by L. P. Dover
Jenna shrugged. “Dr. Andrews didn’t specifically say, but they’re going to get everything set up and ready to operate by morning. Now all we have to do is hope that Galen wakes up from the coma.”
The smiles around the room slowly ebbed off because with that admission there still came the realization that the worst part was not yet over. Even if he did get a kidney, he still had to wake up from the coma. I lifted my chin, and announced to them all. “He will wake up. After finding out I’m pregnant, when I was told I most likely wouldn’t have children, is a sign. A sign that miracles can happen. Galen’s strong, and I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll pull through it.”
Their smiles came back and I felt a new hope surge through the room. Everything was going to be okay.
“Are you ready to see your little peanut?” the nurse asked.
“More than anything,” I said nervously. My mother, Jenna, and Elizabeth were all in the room with me. When the nurse came to get me, they all squealed and demanded to be able to go, too. I couldn’t tell them no.
“This is so exciting,” Jenna shrieked, bouncing up and down. I laughed at her and turned back to the nurse, who was putting lube on a something that looked like a giant penis. Great, I thought sarcastically. I didn’t realize I was going to have an internal ultrasound. “Whoa!” Jenna exclaimed, looking at everyone and then back to the rod in the nurses’ hand. “I guess we don’t need to tell Galen that his wife got prodded while he was out, do we?”
Elizabeth and my mother both burst out in laughter while I hid my head in embarrassment. Leave it to my friend to say something like that. The nurse snickered and said, “Trust me, I don’t think Mr. Matthews would object since we’ll be seeing his child with it.” We all laughed, but then everyone went silent when it was time to see what my little one looked like. I kept my eyes on the monitor, eager to see how big the baby was and to get an idea on how far along I was. I had no clue, but I guess I knew then why I’d been getting sick so much the past few weeks.
The nurse turned up the volume on the monitor, and as soon as I heard my baby’s heartbeat I saw the little peanut clearly on the screen. I burst out into tears just as everyone in the room gasped and began crying as well. “Look at my little girl,” I whispered.
“Now how do you know it’s a girl?” my mother chimed in.
Smiling at the screen, I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just do.” I looked up at the nurse and asked, “Is there any way to find out right now, or is it too soon?”
“It’s still too soon. You look like you may be about eight weeks pregnant. In another ten weeks or so you should be able to find out. If you want some good recommendations for excellent OB doctors, I can get you a list to choose from. You’ll need to start taking prenatal vitamins, and make sure that you take care of yourself, and definitely no extra stress.”
“I understand completely,” I agreed with her.
“I’m going to print off some pictures, so that way you’ll have them and can show your husband when he wakes up,” the nurse insisted.
I smiled. “That would be great.”
The time had come for Galen’s surgery. I sent my parents home because I knew things would turn out okay. That, and also because I knew my father had to get back to work. I didn’t want him losing his job over me, even though I knew he would have stayed just to make sure I was all right. It took some convincing, but I finally got them to head home to Charleston. Brady and Elizabeth took their turns to see Galen first and spend time with him before his surgery. I wanted to talk to him last so I could spend more time with him. While Galen’s family visited with him, I took that time to call Rebecca. Brady had called her the other day and told her everything about the accident. I hadn’t spoken to her at all, so I had no clue what was going on with work or if there were any issues, and I’m sure she was dying to hear from me.
Dialing the office number, I waited on her to pick up. “M&M Architectural Design,” Rebecca announced. It broke my heart to hear her voice. She didn’t sound like her usual chipper self, but someone that was sad and preoccupied.
My voice quivered when I spoke. “Rebecca, its Korinne.” It must have caught her off guard to hear my voice, because she fumbled with the phone.
“Holy hell, Korinne. How are you? How’s Galen? Please tell me everything is okay. I’ve been dying to hear from you,” she told me anxiously.
“I’m sorry I haven’t called, but it’s been a little hectic. Galen has his surgery here in the next couple of hours. My good friend, Jason Andrews, is the doctor who will be doing the surgery. I trust that he’ll do everything right and help Galen pull through. After the surgery we just have to wait for him to wake up. With the head trauma we won’t know the full damage until he wakes.”
“Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I’ve been around Galen since he was a baby. I love that boy like he was my own,” she cried.
“I know you do. We have to believe that he’ll be okay. Has anything happened at the office? Do I need to call anyone?” I asked her.
“Oh no, honey, it’s all taken care of; however, the builders did call yesterday asking for the floor plan to the cabin. I didn’t know what to tell them, so I said I would be in contact soon.”
“Call them back and tell them they’ll have the floor plan as soon as possible. There needs to be some changes made to it,” I said to her. The changes would come as a complete shock to Galen when he saw it, but it would be a surprise that he’d surely love. It’d be the perfect Christmas present for him.
“Sounds good, Korinne. I just want you to know that we’re all thinking about you here.”
“Thank you, Rebecca. I’ll be in touch soon.” By the time we hung up, Brady and Elizabeth came out of Galen’s room.
“You’re up,” Brady said.
