Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“Let me go back and check for you. The system still shows her in triage, but it’s been a few hours. I’m sure they can give me an update. Just give me a minute.”
Brody turned to me while we waited. “You just get here?”
“No. I was in the ladies’ room. I came in the ambulance with her about two hours ago.”
He nodded. “I just tried to call you. What did they find out so far?”
“I have no idea. They took her in and haven’t given me an update yet.”
The nurse came back to the glass a few minutes later. She pointed to the right. “I’ll buzz you in. Why don’t you come back?”
I followed Brody, even though I hadn’t been invited. The nurse led us to an empty examining room and told us to take a seat. A few minutes later, a doctor came in. He peeled off one glove and extended his hand to Brody first. “I’m Dr. Simon. You’re Ms. Garner’s grandson?”
“I’m her legal guardian. Willow is her granddaughter.” The doctor shook my hand. Until that moment, I had no idea Brody was her legal guardian.
“Why don’t we take a seat?”
I didn’t like the sound of things so far. We both sat, my hands wringing as the doctor spoke.
“Mrs. Garner has suffered a stroke. There are many different causes of strokes. We believe hers was a brain hemorrhage produced by an artery in the brain bursting.”
“Oh my God.” My hands flew to my mouth.
“Is she okay? Can it be treated? Fixed?” Brody asked.
“She’s having a CAT scan done now. That will tell us the location of the bleeding and the level of swelling. We’ll know more after we pinpoint the extent of the damage and the size of the hematoma I suspect has formed. Right now, we’re still working on stabilizing her blood pressure and breathing. We had to put her on a ventilator to help her breathe, and we’re treating her with medicine in her IV to try to regulate her pressure.”
“Then what? You perform surgery?”
The doctor looked at Brody, then at me, then back to Brody. “Mrs. Garner is very weak right now. I’m not ruling out anything. We will do everything we can to treat her. But right now, in the condition she’s in, she wouldn’t withstand cranial surgery.”
If the gravity of the doctor’s words hadn’t told me how serious it was, I knew things were dire from Brody’s actions. He reached over and covered my hands with his.
“She should be back from the CAT scan in a few minutes if you’d like to see her. Results should come back pretty quickly after that.”
“We’d like to see her. Thank you.”
The doctor stood. “I’m sorry I don’t have better news. Why don’t you stay in here, and I’ll have a nurse grab you when she’s back?”
The tiny room felt smaller with one less body. Brody ran his hands through his hair. “You okay?”
“I think so.” My delivery was less than convincing. It was hard to sound believable when you didn’t even believe your own words.
Two fingers slipped under my chin and tilted my head up. “Let’s not think the worst. We’re going to think positive. That’s what Marlene would be doing.”
I stared out the hospital window, watching the sun slowly rise on the horizon. So simple. So magnificent. Yet I’d spent years not even noticing it or paying any attention. Even in my darkest hours, I’d counted on the sun rising the next morning. Not unlike the two people sleeping in the room.
After a few minutes, I peeled my eyes away from the beauty outside and looked over at the rest of my world. The only things I’d ever known for sure in my life were that the sun would shine again and that these two would be there for me. Now nothing was certain except for that sunrise.
Grams was sleeping, a dozen tubes connected to her, the sound of the ventilator sucking the air out of her lungs and hissing new life in joined by the rhythmic beeping of her monitor. She’d made it through the night, which was more than the doctor initially thought would happen. Now it was a matter of time until they could repeat the CAT scan and see if the bleeding had stopped.
My watery eyes fell on the man sleeping next to my grandmother. Brody had finally dozed off an hour or so ago, sitting up in a padded chair. I told him he could go, head home and get some rest for at least a few hours, and I would stay. But he never even considered it. Grams had always been like family to him. After his mom died of cancer when he was only seven, Grams had filled the matriarchal void in his life. She was always there for him. And he, in turn, had been the only reliable person in her life after Pop Pop had died.