted but I thought maybe that was taking it
too far.‖
―Oh, I would‘ve had the cat scans. The x-rays, EKGs, anything they could think of.‖ Kat
took the empty lighter into the kitchen alcove.
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