Carissa's Law

by Misty Boyd

  “I promise, but only if you get me a Dr. Pepper.”

  “I’m right on top of that,” Isaac replied, as he wiped the tears from his face. He left in search of her soda.

  He decided to call his mom. “Yeah, Mom. They said it was a shunt malfunction. I don’t really know, but it was bad. She looks good now, though. I think she’s okay. She asked for Dr. Pepper. In fact, I’m back at the room now. I’ll call you back when I know more. Love you.”

  Isaac entered the room with a Dr. Pepper in his hand. “Hey, guys, any more news?”

  “Not much. She’s sleeping again. The doctor hasn’t been in yet,” Jim replied.

  “Man, that was so bad! Does this happen to her often? I mean, have you guys ever seen anything like that?” Isaac asked.

  “Not like that. She’s had malfunctions before, but the last one came on slowly. We had a few days’ warning, and we were able to get her into surgery before anything like this happened. This just came out of nowhere,” Sarah told him.

  Isaac set the Dr. Pepper on the small table beside Carissa’s bed and stared at her. Was he ready for this to be his reality? His girlfriend could collapse at any moment? Her parents said this wasn’t common and had never happened this bad to her before, but what if it did? Could he handle it? She had really scared him.

  “Hey, folks! How’s my patient doing?” the doctor from the emergency room came around the corner with a clipboard and pen in his hands.

  “She seems to be okay. She talked to us some, and then went back to sleep,” Jim answered.

  “How did she seem cognitively? Does she seem to be herself? Any deficits? It’s early, but did you notice anything?”

  “She seems fine,” Jim told him. “She asked for a Dr. Pepper. That’s usually our cue that whatever ails her is on its way out.”

  “Good. I’ll approve the Dr. Pepper, as long as she takes it slow and it stays down. We’ll see if we can get her a light dinner later on. If that stays down and she feels okay, we’ll evaluate for cognitive issues in the morning and send her home with orders to follow up with her regular neurosurgeon if everything looks okay.”

  “Sounds good, Doctor. Thank you,” Jim replied.

  The doctor left the room, and Carissa popped her eyes open. “Is he gone?” she asked, sounding a little more alert than before.

  “Yeah, did you need him?” Isaac asked.

  “No. I just didn’t want him to know I was awake. I hate doctors.”

  Jim, Sarah and Isaac all laughed at that. Carissa was back. They were sure now.

  Sarah pushed the button to raise Carissa’s bed a bit so she could drink her Dr. Pepper. “Let me know if you get a headache, and I’ll lower it back down some.”

  Carissa smiled weakly. “I’m okay. Nothing compares to the headache I had yesterday. I knew what was happening, and I tried to call out, but I couldn’t. What happened? How did you guys find me? Did I pass out?”

  “Yes. We found you unconscious in bed this morning. You were breathing, but you wouldn’t wake up. Dad even poured water on your head. Have you been having headaches?” Sarah replied.

  “Yeah, I mean, just small ones. I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “Carissa, you can’t let things like that go! You know that.” Sarah was alarmed.

  “I know now…” Carissa replied.

  Carissa finished her Dr. Pepper without getting sick, and they all passed hospital time by playing a mean game of spades with some cards someone had left in the room in a drawer. They were glad for the find, but none of them was sure what it said for the cleaning staff at the hospital. Boredom had set in so hard, though, that they didn’t care.

  Once again, the Schultz girls took the game day title, and the boys were left to sulk.

  “Carissa beat us, even after brain surgery,” Isaac joked. “What does that even say? Should we throw in the towel?”

  “Never!” Jim declared. “A man never throws in the towel, even when he’s losing. Especially in the case of brain surgery!”

  “Whatever you say, Mr. Schultz,” Isaac laughed. “Whatever you say.”

  Carissa’s dinner arrived, and once everyone was sure she would keep it down, the rest of the family went down to the café on the first floor to scrounge up whatever dinner they could find.

