“Since birth?” Nikki’s voice cracked. “How can that be? You mean my baby has been sick and I didn’t know?”
“Well, what usually happens is that by about the age Psalm is now, bile begins to collect in the duct, forming a cyst, and this can cause a lot of other things,” he said. “It can eventually cause abdominal pain and fever, though usually we don’t see that in a patient this young.”
“What can be done about it?” William jumped in. “It’s curable, right?”
“There is a surgical procedure to remove the duct and use a piece of intestine to replace it,” Dr. Woods said.
“My baby has to have surgery?” Nikki’s voice quivered.
“Well, it doesn’t have to be something that happens today, but the procedure can cure her condition. The sooner, the better, to prevent any further episodes like the one that brought her here tonight.” His pager sounded. “Well, I’ve got to respond to this, but I’m available to you if you need to confer later. You are free to visit her room at any time.”
As the doctor walked off, Nikki’s breath caught in her throat. She let it out in a slow, ragged manner and turned, burying her face in her husband’s shirt. “I can’t believe I didn’t know she was sick. I’m a terrible mother.”
“Baby, you are the best mother in the world,” William said. “The doctor said she will be fine. And she will be. We’ll get her the care she needs and this will be behind us. God has revealed the condition so we have to trust Him for deliverance.”
“What if the doctors can’t do anything for her?” Nikki’s eyes searched William’s face for assurance.
“They will,” William guaranteed.
“But what if they can’t?”
“Things will be fine.” William rubbed her shoulder. “You heard the doctor. We will pray for God’s healing and that He directs the doctors to the best course of action. Now let’s go see how our baby is doing.”
“Okay.” Nikki nodded. She squeezed William’s hand, then walked with him to Psalm’s room.
Nikki touched her child’s arm while William prayed.
“Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you show mercy to our daughter. We know you have the power of healing. Please deliver her from this terrible affliction. In the name of your loving son, Jesus. Amen.”
“Amen.” Nikki echoes the word, but nervousness crowded out confidence. As they stood next to Psalm’s bed, watching her sleep peacefully, fear churned in Nikki’s belly.
Chapter 9
Danielle dialed Nikki’s number on the way to work the next morning, as was her habit. She didn’t get an answer on Nikki’s home phone, so dialed her friend’s cell. Nikki answered on the second ring.
Danielle knew instantly something was wrong. “Are you okay?”
“It’s Psalm,” Nikki said. “We had to take her to the emergency room last night. We’re still here.”
Danielle gasped. “The emergency room? Is she all right?”
Danielle heard the breath catch in Nikki’s throat. “I don’t know,” Nikki said. “The doctor said she has some birth defect and has to have surgery.”
“Birth defect?” Danielle said. “She’s four years old. How does she have a birth defect?”
“I don’t know.” Nikki’s voice was small. “I’m just scared.”
“Look, I’ll be right there. What hospital?”
“No, don’t come, we’re about to take her home.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you at your house. I’ll use my key.”
About thirty minutes later, Danielle snatched the front door open when she heard Nikki and William pull into the driveway with Psalm. “Come on in and tell me what happened,” she said as Nikki gently lifted Psalm from her booster seat.
Danielle ushered her friend into the house, holding the door as the smell of coffee and bacon greeted Nikki. Nikki smiled and shifted Psalm in her arms. “Thanks,” she said. “You are so sweet. You didn’t have to do this.”
“Well, I know if you’ve been at the hospital all night, you’ve not eaten,” Danielle said, grabbing a cup of coffee from the counter and handing it to William.
“Thanks,” William said.
Nikki disappeared down the hall with the sleeping Psalm.
“You didn’t have any syrup, so is jelly okay for your bacon?” Danielle called to Nikki, knowing her best friend always ate something sweet on her breakfast meat.
“I’m really not hungry,” Nikki said, re-entering the kitchen.
“Baby, you need to eat,” William coaxed softly.
Nikki nodded. “Yeah, jelly is okay.” She sat down to the food and they bowed in prayer.
“Dear Lord, thank you for this meal,” William said, “and thank you for even the blessing of this morning. Thank you for giving us the knowledge of our daughter’s condition and we pray you guide us in the best course of action. Please grant healing. Amen.”
“So what is this about a birth defect?” Danielle asked, her eyes moving from Nikki’s grim face to William’s.
“Well, the doctor said she has a condition that is the result of some birth defect she has had all this time.” Nikki’s words came out softly and deliberately. “All this time, my baby has been sick. I . . . I just don’t understand.”
“Well, I’m sure it’s not as bad as the doctor said,” Danielle assured.
“Well, birth defect sounds pretty serious to me,” Nikki said.
“But that’s all right,” William reminded his wife. “God can do abundantly more than we can even think, much less ask Him to do. And that’s in the Bible. So healing our baby is well within His capabilities, and I feel she will be delivered.”
“I’m just going by what the doctor said,” Nikki insisted. “I am so scared and—”
“Who are you going to believe?” William challenged. “The Lord or some human doctor?”
Nikki opened her mouth, then closed it.
