TIME-TO-SEE-16
The boys were suddenly infused with new energy that must have emanated from some invisible, cosmic, underground power source.
What had been one boy nicely on the mend and a second boy still in serious (if clearly positive) post-op condition, quickly became TWO boys only interested in talking incessantly about what they could do when they got out, talking about how to play Ghost Centurion Predator on Level III, running back and fourth on the floor in bare feet, jabbering about playing cards together and having something to eat while they both sat in the same bed- none of it quiet, much to the consternation of their nurse.
Now we had problems of an entirely different variety. Oh my God!... Was THIS previews of coming attractions?
Jilder decided to run back and forth from his bed to Nicky's bring his used magazines and the PSP-3000 cartridges...
"Jilder, please put on your slippers. We don't need you catching a cold on top of healing from your operation," the nurse admonished to absolutely no avail.
"Yes, mama..." Jilder yelled over his shoulder on the run, still barefoot!
"Jilder!!" the nurse repeated, this time with some exasperation.
"Okay. Okay..." he yelled, and stopped in mid-transit on one of his trips to Nicky's bed, running back to his own and getting down on his hands and knees on the floor under his own bed looking for his slippers... "Ow. Ow. Owwwee...ohhhh!" Jilder yelled, clearly having twisted his ribcage in a way that upset the newly inserted retainer bar.... "Ow, ow, ow..." he yelped falling onto his bed.
The nurse saw the whole thing and went running to him shouting, "Jilder! I TOLD you to stop the running around... Now what if you've disturbed the retainer in your chest or your incision???" she admonished.
"Young man you are NOT going to visit Nicky any more for an hour. You've GOT to stay in this bed and rest. Dr. Gilmer will fire me if I've let you hurt yourself. No, No, No,... Don't even THINK about crawling around on that floor again! What do you think this is? A gymnasium???? Jilder, you're in the HOSPITAL... ACT SICK!!!" the nurse yelled.
"Owwwwwww." Jilder continued to howl and shake up the whole ward while he rolled himself around on his bed. "Owww. My chest hurts!" Jilder hollered.
"Well I GUESS SO!" what were you thinking, Jilder??? You were NOT thinking... On second thought, NO MORE VISITING NICKY UNLESS YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION BEFORE YOU DO! Do you understand that, young man?" She barked, expanding her orders. She was now the combat sergeant with orders to attack anybody who might cross her.
"I sure hope you haven't injured yourself seriously... Oh, my God, Jilder," she exclaimed as she paced around and shook her head from side to side in considerable worry.
Nicky had been watching the whole thing from afar. Then he yelled down the ward to Jilder, "Stay there, Jilder. You shouldn't hurt yourself."
The nurse turned in Nicky's direction and screamed back to him, "PLEASE, NICKY!! WE NEED QUIET IN HERE!!!"-- loud enough to vibrate the windows...
Nicky was easily intimidated when chastised. He lay back in his bed and pulled the sheets up under his chin, hoping to become less visible.
Jilder was now in no condition to cause trouble to anyone. He was on hurting status, which the nurse hoped with profound concern was more painful than injurious.
After a while the pandemonium abated and there was only peace and quiet once again in the ward. Jilder was still lying motionless in his bed, but looking less pained and becoming considerably less cause for worry to the nurse.
After a time, the nurse came back to Jilder's bed and said quietly if with firmness, "Are you feeling okay? Any pain in your chest now?" she asked.
"No." Jilder answered in a meek little voice, accepting responsibility for the considerable negative consequence of his thoughtless frivolity. Reality is a sharp and effective teacher.
"Good," the nurse answered. "Stay still for a while, and later you tell Dr. Gilmer what happened when he comes in; then he can decide whether he needs to x-ray you or what," the nurse told Jilder.
"Arrrg!" the nurse muttered to herself as she left Jilder's bed.
Nicky was being super quiet. He wouldn't peep or even stir for over an hour, not until Dr. Gilmer came by to examine him.
All was quiet on the western front-- at least for now.