  “Good luck out there, guys!” Carissa called jokingly as they made their way out of the room in search of something that resembled food.

  * * *

  When she was finally alone, the reality of the day hit her. She had been ignoring her headaches for a while. She hadn’t told anyone because she didn’t want it to get in the way of her life. She was so tired of spina bifida interrupting everything. She had just wanted it, for once, to take a back seat.

  It certainly hadn’t gone that way. She’d almost been stubborn enough to lose her life. She had been so dumb. It scared her, and she promised in that moment to take better care of herself, no matter what it took. The look on her parents’ and Isaac’s faces had told her how serious this was, and she never wanted be responsible for putting those looks on their faces again.

  Chapter 47

  The cognitive testing went well the next day, and Carissa was released to go home. Isaac hung around the house for a bit, just to make sure she was okay. They watched television and played board games from the couch.

  “Do you want some ice cream?” Isaac asked her. “My mom brought me ice cream when I had my tonsils out. It made me feel better.”

  “That’s because your throat hurt, you goof!” Carissa replied.

  “Hey, ice cream is medicine in any circumstance. Take it or leave it, woman.”

  “Take it,” she declared, and Isaac popped up and headed toward the kitchen.

  He returned minutes later with an ice cream sandwich in each hand. “One for the patient, one for the doctor,” he announced.

  “Fair enough,” Carissa answered, reaching for one of the sandwiches. She unwrapped it and took the biggest bite she could manage which, of course, resulted in brain freeze. “Oww… Too fast! Too fast!” she cried out.

  “Are you okay?” Isaac asked, turning toward her, trying to judge the severity of what was happening.

  “Brain freeze is the opposite of fun right after brain surgery. I’m fine. Owww…” Carissa assured him.

  Isaac relaxed back into the couch, and put his arm around her. This scare had sure done a number on his nerves. He wondered if he’d ever be able to relax again after seeing her go through everything she had gone through. He loved her, though, more than anything in the world. If this experience had taught him nothing else, it had taught him that.

  “You really scared me, you know. I don’t know what I would have done if things had gotten any worse. This whole thing made me realize how much you mean to me. I don’t ever want to lose you, or see you go through anything like that again. Please take care of yourself,” he told her, tears welling up in his eyes.

  Carissa snuggled up against him. “I know, Isaac. I scared me, too. I guess I just wanted something in my life to be a ‘normal’ headache.” She gazed up at him. “I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful. I love you too much to scare you like that again.”

  “I love you, too,” he replied, and they sat silently on the couch for a while, finishing their ice cream sandwiches.

  It wasn’t long before Carissa was asleep in the crook of Isaac’s arm, and he wouldn’t have had her anywhere else. He let her sleep like that for a long time, his arm going numb, until it was time for him to go home. He hated to wake her, but his mom would be worried, and he had to pack for moving into his new apartment.

  “Baby,” he called out quietly, wiggling his arm out from under her. “Babe.”

  “Hmmm…” she mumbled. “Oh, I fell asleep. I’m so sorry.” She swept hair out of her face and sat up.

  “It’s okay. It was nice having you there in my arms. I need to go, though. It’s late.” He helped her sweep the rest of the hair out of her face, and his hand gently stroked her cheek. �
�I love you. I’ll text you when I get home.”

  “I love you, too,” she replied, still sleepy. He kissed her goodbye, and left her on the couch.

  Chapter 48

  Carissa woke up sometime in the darkest part of the night, and it took her a minute to realize she was still on the couch where Isaac had left her.

  “Ugh…” she mumbled to herself, and flopped over into her wheelchair to make her way to her bedroom. On the way there, she remembered everything going on with Connie Peterson and Annabelle Jenkins. Where had they left off? She couldn’t remember. She had been so foggy up until her shunt malfunction.

  When she got to her room, she decided she couldn’t wait until morning to get back in the game. She booted up the laptop, and found just the email she was looking for. On the same day she had gotten sick, Annabelle had sent an email addressed to both Carissa and Connie, outlining the steps needed to get the law passed.