Danielle nodded. “Yeah, listen to William. He’s right. Remember when you came to my house last night trying to give me a word of encouragement to help me face my doubts? You wanted to tell me that God would see me through, right? Well, I’m trying to do the same thing here.” Danielle raised a brow. “Surely you can take a few words of encouragement, can’t you?”
Danielle saw the emotions play across her friend’s face. She knew Nikki wanted to latch on to the words, but her doubts and concerns battled her faith. “Now tell me every single thing the doctor said,” Danielle invited.
They told Danielle about the conversation with the doctor, and she nodded gravely.
When they finished telling her about that day’s experience, Danielle shook her head and said, “I’ve never heard of this choledochal cyst, but maybe it’s not as bad as you think it is.”
“I’m going to look it up on the internet,” Nikki said. “And we’re going to get this taken care of as soon as we can.”
“Can you call the insurance company today to get pre-certified?” William asked his wife. “That way, we can get the ball rolling and can go on and schedule the surgery, if we find it’s necessary.”
“You’re not going to let her have surgery, are you?” Danielle asked.
“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” William said. “I’m praying she can be cured without that extreme measure.”
“Well, the doctor said surgery is what would cure her,” Nikki insisted.
“Well, still. . . .” Danielle wasn’t convinced they should be so quick to consider surgery.
“Look, if surgery is the best thing, then that’s what it’ll be,” Nikki said. “I can’t let my baby get sick to where she is in as much pain as she was last night. It was horrible. She cried so much that her throat was sore and finally, all she could do was hiccup. I felt so bad. If I could have taken her pain as my own, I would have. I’ll do whatever I have to for my child.”
“Shouldn’t you trust in God?” Danielle prodded. “Faith—”
“—without works is dead,” Nikki interrupted flatly. “And I’m goin
g to work on getting my child better, no matter what it takes.”
Danielle shuddered.
Chapter 10
The insurance company’s denial was immediate. The surgery wasn’t covered. They said surgery wasn’t the recommended treatment in patients Psalm’s age, and that most people didn’t experience ill effects from the condition until years later.
“Well, my baby was in terrible pain last night,” Nikki said to the dry, bland voice on the phone.
“Well, ma’am, all I’m saying is this surgery is not considered the appropriate treatment, according to our experts,” the insurance representative said.
“Well, ma’am,” Nikki tried to speak calmly, “the doctor said—”
“Yes, I understand.” The representative cut her off, speaking as if to a child. “Doctors sometimes over-treat. They often try to do the most drastic measure. Here, we want to be responsible.”
“Responsible? What do you mean?” Nikki said before calming herself down. “Look, lady, I know you’re just doing your job, but you’ve got to okay this surgery for my little girl.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.”
“But I can’t afford it without insurance!” Nikki said, clutching the receiver to her ear. Sweat beaded her nose. She could hear Psalm stirring in the other room. “Okay, look, I’ve got to go. Thank you for your non-help.”
“You’re most welcome.”
Nikki stepped into Psalm’s bedroom. The girl was just starting to awaken. “Good morning, precious,” Nikki greeted with a wide smile. She didn’t want Psalm to sense her anxiety. She leaned in and kissed the girl on the forehead. “Are you hungry? Do you want breakfast?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Psalm said, stretching her tiny arms high over her head as she sat up in the bed.
Nikki’s brows arched in surprise. She wasn’t sure Psalm would be ready to eat, but the girl’s assurance was a welcome response. Nikki reached down to help her daughter from the canopied bed, but Psalm sprang up and raced off from the room.
“Mommy, let’s play hide and seek!”
Nikki followed the child in wonderment. It was as if Psalm had never been sick and had not spent hours at the hospital. Maybe her prayers were working, Nikki mused. She hadn’t wanted to trust her daughter’s care to a few random prayers, but maybe prayer was just the antidote. Relief coursed through her being as the anxiety of the past few hours began to dissipate.
Nikki’s eyes fell on the children’s Bible on the bookshelf. “Thank you, Lord.” She breathed the words.
“Mommy!” Psalm’s voice was insistent. “Come play with me!”
Nikki emerged from the bedroom. “Okay, okay,” she said with a laugh. “Let’s get you some food; then we’ll play.”
Nikki felt chagrin at her earlier dismay. “I’ll never doubt you again, Lord.”
Chapter 11
Danielle arrived at work an hour and a half late, but breezed in as if nothing was amiss. She gave her supervisor a quick explanation about a life-and-death emergency to stifle any complaints, then went about her duties.
Her mind went briefly to Nikki. It sure was a lot easier for Nikki to try to dish advice than it was for her to take it, Danielle mused. All Danielle had tried to do was give Nikki the same advice Nikki had wanted to give her. Danielle felt certain this medical issue wasn’t that big of a deal. After all, how serious could it be if she had never even heard of the condition?
Danielle forgot about Psalm as she grabbed a stack of patient charts. She moved from patient to patient with little incident, until an altercation rattled her. Danielle escaped to her office for a few moments after a particularly harrowing confrontation with a patient. The man had tried to kill himself after losing his job and discovering his wife wanted a divorce. This was his third week of treatment. He shoved Danielle and she had almost gone crashing headfirst into the wall, but managed to regain her balance. She had to call in help to have him restrained. Now, back in her office to collect her thoughts, the restlessness she felt erupted.