Hugo and Kevin had been gone almost two hours. They started to move Hugo's clothes and personal goods from his apartment into the master bedroom suite on the first floor of the townhouse. They had both intended to be back in the ward to talk with Dr. Gilmer when he visited, but it looked like they may not make it.
Dr. Gilmer was making his rounds late in the afternoon. He went to Nicky's bed first and began reading Nick's chart. "Humm?" The doctor muttered not attempting to communicate with anyone in particular. "And how are you feeling today, young man?" Dr. Gilmer asked.
"Fine," was all that Nicky volunteered.
Looking up, Dr. Gilmer pressed further: "That all? Just 'fine'?"
"Yeah! I'm hurtin under my right arm pretty bad sometime, but mostly it's not too bad," Nicky elaborated.
"Well, that right side took a lot of extra work last night, Nicky. We had to do some pretty intense pushing to get the retainer to slip inside. You're feeling the consequence of all that effort," Dr. Gilmer explained.
"But don't worry," he went on, "Nicky, it will heal nicely. Actually, the fact that you are not in extreme pain at this moment, so soon after the surgery, tells me that you're going to have an uncomplicated recovery, if you'll just take it easy."
"That means that after you go home you cannot forget and allow yourself to do something that would dislodge your retainer," the doctor told Nicky directly. "You MUST have plenty of rest and that means bed-rest, Nicky. The thought of bed-rest may not be pleasant to you, but I guarantee you foul up this surgery site and we've got a major mess on our hands, and it won't feel good at all, Nicky" Dr. Gilmer stressed.
"Okay, Sir," Nicky replied.
It didn't sound like Nicky would be a troublesome patient during his convalescence.
Dr. Gilmer knew that he had to address a very sensitive issue with Nicky, but he wasn't sure just how to begin. So he simply asked: "Nicky, I wonder whether you've thought about where you will go during your recovery-- humm? for at least a month."
He paused and waited for Nicky to reply, but when Nicky just looked down and said nothing, Dr. Gilmer continued: "I understand that your dad is probably not well enough to help you. Maybe you've given some thought to were you can go. An aunt? Grandparents? Or the hospital could call Child and Family Services; so they can help you."
Finally Nicky looked at Dr. Gilmer. He began slowly: "Yes, sir. I have thought about it...uh... and Hugo and Kevin... Jilder's... uh?...Jilder's brother and uncle asked me if I'd come home with them. They want me to live with them, at least while I'm recovering. I'd like to do that...if you think it would be OK. What do you think?" Nicky was looking directly into Dr. Gilmer's eyes.
"I think that would be a very good choice, Nicky," the doctor answered. Everything about those men tells me that they could and do want to care for you, if you want to go with them. It's up to you, Nicky. I think you'd be making an excellent decision to help yourself at this point. Have you told them anything yet?" the doctor asked Nicky.
"Yes, sir. I told them I want to go home with them, and they said I can come to live with them as soon as you let me out of the hospital," Nicky said, his face lighting up as he confided his decision to Dr. Gilmer.
"That's wonderful, Nicky." Dr. Gilmer replied.
The doctor went on: "I had originally told them that Jilder would probably be ready to go home next weekend, if no complications developed. There's a very good chance that you'll be ready to go home at the same time, even though you might need a little more rest than Jilder would need. He has a couple of extra days recovery on you, as you probably know. I think that might work out though, if you continue to improve nicely," Dr. Gilmer said.
"Oh, sure, Dr. Gilmer. I'll do everything I can to do good and not hurt myself like Jilder did today," Nicky said, and then immediately realized he had revealed something maybe he shouldn't have.
"Hummm?" Dr. Gilmer said, and then he asked Nicky: "What? Did Jilder hurt himself today, Nicky?"
"Uh... Maybe I shouldn't be telling you, but yeah he was getting his slippers under his bed and he hurt himself. He was yelling. The nurse got mad at him and me and made him stay in the bed and told him he can't come down to visit me again without her permission. (He was visiting me a lot today)," Nicky told their doctor.
"Well, I hope he didn't tear out his retainer." Dr. Gilmer said. "I'll go right down to him and see how he's doing. You see, Nicky, it's so easy to hurt yourself when you start feeling good, but you still have to take it easy. You know that the bar must stay in your chest for maybe two or three years, before we can take it out and you start breathing normally without its assistance."