  Carissa’s heart jumped into her throat. Could she contact her local representative in the middle of the night? Did that look crazy? Did she care? If she came off less than sane, she could certainly blame brain surgery, she thought. But who was her representative? College Algebra had failed her here. It had done nothing toward teaching her how to navigate the real world. She didn’t need to know how X’s relationship was with Y. She didn’t care. That was their business. She needed to know how to save these babies!

  She didn’t know who her representative was, but she knew who would know. Google knew everything, and it didn’t take Carissa long to find the information she needed, including a valid email address and phone number. Obviously, calling at whatever-dark-thirty was not an option, so she opted for email.

  It didn’t take her long to figure out what she wanted to say, and her fingers flew across the keys. All she needed was one chance to tell her story, one opportunity to get in front of this John Walker and tell him how things needed to change, and why. This email was her one chance to get there.

  Dear Mr. Walker,

  My name is Carissa Schultz. I am an 18-year-old woman born with spina bifida, and I need your help. I, along with several others in the spina bifida community, am interested in getting a law passed that would force Obstetrics and Gynecology physicians to fully educate themselves about the diagnosis and prognosis of spina bifida before handing out the diagnosis and offering abortion to expecting or new parents. In my experience, doctors are not well enough educated to truthfully handle a new diagnosis of spina bifida. They are educated only to the point of the technology available at the time they went to medical school, and some medical schools are even using outdated textbooks.

  This issue is leading to the needless abortion of possibly thousands of perfectly viable pregnancies, and the deaths of many valuable, contributing members of our world. Please help those of us in the spina bifida community give the next generation the best possible chance at life by assisting us in making this law. We do not ask for a ban on abortion. This is not even a pro-life or pro-choice issue. It is a truth issue. These parents deserve all the truthful information they can receive to make an informed decision about the future of their families. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I await your response.

  – Carissa Schultz

  There. It was done. Everything she had set out to do was now in motion and out of her hands. All that was left to do was wait on a response, and she was sure she wouldn’t get one at this hour. She decided to shut things down and go to sleep. She would email Annabelle and Connie in the morning to let them know the ball was rolling.

  She crawled into bed, asked God to put His hand into her work, and found sleep quickly and peacefully.

  Chapter 49

  Annabelle Jenkins arrived at her office early on Monday morning, hoping to catch up on all the paperwork she had missed when her daughter was in the hospital. There were still mountains of it, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever get to the bottom of it.

  She sat down at her desk with her coffee, yawned, and booted up her computer for the day. Upon opening her email, she found a pleasant surprise.

  Dear Annabelle and Connie,

  I am very sorry to be so late in getting back with you both about the law. I had a very serious shunt malfunction and ended up needing surgery. I’m now well on my way to recovery, though, and have emailed my local representative, Mr. John Walker, letting him know our intentions. I guess all we can do now is wait until I hear back from him, but I wanted to let you both know we’re making progress. I look forward to continuing to work with both of you on this.

  – Carissa

  Annabelle closed out the email and immediately called Connie. Paperwork could wait.

  Connie answered, more quickly than Annabelle anticipated.

  “Connie, it’s Annabelle. Have you checked your email?”

  “No. I haven’t even sat down at my desk yet,” Connie said. “My phone rang before I even put my purse down. Why? What’s going on?”

  “You need to tell everyone in your groups that we’re well on the way to getting this law passed… the one where doctors have to tell us the truth about spina bifida. Gather the troops. This is happening,” Annabelle said, new energy in her voice.

  “Wow, really?” Connie replied. “I had all but given up on it. We hadn’t heard back from Carissa in so long, I thought she’d abandoned us.”

  “She was sick. Shunt malfunction. Figures.”

  Connie nodded, even though she knew Annabelle couldn’t see her. “Yeah. Spina bifida rears its ugly head… literally… again. But she’s okay, though?”

