Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
"Nobody more than yours and Reed's, though.” She exhaled. "I'm happy and sad to have him back. And the reason I have him back is because you're dying. I don't know what to say. What to feel."
Chapter 17
Shut up and take my kidney.
-Reed under the influence of anesthesia
Reed
Day 1
"Is she done?"
I didn't ask it to anyone in particular. My brothers. One of them. I was fairly sure my mother wasn't there. So, no need to ask her.
"No."
"Did it go all right?"
"Yours or hers?"
Why the hell would I care about mine?
"Hers."
"Still in surgery, bro." I think it was Baylor who said it. "I'll wake you when it's done."
***
Day 2
"Is she okay?"
I couldn't find the strength to open my eyes. I couldn't lift my hand, either.
"She's fine," a feminine voice said. "She made it through surgery. Hennessy is sitting with her right now. She hasn't woken though."
Hannah, Travis's wife.
"When she wakes, let me know," I ordered.
"What about her kidney function?"
Hannah's laughter followed me into sleep.
***
Day 3
My eyes opened, and for the first time I felt like keeping them open.
I looked around the room and found it empty.
My heart lurched.
I pressed the call button at my bedside, heart hammering, and waited.
It didn't take long for a nurse to arrive.
The minute she saw me, awake and alert, she smiled.
"Your family said if you woke up and they still weren't here, that I was to tell you she made it through surgery.
“She's not awake yet, but she's showing signs when stimulated. And both kidney and liver seem to be functioning correctly. As for you, you've been in and out. I think this is the most awake I've seen you."
I didn't care about me. I cared about her. And my babies.
Fuck.
"What about the babies?" I found myself asking cautiously.
"Both are fighting. That's where everyone is. It's visiting hours."
My belly seemed to warm from the inside out.
"Good."
I was glad they weren't alone.
"Have they gained any weight?"
What had it been now? One? Two days?
"Two days since your surgery. Three days since they were born." I must've voiced that last question aloud. Huh. "And they've both lost a little bit of weight, but they're not concerned about it yet."
That fucking sucked.
"Can I go see Kris?" I asked, feeling much more awake now.
The nurse smiled. "The doctor said you were going to ask that. And yes, as long as you don't overdo it, we can do that."
“What happened with me?” I asked as I slowly made to sit up.
The nurse came to my side and waited, allowing me to make the moves without help, and I appreciated it.
“You had a reaction to the anesthesia,” she answered, backing up when I finally swung my legs over the side of the bed. “They were a little worried at first due to your initial response but you seemed to rally well.”
“My initial response?”
She looked at me funny.
“They discussed this yesterday with you.” She paused. “Do you not remember?”
I shook my head, then took a deep breath and stood.
The pain was terrible.
In fact, on a scale of one to I’ve never felt this kind of pain before, I was at ‘I’m going to cry.’
But I stood up anyway and walked—more like shuffled—the two steps with her standing in front of me, ready to catch me if I fell.
I didn’t, thank fuck.
“Take a seat. I’ll grab your cath bag and your IV stand.”
I did, not thinking about my catheter, or anything else.
My anticipation of seeing Krisney was too strong, and overrode all my embarrassment at having to deal with the aftermath of a catheter.
“There we go,” she handed the bag to me. “As for your initial response to anesthesia—it’ll be in your chart from now on that you don’t respond well to it. You nearly died.”
I looked down, the doctor in me studying the color and amount of urine in the bag.
“Everything good with me now?”
“Urine output is perfect,” she answered. “Liver function, so far so good.”
I nodded, then hooked the bag on the arm rest and started to rearrange wires so we could move.
“I’m still in the ICU?”
She shook her head. “No. You’re a floor below.”
“Krisney?”
“Still in the ICU. If she keeps improving, and wakes up soon, though, they’ll move her,” she answered. I frowned at that, wondering how she knew all of this. “I just got off the phone with her doctor when you paged.”
I nodded, understanding her answer.
“Take me.”
She grinned.
“Two shakes,” she said. “I have to…there we go.”
She pushed the brakes off, and then swung me around, leading me at a fast pace out of my room and straight to the elevator.
I’d been in this wing before seeing a patient who’d had a stroke after she’d delivered, and it was completely different seeing it from a patient’s perspective rather than a doctor’s.
Two minutes later, but what felt like two hours, I was being pushed into a room that was similar to mine.