Stormy Weather II
by matahari2
Summary / Disclaimers, etc.: See Chapter 1
Feedback: Yes! Please! Read and Review!
Chapter Seven – The Search for Silver Linings
Amanda knew it was too good to be true, even though she'd enjoyed their shared moments of relief and joy after Lee had come through the surgery.
Once the anesthetic and the postoperative pain medication began to wear off, Lee complained of the worst headache he'd ever had in his life. When she started to leave his room to go to the nurses' station, he called out to her, his face creased with pain, "No, Amanda. . .please don't leave me!" He pressed his fingers into his forehead and moaned, "Mm. . .Mmh!"
She rushed back to his bedside, pushing the call-button before she took hold of his outstretched hand in both of hers. "It'll be all right, Sweetheart," she murmured soothingly, "I just pressed the button for the nurse. . .someone'll be right in, and we'll see if we can get you something for the pain, all right?"
"Mmh" was all Lee could muster for an answer, along with a slow blink as he turned toward her. The pain she saw in his hazel eyes was almost more than she could bear, but she did her level best to remain calm, for his sake.
The electronic voice resonated from the speaker on the wall, "Fifth Floor West Nurses' Station. . .how may we help you?"
Amanda answered, "My husband needs something for his pain. . .can you get him something right away, please?"
"Yes, Ma'am," the disembodied voice began, "Just let us check his chart. We may need to call his doctor first, but we'll get him something as soon as we can."
"Thank you," Amanda whispered.
Within ten minutes, a bouncy young nurse came in carrying a syringe and a few gauze swabs. "Hello Mr. Stetson," she said cheerily, coming around to the far side of his bed. "I've got a shot of vicodin for you. It'll take away the pain and help you get some rest. Now can you do something for me? I need you to roll over just a little ways. . .there you go!" she chirped, as he rolled over toward Amanda and grabbed onto the bed rail with his right hand. "Just a second," she said, separating the back of his gown by a few inches. She wiped his skin with one of the alcohol-treated swabs, popped the cap off of the syringe, and injected him so skillfully that she had to tell him, "all right, we're done, Mr. Stetson."
As he rolled over to lie down on his back again, the nurse rounded the bed on her way out of his room. She called back to him, "You get some rest, now!" as she disappeared into the hallway.
After a few minutes more, the tension in his face had started to ease somewhat, and Amanda asked, "Think you can try and get a little rest now?"
"Yeah. . ." he whispered, then begged, "but will you stay with me 'til I go to sleep?"
His eyebrows had helped him ask the question, and Amanda had never been able to resist that look of his. "Of course I will, Sweetheart," she replied with a loving smile, as she stroked his arm gently. "You just take it easy. . ." she trailed off, as she saw his eyes begin to close.
********
Galilee General - Tuesday Morning
Amanda was awakened out of a fitful slumber when she heard the clanking of the food cart in the hallway, followed by the voice of an energetic young woman, saying, "Here's your breakfast, Mr. Stetson!"
Amanda stretched her arms out and put a hand up over her mouth to cover an unstoppable yawn, and then she pushed up out of the uncomfortable chair and came to stand beside the bed. When she saw the candy striper taking the cover off of the unappetizing meal, she said, "That's all right. . ." she paused to read the girl's name tag, "Terri. . .we can take it from here. . .thanks."
"Okay, Ma'am. . .Sir," she nodded, backing away and leaving them to their 'breakfast'.
Lee looked at the contents of the tray with undisguised loathing, pushing the edge of the tray away as he said, "Amanda. . .you know, I really don't feel like eating anyway, but this stuff!" He grimaced and turned his face away from the offending mess, saying, "Even the smell of it. . ."
"Yeah. . ." she agreed, frowning in distaste in spite of her breakfast credo. "I know." She repositioned the cover onto the overcooked 'something' that had probably been scrambled eggs in another life, and three strips of not-quite cooked bacon, their ugliness worsened by the trapped steam. Lifting the lid of a small metal carafe, she took an approving sniff and suggested, "Would you like a cup of coffee? It may be okay."
