by Kat Obie
“Hey. I wanted that,” said Jenna. But they both knew she wasn’t that serious since she always liked to have one and a half slices of toast cut in triangles. So that one piece of toast was okay to steal. “You know, Alice said Scotty was a nightmare to help to get up and down the stairs when he got hurt. It might be a good idea to make this our bedroom, at least right after your surgery.”
Corey’s mood almost immediately went south. He was doing such a good job of pushing the thought of the surgery out of his brain and just living for the moment. He had to face his fears and he knew that. It would be next week that he would have the surgery and then it would be about two weeks to find out the results of everything. That was two weeks of not knowing and putting his life on hold. He knew that Jenna was probably right. The idea of sleeping downstairs would make life easier for everyone. He kept it short and said, “’Kay.”
Jenna picked up on his mood change, immediately cupping his chin, turning his head and looking him in the eye. Her eyes were so bright and loving. “Babe, you got nothing to worry about. It’s just a few weeks away from the ice. You got this.”
“I know,” he said, kissing her softly. With that kiss he pulled strength from her and was able to push the thought of cancer to the side again. He made a decision. “You are right though. We should sleep down here after my surgery. That way everything is easier for both of us.”
“’Kay. I didn’t mean to bring you down. Just thinking ahead.”
“That’s what I love about you. I need someone to think ahead sometimes. You are right that things will go fine,” he said. He just didn’t add in the silent prayer afterward. He wanted her to see him be all self-assured.
24
Jenna
It was the morning of Corey’s surgery. The past week flew by for both of them. He seemed to be playing out of his mind the past few games. You could practically see his focus was on being the best player he could and she had a nasty feeling that he was taking his feelings out on the ice. But it seemed to be working. He could compartmentalize in a way that she couldn’t fathom. She couldn’t believe she ever wondered if he was going to go back to his party ways. Once he wanted to move on from something, he would. She just hoped that he would never move on from her.
As he drove though, he was holding her hand rather tightly. That’s how she knew he was still really nervous despite him putting on the appearance that nothing was fazing him. He had his pump-up music playing although he was barely bobbing his head.
As he got out of the car, he said, “It’s weird to be here during the season.”
“Oh, really? When have you been here at all, mister?”
She knew he had had a few surgeries to get fixed up in the off-season, but they were done in his hometown. He didn’t stay in Cleveland in the off-season. She was still surprised he came out to Philly to be with her last year.
He smiled like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I meant hospitals in general, beautiful. This is both so big and so minor at the same time if that makes sense.”
“It does,” she said with a kiss. She felt her phone vibrate but decided to ignore it. She wanted to get him checked in so he wasn’t late.
Funny enough, his phone started to go off. He looked at it and laughed. “Babe, Al wants to know if you want any coffee this morning.”
She shook her head in a laugh before saying, “I can’t believe she sent that to you instead of me, but yes. I want coffee.”
“Well, apparently you didn’t answer the phone. But why are you receiving guests when I’m the patient?”
“’Cause your buddies got practice. But I have it on good authority that Petey, Lager and Scotty are coming after. Something about the coach killing them if they even thought about skipping.”
“That sounds about right but I thought they had a flight after practice.” Corey smiled. She could tell he liked hearing that the guys were coming out to support him.
With all the seriousness that she could muster, she said, “That was supposed to be a surprise though. I didn’t tell you a thing.”
“Not a word. This is all on Al,” he said with a wink.
They walked into the check-in area. It was a seamless process where he basically just had to give his insurance information, ID and name her as his companion to take him home. Then they sat. They were pretty quiet, and she was trying to soothe him by holding his hand, but his mouth was tight. Then he was called back.
Corey
Corey followed the nurse to the room. He was asked to get into the hospital gown and socks. He didn’t care; he was basically naked under a crappy gown. The gown had a hole in the shoulder and in the ab area. He thought it was just cheap for the gown and if anything he should help the hospital to get new gowns for patients who weren’t nearly as comfortable with their body.
The nurse came back and saw the state of his gown and apologized. “I’m so sorry. Let’s get you a new one. That’s just sorry-looking and we can’t let you wear it.” She helped him change it since it was pretty easy to move the gown and still keep his goods covered up.
Then it was a bunch of tests that they started to do. The normal BS to make sure he was healthy and consenting. Then he had some time to himself so he pulled out his Nintendo Switch from hoodie pocket. He was glad that he brought it with him or else he would have been bored to death.
“Hey there, babe.” He smiled and instantly grew hard in that moment. There was little to tame the beast with the flimsy fabric gown covering him. He paused his game as Jenna started to rib him. “Someone’s happy to see me.”
“Yeah. There’s no hiding it right now but it’s all for you, beautiful. I didn’t think they would let you back so quickly.”
“Guess they are,” she said with a shrug. “Do you want me to head back out of here?” She started to turn to walk out the curtain door.
He grabbed her hand and said, “Oh no you don’t. I want you right here with me. I just didn’t expect you. That’s all.”