I walked into his room and hoped beyond hope that he’d look better, but he still looked the same… so still and vacant. I really didn’t know what I was expecting, but I knew what I was hoping. Hopefully, once they got him off of the coma inducing drugs he’d wake up easily. If he stayed in a coma for longer than two weeks the situation would become dire. I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he didn’t wake up during that two week period.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said, moving closer to the bed. I hovered over him and kissed him on his dry, cracked lips. “You better wake up, Galen. After this is all over you better wake up. I have so much to tell you, and you wouldn’t believe all the things that have happened.” I paused and just stared at him, imagining how his face was going to look when I told him I was pregnant. Rubbing my stomach, the tears had started to fall, but they were good tears. “You’re going to love the surprise I have for you. Believe me, it was definitely a shock for me when I found out. I have the bump on the head to prove it.” I laughed.
“Mrs. Matthews?” a soft voice said coming from the doorway. The nurse was a short lady with long, brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and looked to be in her late thirties.
When I acknowledged her, she approached me and held out her hand. “I’m Sarah. I’ll be assisting Dr. Andrews with Mr. Matthew’s surgery. I used to assist your late husband, Dr. Anders, as well.”
I shook her hand and smiled. “I’m Korinne, and it’s nice to meet you, too. You know, I remember Carson talking about a nurse with your name. He always told me how he enjoyed working with her and how she was excellent with patients. It must have been you he was talking about.”
“Really?” she asked. Her eyes were welling up with tears, but she wiped them away. “He was the nicest doctor I had ever worked for. I worked with him on the last night he was here. I don’t know if this oversteps the boundaries, but I thought you would like to know this. Do you want to know what he said to me before he left?”
I sat there frozen, my mouth hanging open. I could feel the burn tingling behind my eyes, making them water again. I nodded my head at Sarah, curious to know what my Carson’s last thoughts were before he left the hospita
l on that dreaded morning. “Please,” I said softly. “I would love to know.”
She wiped away more tears before she decided to speak. “He said that no matter what happened here, or how many patients he lost or couldn’t save, there was always a light that people had to follow. At the end of the day, you were his light. He said he would follow you no matter where you were and that home was where his light was.”
I cried, “That was my Carson, always the poetic one. Thank you for telling me that, Sarah. It means a lot to know that’s what he thought about me.”
She sniffled. “I’m sorry for talking about Dr. Anders in this situation, but I really wanted you to know.” She stopped to regain her composure before she spoke again. “Now, I need to tell you about Mr. Matthews. I just wanted to let you know we’re about to get him ready for surgery. The whole process will take about five hours, maybe more depending on if there are any complications. Do you have any questions or concerns?”
“No, I think I’m good,” I murmured, looking down at Galen.
Sarah placed her hand on my shoulder, and I lifted my gaze to her. “We’ll take good care of him.”
“I know you will. I just know that he’ll never be the same after this.”
“That’s true, but at least you’ll have each other?” she asked with a grin on her face.
I laughed. “He may beg to differ on that some day. How long will it be until you take him into surgery?”
Sarah glanced at her watch. “Everyone will be here in about five minutes to wheel him off. Make sure you get some rest and get something to eat.”
“I will.” I smiled. She left and now I had only four minutes left to say my good-bye. I bent down to kiss Galen again on the lips and I lingered there, wishing his lips would respond. “I love you. Please come back to me,” I murmured to him. Slowly backing out of the room, my gaze never left his still form as I exited out of the doorway and turned to walk away.
“Now why were you in such a hurry to get home? We have five hours until Galen gets out of surgery. I think we have plenty of time,” Jenna said sarcastically.
“There’s something I need to do, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I did it.”
“Interesting, and what is it you feel you have to do? You need to be resting, or did you forget that?” she scolded me.
I rolled my eyes at her. “I know, but I can easily rest while working on what I need to do.”
Jenna threw her hands up in the air, and being the mother hen that she was she couldn’t help but scold me. “Fine, have it your way. I’m going to fix us something to eat, and while we’re here you need to take a shower.”
“Yes, mother.” I laughed.
“With Galen not here, someone has to keep you in line,” she teased.
Jenna made her way to the kitchen while I searched for the blueprint in Galen’s office. I found it on his desk, still with the red tag around the top. I took it into the kitchen and began working on it while Jenna busied herself with the cooking. Galen and I finished the layout together, and I watched him while he drew all of the different components to each room of the cabin. I knew I could change it, and I knew Galen would love it.
The aroma of spices that came from the kitchen wafted across my nose and made my mouth water. Jenna finished up, and it wasn’t long before she brought over two plates of food and sat one down in front of me. My stomach growled and I sighed. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was or how much I missed actual food.”
“Uh, maybe it’s because you’ve barely eaten in two days? I know it’s because you’ve been sick, so I’m not going to chastise you, but crackers and peanut butter couldn’t satisfy you for long.”
“The nausea is still there, but now that I know what it’s from makes it more bearable. It doesn’t bother me as much,” I revealed to her.
Jenna took a bite of her food and looked at the blueprint beside my plate. “Blueprints aren’t my thing, so what did you do to change it?”