"Yes, sir," Nicky answered.
"Well, I'll be visiting everyday this week, and by Thursday or Friday, we ought to be able to say when you can go home with Kevin and Hugo. We can only hope that Jilder hasn't screwed himself and doesn't need more surgery and an extension to his hospital stay."
The thought of additional surgery was a sobering consideration for Nicky. He resolved right on the spot to avoid repeating Jilder's foolishness. He wanted to heal in the worst kind of way, and he would help everyone to help him by being super cooperative.
"Yes sir. I hope so too," Nicky commented.
"Well, you take good care of yourself, and I'll be seeing you everyday this week. Okay?" Dr. Gilmer said as he stood to move on.
"Yes, sir," Nicky said once again and the doctor patted him on the leg and moved in Jilder's direction.
Dr. Gilmer walked down to Jilder's bed. "Well, young man, you look a little worn down today. Are you doing okay?" Dr. Gilmer said not betraying Nicky's confidence.
"Uh... not so good, doctor," Jilder told him truthfully.
"What seems to be the matter?" the doctor asked.
"I was crawling under the bed trying to get my slippers, and I twisted my retainer and it hurt like REALLY, REALLY bad... I thought I was going to die," Jilder confessed dramatically hoping that the drama might mitigate his culpability.
"Humm?" Dr. Gilmer replied. "Well, Jilder, it's true that you could have torn the retainer away from your ribcage; in which case we will have to go back inside your chest and repair the damage. I sure hope we don't have to do that. You know, put you through the pain and slow your recovery." The doctor told Jilder the truth, wanting to capitalize on the situation to gain an extra measure of care from what appeared to be a reckless and exuberant pre-teen. They were like puppies, often too frisky for their own good...
"okay...." Jilder said in a very tiny chastised little voice...
"I think we'd better get you into X-ray as soon as possible to see what kind of damage we may have..." the doctor went on.
"I'll get the nurse to take you in as soon as possible; then if we do need to operate, we can schedule you for first thing tomorrow morning," Dr. Gilmer told Jilder.
"okay..." Jilder replied, becoming more contrite by the minute and now dreading the worst.
Privately Dr. Gilmer thought to himself, "Humm? Don't want to over-do this thing. But this kid could do some real damage to himself if we don't clip his wings right now..."
"Alright, Jilder. I'll talk with you later today, after you get your x- ray."
And Dr. Gilmer left Jilder for the nurse's station.
There he said, "I doubt seriously that Jilder has hurt himself enough to require corrective surgery--Oh, for sure it's a possibility, but I don't think so... He'd be in continuous pain if he'd torn that bar away from his chest wall... But we need to confirm my gestimation with an x-ray. You think you could find time to get that kid into x-ray, and then check out some handcuffs that you can cuff him to his bed with when he's done?" Dr. Gilmer said with a wink...
Much to Jilder's great relief, the x-ray determined that he would not need corrective surgery, and he began taking the greatest care with his condition from that point on... A tiny measure of pain can often be an effective inoculation for the prevention of an even greater pain down the road.
It was actually quite late when Hugo and Kevin came walking into the ward to see the boys. They were smiling, if a bit tired, and felt that they had accomplished a great deal that day. Hugo had enough of his things moved in that he could really operate from the house fully with no inconvenience this week before the boys move in. And they expected to pick up the remainder of Hugo's and Jilders belongings before Jilder even comes home from the hospital.
As they passed the nurses' station, they nodded and smiled and the nurse hastened over to stop them before they got to the boys' beds. She told them about the afternoon's rowdiness and the outcome, a pained and contrite Jilder and a duly impressed Nicky, everyone all the wiser from their profligate behavior...
(And the nurse never even mentioned the handcuff option.)
When Hugo and Kevin got to Jilder's bed they said, "Heard you hurt yourself this afternoon. You're pretty lucky that you aren't hurt bad."
"Yeah," Jilder said not able to look them in the eye.
"I'm so glad you don't have to go through more surgery." Both Hugo and Kevin were particularly considerate of the error in judgment Jilder had made... After all, "To err is human..." they thought.