What he really wanted was to have her lie down beside him. If he didn’t have the stupid IV needle taped to his hand and arm, he would have wanted to bang her right then and there. But he was trying to be a gentleman.
Then his doctor from last week walked in. He went over how they were ready to do the radiology part. That was probably going to take a while but he gave the option for Jenna to stay. She opted to leave since Alice was waiting for her in the lounge with her coffee.
He got wheeled down in the gurney to the radiology lab. Again, they asked if he understood the testing. He repeated exactly what the doctors and the Internet explained to him. This would only show which lymph nodes that were active from that area and it wouldn’t say anything about if there was melanoma in the area until after he goes under.
He sat on the examination table. It felt super small and it was a wonder he could fit on the small area but he was petrified of falling off the ledge. He was glad that he wasn’t built like a football player. If he was, there was no way in hell he was going to fit.
The radiology tech injected him four times around the area that they removed the mole. The first couple times, it was just a pinprick. The second to last one hurt a little more. He flinched on the last one and felt like he was wuss for not being able to withstand a needle prick.
Then it was his job to remain still. He and the tech talked hockey for a bit. But it was boring as all hell. He just wanted to be done but that meant that he would be due for the surgery itself afterward. What surprised him was that he was told that his lymph nodes were lighting up like a Christmas tree on the screen and things were going by quickly. He thought it was taking forever and he wanted to be able to move some without screwing up the test.
Then he heard that it looked like there were multiple sites lighting up on the screen. The radiology tech didn’t know what came first but he remembered that the doc said it could be both the groin and the armpit area. So while he hated the multiple site locations, he wasn’t too surprised to h
ear it was those two areas.
Finally, he was done with that test. He was just grateful to get up and not be lying on such a tiny slab. He was able to walk over to the room next door. He hated being attached to the stupid IV fluid since it restricted his movement way more than he thought. It made the transfers so much slower. It felt good to be able to pad over the next machine that was doing a spec scan.
The spec scan table was larger and lower than the first table he sat on and there was music on in the room, so he didn’t have to make small talk. It seemed like the spec scan took even longer than the first imaging test. It didn’t help that they had to do it twice: first for the armpit region and then another for the lower body. As they was about halfway through the lower body area, he was starting to drift off when he heard someone start to talk about the tests. He wasn’t sure if it was his doctor until he heard how they would be looking to take out three nodes from the armpit region but there were more that lit up in a secondary set of nodes. Then finally the scans were done. He got back onto the gurney and then was brought up to that same room from before.
Almost immediately, he heard “Knock knock” from Petey.
He just laughed since it was utterly ridiculous to hear him say knock knock for a curtain. “Oh, just get in here.”
It was nice to see Petey but the person he really wanted to see was standing to him. She said, “Look who I found.”
Corey knew he was supposed to be surprised to see Petey but his heart wasn’t into it. So he turned to Petey and said, “Dude, you know you gave yourself away when you said knock knock. Don’t tell me the whole team is in the waiting room.”
“Not quite all but a good chunk of the team.”
Corey shook his head. He wasn’t surprised. The team was close and Jenna said some of the guys were coming after practice. “It’s not that big of a deal.” He felt Jenna’s hand start to burn through the thin gown on his shoulder. That was the comfort he needed and it was such a small gesture since despite his words to the contrary, he was nervous.
“I was starting to think that you weren’t coming back and they took you straight into surgery.”
Corey shrugged his shoulders. He couldn’t control how long it took especially when they said it was pretty quick. Although the clock on the wall said he had been in radiology for a few hours.
Then doctors started to go in and out of the room. They were talking about the anesthesia and such. He just answered the questions like he needed to. But the moments when it was just him, Jenna and Petey was when he felt relaxed.
The worst news was when his surgeon came into the room. “So bad news. We are definitely going to have to do biopsies in the armpit and in the right groin for sure. But I’m annoyed, it also looks like we have to do the left groin.”
Corey growled in displeasure. The last thing he needed was for both sides of his groin to be cut open. “I would rather not have to get that side cut too.” The doctor shot him a look like he was being stupid. So he quickly said, “I know if you need to test it, you need to test it. But in an ideal world, I would rather not get both sides cut.”
“You and me both. But we will need to do what’s right for you in the long term. So if I find out that the node is indeed something we need to test, we need to test it.”
“Got it.” Corey nodded in agreement. Jenna was rubbing his shoulder at that moment and giving him more strength and love than she could have ever known. While he couldn’t tell her, he needed her so much at that moment.
Then it was time for the surgery proper. Before getting wheeled out, he pulled Jenna down to his level so he could kiss her. While it was a quick kiss, and more chaste than he ever wanted to do, it was nice to get to taste her one more time.
Jenna
Petey and Jenna walked back toward the waiting room where many guys from the Sound and Alice were. Petey was the one who broke the silence. “That wasn’t too bad.”
“Yeah. I just hope for his sake, they don’t have to take out the one on the left side,” said Jenna quietly.