I slid the paper closer to her so she could see it better. I took a bite of the rosemary chicken on my plate and ended up devouring the whole thing in a matter of minutes while Jenna studied the blueprint. “Wow!” Jenna said, sounding surprised. She pushed the blueprint back over to me and smiled. “The layout looks great. I can’t wait to go stay with you guys when the cabin gets done.”
“You should see the land it’ll be on. We have our own waterfalls and everything. As soon as I saw them I knew I wanted you out there so you could paint them for me.”
“It sounds amazing. I would love to go out there and paint. Maybe it would give me some more inspiration,” she noted.
“Have you painted anything new? Any new galleries wanting your work?” I asked. “I’ve been so wrapped up in my own life that I hadn’t even thought to ask about yours.”
“I’ve had some offers. I’m still waiting on them to pan out,” Jenna informed me.
“I’m sure they will, and you know how I am. I’ll be at each and every opening you’re featured at.”
“I know, and I love you for it, Ducky,” she replied sweetly.
We ate in silence, and not long after that I passed out on the couch because I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The time must have flown by, because one minute I was sleeping and the next Jenna was shaking my shoulders. “It’s time to go,” Jenna whispered to me. “It’s been almost five hours. We need to get back to the hospital.”
“Okay,” I complied and jumped off the couch. I was wide awake and ready to go; it was time to find out the verdict of Galen’s surgery.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Any news yet?” I asked when I came through the door to the waiting room. Brady and Elizabeth looked up to me and shook their heads. Jenna went to sit by Brady while I took a seat by Elizabeth.
“We haven’t heard anything,” Elizabeth said sadly. “I hope it’s going well in there.”
“I’m sure we’ll hear something soon,” I told her, and as soon as those words left my mouth Jason came striding in.
We all stood and walked over to him quickly. “Everything went well,” he said and smiled. Everyone jumped for joy and laughed with excitement. “There are, however, some things we need to discuss,” he began in a serious tone. “Now that Galen is out of surgery, the patient usually would stay in the hospital for about five days afterwards to help recover, but given this situation it’ll all depend on when he wakes up. Again, we don’t know when that’ll be. He’s getting ready to be moved out of intensive care, which means you can see him anytime you want.”
“Oh, thank God,” I prayed.
Jason smiled and continued to explain, “As you know, transplants are not always perfect and sometimes they don’t take. Usually if the body rejects the kidney we’ll see signs early on, but that’s not always the case. It can happen six months from now or a year. No one knows. I’m telling you this because you need to be prepared. Most kidney transplants have about a ten year survival rate. I’ve seen someone live over twenty-five years with a transplanted kidney. If failure begins to happen, he will have to go on dialysis or even have another transplant.”
“And that’s when I’ll give him mine,” I pointed out.
“Damn Korinne, you’re just dying to get rid of your kidneys aren’t you?” Brady laughed.
“Anything for my husband,” I claimed whole-heartedly.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Jason added. “But if it does, I’m sure your kidney would be perfect,” he said to me. “I’ll have Sarah, my nurse, come in here when Galen is all settled in his new room.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth said to Jason while Brady shook his hand.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad it’s all working out,” Jason replied.
I went over to Jason and wrapped my arms around him. He was so much like my Carson it was scary. With them being best friends, I guess it was hard not to rub off on each other. “Thank you. I’m so glad it was you who took care of him,” I said softly.
&n
bsp; “I’m glad it was me, too.” He leaned down to whisper in my ear, “I need to talk to you. Can you come to my office?” he asked.
Pulling out of his arms, I looked into his face, but couldn’t decipher his emotions at that moment. Replying, hesitantly, I said, “Sure.” What was he going to tell me that he couldn’t tell me there?
Following him to his office, I contemplated everything in my mind that he could possibly be getting ready to tell me. I came up blank every time. Once we got to his office, he opened the door and shut it behind us. “You’re scaring me, Jason. What’s going on?” I asked.
He motioned for me to sit while he took the seat across from me. “It’s nothing bad per se, but I thought you would like to know what happened. I didn’t want to broadcast this information around to everyone in the waiting room.”
“What is it?” I asked curiously.
Jason took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “As you know, Galen was going to be put on a waiting list for his kidney.”
I nodded. “Yes, that’s what I was told, but then something happened and that changed.”
“That’s correct.” He paused. “I wanted to tell you what happened.” At my questioning glance, he continued, “Yesterday we had a patient brought in by her husband saying she was complaining of an extreme headache. She had passed out in the car on the way over here and when we examined her it was too late.” The anguish in his eyes was apparent, and it was the same look I would see on Carson’s face when he’d lose a patient. “She died of a brain aneurysm,” Jason said.
Gasping, I put my hand over my mouth. “Oh no,” I cried. “So is that how you got Galen a kidney?”
Jason nodded. “It is. When her husband signed the papers, he agreed to let us take her organs. She was a young, healthy female and when we told him about how she could save the life of another he was more than willing to agree. He didn’t want anyone going through the pain he was going through.”