He gave her a slight nod and turned the cup upright, accepting the offer of coffee, and poured what passed for cream into it from the miniature metal pitcher. He stirred it in and took a sip as Amanda said, "And there's a piece of toast here that looks all right. . .here, let me butter it for you."
Lee had just taken a bite of the toast when Dr. Gottlieb rapped on the already-open door and came into the room. "Good Morning, Mr. Stetson. . .Mrs. Stetson," he said, reaching into his pocket for his pen-light. He put a hand under Lee's chin and shone the light into each of his eyes as he commented, " I heard you had a little pain last night."
"And then some!" Lee added.
"Right," Dr. Gottlieb admitted, placing the pen-light back into is lab coat pocket and folding his arms in front of him. "Unfortunately, that's to be expected, especially after brain surgery. You see, the surgery itself can cause edema. . .swelling. . .that gives you some of the same symptoms as the tumor. The good news is that it'll probably start to go down in a day or so. In the meantime, I've noted on your chart that you're to receive pain medication any time you need it over the next forty-eight hours."
"Good. . .thanks," Lee said, with a sigh and a weak smile. "So what's next?" he asked, pushing the over-bed tray further away.
Dr. Gottlieb leaned a hand onto the bedside table as he replied, "Well, Mr. Stetson, this afternoon, Dr. Karen Zimmerman will be in to see you—she's an oncologist. . .a cancer treatment specialist, and she'll work out your treatment schedule with you."
Amanda looked from Lee to Dr. Gottlieb as she asked, "Doctor? What happens if the swelling doesn't go down within a couple of days?"
"Then we'll have to go back in and put in a shunt, to drain off the excess fluid," he answered, as though invading someone's brain was a routine matter. At Amanda's continued look of concern, he said, "Hopefully that won't become an issue, Mrs. Stetson. We'll just monitor the situation and hope for the best, all right?"
Both Lee and Amanda whispered, "All right." Their eyes connected for a moment, each drawing strength from the other. 'We'll lick this thing together', Lee reminded himself, hardly noticing when Dr. Gottlieb left them alone.
********
Lee's face was somewhat flushed and he was slightly short of breath after his first lap around the halls of the fifth floor. Although, in a sense, it felt good to get up and move around a bit, he'd been unsteady on his feet, even with the nurse's help. That had been an unsettling feeling, one he hadn't experienced in a long time. He resolved to himself that he'd take two laps tomorrow--he knew he'd have to build his strength if he was ever going to get out of this wretched place. As he lay there counting the holes in the ceiling tiles, he started to get fidgety, tapping on the side of the bed with his fingers. He frowned when he held up his wrist, only to see bare skin where his watch should have been. Leaning forward in the bed, he stared out through the partially open door. Where was Amanda? 'Oh yeah,' he remembered. 'I pushed her outta here. . .told her to go get herself something to eat.' He didn't think she'd left him all night. . .good grief- -she must have been starving by this time. He lay back against the pillow and started drumming his fingers on the bed rail when he noticed shadows of movement from beneath the door. He started to smile when a delicate hand reached around the door. "Oh, good! You're. . ."
"Not who you were expecting," the tall redhead said dryly as she entered the room. "I get that a lot." She smiled and reached out to shake his hand. "Karen Zimmerman, M.D.," she said in introduction. "I'm your oncologist. We're gonna get to know each other real well, Mr. Stetson. . .may I call you Lee?"
"Sure, Doctor. . ."
"Karen, please! No sense in being too formal about these things," she insisted as she directed her attention to his chart, folding the cover-page over the top and setting it on the bedside table. She fisted her hands and stuffed them into her lab coat, saying, "So Lee. . .d'you have any questions about the therapy?"
"When can we get started?" he asked, as he looked past her toward the hallway.