“I can’t wait to get out of this place,” she fumed. “These people are working my nerves.” Her phone rang the second she sat down. “Danielle Esperanza, may I help you?” she said in her professional voice.
“You know Troy was lying,” said a female voice on the other end.
“Who is this?”
“You know who this is,” the voice said. “I’m the woman you’re so concerned about that you would leave your warm bed at four in the morning to come find.”
“Look, I don’t know who you think you are, calling my job—”
“Knock it off,” the woman said. “I’m just calling to tell you, you can have Troy. I don’t need some man who keeps trying to play me. I see you’re into games. I’m not. My cousin just moved in next door to him and she told me about your visit last night. Troy and I spent the day together, in bed. I left to go home because that’s the only way I could get some rest—he wore me out. He was probably exhausted when you showed up; he probably was asleep, I imagine.
“If I had known you were coming over, though, I would have stayed an extra fifteen minutes. I told Troy, if I ever caught him fooling around on me, that was it.”
“Fooling around on you?” Danielle’s blood pressure rose. “I’m the girlfriend. I don’t know who you are. Probably some two-bit home wrecker.”
“Well, name-calling isn’t necessary,” the woman said. “And for the record, the name is Chastity. Have a good day.”
The phone went dead in Danielle’s ear.
Chapter 12
Nikki telephoned the insurance company again, but still got nowhere. Another representative, this one a man with a thick accent, gave her the same news. Her child’s surgery was not covered.
She plopped down on the couch, the silent phone in her lap. She knew she had to figure this thing out. Psalm seemed to be feeling all right, but Nikki wanted medical assurance. “Maybe I should go back to work, no matter what William says. At least then we’d have more money and good health insurance,” she pondered out loud, but then stopped herself. “But no, that’s not part of the plan. William wants me to be home.”
Nikki recalled the feelings of loneliness she held as a child, especially when her mother remarried. The marriage had meant more material things for Nikki, but those things could never take away the feeling of losing her mother’s attention. She even gained a sister, Carla, through the marriage because her stepfather brought with him a daughter, but even that didn’t save her from the intense feelings of being by herself in the world.
Carla needed all the attention—first, because she was the baby, and then later, because she always seemed to get into trouble. Nikki’s mother constantly rushed to Carla’s aid, doing whatever it took to make her new daughter and new husband feel comfortable. Nikki remembered needing braces but her mother told her they didn’t have the money. The next day, it seemed to Nikki’s mind, Carla was wearing braces.
Nikki often stayed after school for activities, but Carla, who hated school, went straight home. If the after-school bus was late dropping Nikki off, it didn’t matter. Her family would go out to dinner without her. On more than one occasion, she arrived to an empty house with only a dinner of peanut butter and crackers, while her family dined on pasta and steak in a popular restaurant.
She vowed she would never let her child know what it felt like not to have her mother’s attention and concern. Nikki knew she had to find a way to get that surgery for Psalm.
Chapter 13
William tapped the keyboard for the final time and stood. “Okay, you’re all set,” he said and smiled at the blonde who looked relieved. “Your computer is good as new.”
“Oh, thank you!” the woman said. She put her hand to her chest in an exaggerated expression of relief. “I was so afraid I had lost all my important documents. When the computer crashed I thought I would die.”
They were at the woman’s home office.
“Well, it was simple to fix,” William said, taking the
check the woman held out to him. He thanked her and left, his mind already on his work ahead.
The hospital visit had resulted in him missing his first computer appointment of the morning, so now he was headed to the campaign office, a tiny space on Jewella Avenue.
William dialed home. “Hey, baby. How is Psalm?” he asked when Nikki answered.
“She’s fine. She’s been playing for the last half hour. She hasn’t eaten much, but she doesn’t appear to be in any kind of pain.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear,” William said. “How are you?”
“I’m mad!” The words were so loud, William pulled the phone from his ear for a moment.
“What happened?” he asked, putting the phone back in position to hear his wife.
“The insurance company,” she said. “They are such jerks. The woman was talking to me like I’m stupid or something. Then I called back and talked to a man and he wasn’t any help either. Bottom line is they aren’t going to pay for this procedure.”
“What did they say?”
“That it’s not the recommended treatment.”
“Did you tell them a doctor said this is what she needs?”
“Yeah,” Nikki said. “You know all they care about is the money.”
“Well, don’t let them get you down, baby,” he said. “Maybe she doesn’t need the surgery after all. You just said she’s been playing. Maybe God has already granted deliverance.”
“She was playing all right early yesterday, too; but then we saw what happened,” Nikki shot back.
“All I’m saying is maybe we’re being hasty with this surgery idea,” William said. “I’ve been praying. You’ve been praying. And really, what could one doctor know? God knows better and I believe He will heal Psalm, maybe He already has.”
“William, I can’t see her go through that again,” Nikki’s voice broke with emotion. “She was in so much pain. It hurt my heart. I hope she has already been healed, I really do, but I need to know for sure.”
Scandalous Truth Page 4