"Yes, Sir," Jilder replied, ready to follow the party line to the letter. He sure didn't want more surgery; besides he was actually feeling much better once again.
"So since you don't have to have any new surgery, did Dr. Gilmer say when he thought you might be ready to go home?" Kevin asked Jilder.
"Yeah, he still says probably this weekend, maybe Saturday."
"That's terrific, Jilder. Do you know when Nicky might be ready to go home?" Kevin asked
"Not really. I haven't talked to Nicky since my accident. Maybe you can go ask him," Jilder told the guys.
Kevin wrote out some words of explanation for Hugo, and Hugo took his pad and headed down to Nicky's bed.
Nicky and Hugo wrote notes back and forth for quite a while. By the time Kevin showed up, Hugo understood that Nicky was expecting to be released on Saturday with Jilder. So when all was said and done, life was going to progress on schedule... and probably with fewer glitches than would have developed were Jilder running on full throttle.
Kevin took Jilder, and they walked down to visit Nicky in bed. Jilder wore his slippers and walked slowly right beside Kevin.
They were barely within earshot of Nicky's bed when Jilder said to Nicky, "Hey!, Nicky, I'm not hurt too bad. I don't have to have surgery."
"Wow, that's great," Nicky answered loudly.
"Yep, he was pretty lucky," Kevin agreed, "Now if we can just keep both of you guys from doing anything else that might hurt you, you'll be home this time next week-- I hear Dr. Gilmer is thinking Saturday as a release date for both of you, right?"
"Yeah!" They both volunteered in unison.
"Terrific." Kevin said, trying to encourage them both.
Jilder scooted up on Nicky's bed, and Nicky moved his legs a little to give Jilder some room. They looked altogether like two puppies huddling together for mutual warmth and protection.
Hugo wrote a quick message on his pad and showed it to Kevin: "Do you think we ought to go to Coco's again tonight for some take-out for all of us?"
"Good idea," I jotted down and, turning to the boys I asked, "Either of you feel like eating something pretty soon?"
"Yeah! I'm hungry." Jilder supplied quickly
"Me too..." Nicky added not to be left out.
"What can we have?" Jilder asked.
I said, "Well, if we go to Coco's, pretty much whatever you'd like. Let's see, you like some chicken with potatoes and veggies?"
"Oh, yeah, but can I have a baked potato," Nicky said.
"Of course," I said and nodded... "Or you could have a chicken tostada grande with sesame dressing? Or even another round of salmon if you're in the mood," I said.
Nicky said, "Yeah! I'd rather have the salmon."
Jilder said, "No. I want a chicken tostada grande."
"Ok. What's to drink? "I asked. "Iced tea or lemonade?"
"Lemonade," I got the choral version.
"Okay. Okay," I answered, "We'll do our best..."
Then I told Hugo, "I'm ok with going to Coco's again for take-out-- me buying-- can you get these guys to write down what they want?"
"Sure," Hugo replied & he supplied the pad and pen to both of the boys.
Minutes later Hugo & I were going through our familiar routine at Coco's ordering... And Coco's had us out of there in a little over 10 minutes. We had this down now...
Back at the hospital I allowed the boys to sit together on one bed-- Nicky's -- and eat quietly. I wheeled up just one of those special bed tables that both boys used for their take-out containers.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't your regulation sit-down family dinner, but it was a happy gathering for our family, and one we would repeat many more times if life were kind to us-- which, as it turned out, was so...
Cups and napkins gathered up and plastic containers stuffed back in the bag, everyone began to look like they were ready for a quiet evening, maybe even an early night for the boys who were indeed fading fast. I thought, "They'll both be asleep by eight tonight."
And with ourselves cleaned up after dinner, Hugo and I hugged the rascals, admonished them to be cooperative and for God's sake don't hurt yourselves, tucked each in his respective bed, and walked quietly down the long row of beds in the seventh floor, Children's Ward.
How far we seem to have come since meeting for the first time in that restaurant only a few months ago. It was like going from Paradise Lost to Paradise Found.
Now, what was that next step?