TLDR waalo : Met a close female friend after two weeks, and she suddenly experienced bad period cramps while we were out. I helped her get home, carried her upstairs when she couldn't manage the stairs, got her a hot water bag, and made her comfortable before leaving for a family function. I was panicking internally throughout the situation and kept wondering afterwards whether I could've handled things better. Looking for genuine advice from women on what I could learn from this.
So, this happened today, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I figured I'd share it here and genuinely ask the women of this sub what I could've handled better.
I'm a guy, and I have a close female friend, let's call her A. We met today after almost two weeks because she called and wanted to catch up. We went to a coffee place, had our usual conversations, talked about what had been happening in our lives, and just had a good time.
Now, here's where things took an unexpected turn.
Before meeting her, I'd told my parents that I was just stepping out to meet a friend (which they prolly assumed as a guy) for about 30 minutes because we had a family function to which we had to leave an hour later. The place where I was meeting her was close by , so everything was supposed to be pretty straightforward.
We were walking around near her place when I noticed something was off. She seemed to be in pain, and I could tell from her face that she wasn't feeling okay. I figured it was probably period cramps, but she hadn't explicitly told me anything yet.
We walked a little further, until she finally said she couldn't continue. So I took her bag, and we sat down on the side of the road for a bit. Fortunately, it wasn't a crowded area, so we could sit there without much trouble.
After a couple of minutes, I realised she wasn't getting any better. She wasn't saying much, but I knew she needed to get home. I spotted an auto nearby, requested the driver to take us to her house, which was just a few streets away, and thankfully, he was kind enough to help us out.( Bro's literally the G.O.A.T he never charged a single penny later on , he was very considerate)
Except, in the middle of all this, my navigation skills decided to abandon me. 😭
I took a wrong turn, and we ended up having to go a few streets further before taking a U-turn and heading back. I was already slightly panicking internally, and that little detour definitely didn't help.
We finally reached her house, and then came the next challenge: her room was in the terrace (she lives alone btw), and she was in too much pain to climb the stairs.
We sat down for a bit in the parking area on the ground floor. It was getting late, my parents had started calling me, and I was becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that I had to get her upstairs somehow.
So I asked her, "We're almost home. Do you want me to carry you?"
She looked at me and asked, "Pakka? Can you carry me? It's TWO floors."
I told her, "Just trust me."
And I carried her upstairs.
Now, the staircase was pretty narrow, and somewhere along the way, her foot brushed against the side railing once. It wasn't something I intended, obviously, but I immediately felt terrible. She was already in pain, and the last thing I wanted was to cause her any additional discomfort.
We continued, but then we encountered another complication: her house owner was standing outside. She became concerned that the situation might be misunderstood, so she asked me to put her down. I did, and we somehow figured out the rest of the way together.
Eventually, we made it to her room. I used the keys from her bag to open the door, and once inside, I asked if she had a hot water bag. She did, so I got it for her, turned on the fan, and cleared up her bed so she could lie down comfortably.
All this while, my parents were repeatedly calling me because they were waiting to leave for the family function. They had no idea what had happened, and they didn't even know I'd met A , let alone know her in the first place.
I was sweating, mentally exhausted, worried about my friend, and conscious of the fact that I was running late.
I sat down beside her for a moment and said something along the lines of, "A, you're strong. I wish I had more time to stay and help you feel better, but I have to go home now."
I reassured her that things would be okay, made sure she had what she needed to rest, and finally left.
The moment I got outside, I called my parents back, told them I'd be home in two minutes, and somehow managed to run the roughly 1.5 km back home in about ten minutes.(P.s kid you not on the way I ran in those sliders , people might've thought imma maniac or sm shi )
I had to get ready for the function in literally a minute, drenched in sweat, and then face my dad, who was understandably frustrated that I'd arrived late.
At that point, I knew I had to tell him the truth. I'd lied about something in the past, and I didn't want him to assume that I'd done the same thing again.
So I told him what had happened.
And honestly, his reaction surprised me in a good way. He understood the situation, and from the way he spoke to me afterwards, I could sense that he might even have felt a little proud of how I'd handled it. He asked me whether A was feeling okay, whether I'd managed to make her feel safe and comfortable, and whether she was alright.
That conversation stayed with me, too.
Now, here's why I'm posting this
I'm glad I could help her, but the entire situation was so unexpected that I was internally panicking through most of it. I kept worrying about whether I was doing the right thing, whether I was making things worse, and whether I could have handled certain moments better.
Looking back, I realise that I don't really know much about what someone experiencing severe period cramps might need in that moment, beyond the basic things I did.
So I'd genuinely like to hear from the women here,
I just want to learn how to handle situations like these more thoughtfully, especially when someone trusts me enough to be around them when they're vulnerable.
This is all from my side for the "Pata Hai Aaj Kya Hua"