  “She says she’s good. She’s emailing the big dogs. I think it’s time to get excited!” Annabelle exclaimed.

  “I’ll send an email out to all my leaders today and let them know. I’m sure they’ll be all over this. You wouldn’t believe the stories I’ve heard that directly match exactly what Carissa is trying to put a stop to.”

  “I think I would believe them,” Annabelle replied.

  They ended the conversation and Connie got to work, emailing as fast as her fingers would go.

  Dear Leaders,

  Sometime back, as you will recall, I told you all about a young woman with spina bifida who was working hard to bring forth a law that would require doctors to tell the truth about spina bifida diagnosis and prognosis. I’m happy to announce that, after some rough patches with her own health, she is now well on her way to making this dream a reality. Please let your group members know, and let’s get behind her and let our government know we’re with her all the way. Contact your local representatives. Let them know we all want this.

  – Connie Peterson

  Within hours, leaders began returning the email. The excitement was palpable. Everyone was behind Carissa and her cause. No one wanted these babies to die without reason. No one wanted new parents to be given false information any longer, whether intentional or not.

  People committed to calling their representatives every day. People offered to go to the capitol in January to speak out for the bill. Some people were even planning to take their children to the capitol so they could speak for themselves about how this bill would have helped settle their own parents’ anxiety.

  Everyone wanted a hand in it. Everyone was ready to help. Connie was overwhelmed with emails that first day, and it didn’t let up for weeks. This was going to be huge, and it deserved to be. Countless babies had already died needlessly. There didn’t need to be one more.

  Come January, a mighty army was going to make sure these tragedies stopped.

  Chapter 50

  Isaac moved the last of his boxes into his new apartment, and slowly but surely unpacked each one. He was a man on his own now, with a good job, school well underway, and Carissa.

  He sat on the couch he was renting to own from the local furniture store, and thought about the future. He was going to be a doctor one day. He’d be able to support himself well. It wouldn’t always be rental furniture and his old beat-up Volvo. One day soon, he’d be
providing a good life for himself. He hoped to make enough to give his mother a little something, and he knew for sure the future he dreamed of wasn’t the same if Carissa wasn’t part of it. He hadn’t seen her in days, and he missed her like crazy. Isaac couldn’t imagine not having her in his life. She was his everything. They had been dating only a few months, but man, that girl got him all stupid when he thought of her. It was late, but he had to text her.

  “Hey, babe, what’s going on?” he sent.

  She didn’t take long to respond. “Hey, you, how’s the new place? Loving that independence yet?”

  “It’s good! Missing you, though. All this work and school is making me nuts, not being able to see you.”

  “I miss you, too. It’ll all be worth it soon enough, though, Dr. Carter.”

  “That has a good ring to it, you know. Dr. Carter,” he replied.

  “It really does,” Carissa texted back.

  They ended the conversation with text love and kisses, and Isaac dreamed of the day he wouldn’t have to say goodbye to her anymore.

  He made one more phone call before he went to bed.

  “Ma, everything okay? Do you need anything? Your nurse is there?”

  “I’m fine, Isaac,” Betty said. “Just got in from celebrating with the girls that your stinky butt is out of my house!” She laughed, and he enjoyed the sound, missing being home for a moment.

  “Okay, Ma, if you say so. I’ll leave my phone by my bed all night. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll be right there. The nurse has my number, too. Tell her not to hesitate to call. I love you!”

  “I love you, too, son, and I’ll call if I need anything. Right now, all I need is sleep, and you do, too! And hey, I’m the mother. You call if you need anything, boy,” Betty told him.

  “All right, you’re the mom,” he agreed. “I’ll call you if I need anything.”

  “Good boy. Tell Carissa I said ‘hello.’ I know she’s over there.”

  “She’s actually not, Ma,” Isaac said. “I’ve decided we’ll see each other at her parents’ house for now. I don’t want to bring her over here. Things might get… well, you know. You raised me better than that. I respect her. Not until we’re married.”