Petey laughed. “Not just for his sake, but for our sake. We don’t want him to get any more incisions than needed.”
“Yeah, he is going to miss being out on the ice. At least he’s not too big of a baby,” joked Jenna, knowing that Petey knew better than most of the guys on the Sound how he could whine and hated when he couldn’t play hockey.
Almost immediately the sounds of the team could be heard. Everyone was talking and just relaxing. It would be easy to forget that they were in the hospital waiting room if it wasn’t for how relaxed everyone was. She was glad that only half the team came to see how Corey was doing with the surgery. When she and Petey walked back after he returned from radiology, it was only Lager and Alice in the waiting room. She knew that Scotty would be coming as well but he was a slowpoke when it came to leaving the rink. She wasn’t expecting Hartsy, PK, Berman, Callum, Dykst, and Dima.
“Damn, it’s a full house in here,” she said to Petey.
“We’re a tight team. It’s a good thing,” he reassured her.
Everybody shushed up as they got closer. Obviously, they saw them and wanted an update. Petey elbowed her to make her speak. She wanted to kill Corey’s best friend at that moment. It was his bloody team, he should do the update, but nope, he wanted her to do it.
“They took him back for the surgery just now. Besides removing more stuff from the back, they have to test a few lymph nodes so there will be multiple incision sites. So that was a little more than expected. We won’t know anything more for a couple weeks.”
“Let me see if I can get a rush on everything,” said Berman as he was starting to pick up the phone. Jenna had no clue who Corey’s coach was calling but he was speaking rapidly in hushed tones.
Alice came up to Jenna. “We need to get you to eat. Come on.”
Alice and Scotty immediately pulled her toward a cafeteria. Jenna wasn’t really hungry, but she was glad to get away from the noise from the Sound. The three of them got into the line for the coffee and bagels, and Scotty treated all of them.
They sat at a table. She drank her coffee but she just picked the bagel apart. “When do you guys have to fly out?”
“About an hour.” Scotty smiled. She was able to relax now being away from the team. He always could read a room and asked, “What, are we too loud for you?”
“Maybe.” That got Jenna laughing. “But you guys do live up to your team name on days like today.”
That got a chuckle out of everyone. For as much as she loved Scotty and Corey, their team name was ridiculous.
Alice smiled and said, “So we have a choice for you for later today.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jenna.
“Well, we all know CC isn’t a tiny guy. Yes, you are way taller and probably stronger than Alice, but she and my mom struggled with me after my knee surgery. Do you want me or Petey to help out tonight?”
“You guys can’t miss a game,” sputtered out Jenna. “We already have a few precautions in place like using the lower bedroom this week and possibly next.”
“Do you really think they are offering to sit out a game? Hate to say it, won’t happen,” said Alice pretty plainly.
Scotty gave a sheepish grin that seemed to amuse Alice. However, Jenna was confused. She knew the guys loved their sport a lot and they weren’t just allowed to skip games. Scotty suggesting that someone stay over seemed crazy. Add on top of that, then saying they weren’t missing games, it made no sense at all. So she had to ask, “What do you mean then?”
“Petey and I talked to Berman earlier. Both of us are willing to fly out tomorrow morning and we’ll skip the morning practice. We are both due for a maintenance day so it’s not a big deal for one or even both of us to fly out in the morning. But we would arrive back in time to play. Literally it’s just reinforcements for tonight.”
“Wooow.” That was unexpected, but she was pretty grateful for the offer. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong wa
y because I’m super grateful for the offer but I don’t think we will need both of you to help out tonight.”
“No worries. I kinda figured it would be one or the other. I just wasn’t sure who you thought would be a better fit.”
That’s what made Jenna think. She really wasn’t sure. She was more comfortable with Scotty since she hung out with him and Alice a lot, but Petey was Corey’s best friend and Corey would probably be more comfortable with him. She took a drink of the coffee as she mulled it over quickly since they would need her to make a decision so they could change their flights.
“I guess Petey. I know they have been roommates for years. There’s no one better at handling a drunk Corey than him.”
That got everyone laughing.
“Sounds good. I’m going to go talk to the coach and you girls can continue to talk. If anything happens, I will let you know. Take your time,” said Scotty. He then gave his wife a quick kiss and left back for the waiting room.
Alice asked, “So are you doing okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” Jenna said instinctually. “I’m just worried. It just seems like a lot. I know we were talking about having a couple lymph nodes tested but it’s a lot more. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I just want him to be able to play hockey and be healthy.”
“I get it. But we just have to take things one day at a time. We just have to get through this. Besides, you know Corey isn’t too bad when he’s injured.”
“Yeah. It will be hard tonight and tomorrow.” Jenna didn’t say it might be more difficult for a while if Corey refused to take any pain relievers and deprive himself of sleep. That was their secret. She knew that Corey would just suck it up and start to shut down.
Jenna still picked at her bagel not really taking any bites. Alice smiled and said, “Let’s just get back to the boys. We don’t want the testosterone to get too high over there.”