Karen waved a hand in front of his face and he gave her an apologetic smile as she answered, "That'll depend on when Jake Gottlieb releases you. He told me you might have some swelling, and he'll want to watch that for a few days before turning you over to us." She went on with a sardonic grin, "I guess he figures you don't need more than one set of side effects at a time--now me, I believe in multi-tasking."
Lee wasn't quite sure how to take her last comment, until he noticed the glint in her eyes and her slightly upturned lips. He allowed himself a small chuckle before he turned serious again. "So just what are these side effects, anyway?" he asked.
"Well, some people have nausea right after the treatments, and most people experience hair loss, and to be honest, you'll feel tired a lot of the time, but. . ." she began, just as Amanda rushed into the room.
Seeing that the doctor was apparently telling Lee something important, she touched the doctor's arm, and said in an embarrassed whisper, "Oh, excuse me, Doctor. . ."
"Zimmerman, Karen Zimmerman. . .just call me Karen," she said. "I was just telling Lee about some of the side effects of radiation therapy, and I was about to tell him. . .that most often they go away soon after we're finished with the treatments."
"Oh, " Amanda said quietly, looking to Lee as she carried on with a smile, "Well that's good to know, isn't it?"
"Yeah. . ." Lee replied, but he wasn't looking forward to feeling tired and sick all the time. His continuing headaches were bad enough. He winced slightly as he felt the pain coming back.
Amanda picked up on his look, as she caught his eyes and said, "Do we need to. . ."
He nodded, placing a hand up to his forehead, and Amanda pushed the call- button for him.
Karen Zimmerman had watched their interaction and hurried to finish what she'd come to tell them. "I'll be outta here in a minute, but I did want to let you know a little about the treatment schedule. As I said, whenever Dr. G. releases you, we'll get started, and you'll have treatments five days a week, for probably six or seven weeks, depending on how you're doing at that point."
"How long does each treatment take?" Amanda asked, as she leaned her hip into the opposite side of Lee's bed.
"Well. . .the treatments themselves are really fast--just a few minutes, but you need to allow about thirty to forty-five minutes for each one," Karen replied. "Anything else?"
Lee and Amanda looked to each other and both shrugged, not being able to thing of any more questions just yet. "All right, then," Karen said, "I'll just leave you these brochures and be on my way."
After Karen Zimmerman left them and the nurse of the hour gave him the pain medication, Lee reached up to take Amanda's hand, entwining their fingers. He looked up into her tired eyes and said, "Well. I guess it's gonna be a long road, hm?"
"Yeah," she said softly, leaning down for a kiss, "but we're gonna make it, Sweetheart."
********
At Lee's insistence, Amanda finally agreed to go home and try to get some sleep in a real bed. She hated leaving him there, but she had to admit the last couple of days had been exhausting, and the doctor's treatment forecast didn't bode well for easier days any time soon.
TO BE CONTINUED
by matahari2
Summary / Disclaimers, etc.: See Chapter 1
Feedback: Yes! Please! Read and Review!
Chapter Seven – The Search for Silver Linings
Amanda knew it was too good to be true, even though she'd enjoyed their shared moments of relief and joy after Lee had come through the surgery.
Once the anesthetic and the postoperative pain medication began to wear off, Lee complained of the worst headache he'd ever had in his life. When she started to leave his room to go to the nurses' station, he called out to her, his face creased with pain, "No, Amanda. . .please don't leave me!" He pressed his fingers into his forehead and moaned, "Mm. . .Mmh!"
She rushed back to his bedside, pushing the call-button before she took hold of his outstretched hand in both of hers. "It'll be all right, Sweetheart," she murmured soothingly, "I just pressed the button for the nurse. . .someone'll be right in, and we'll see if we can get you something for the pain, all right?"
"Mmh" was all Lee could muster for an answer, along with a slow blink as he turned toward her. The pain she saw in his hazel eyes was almost more than she could bear, but she did her level best to remain calm, for his sake.
The electronic voice resonated from the speaker on the wall, "Fifth Floor West Nurses' Station. . .how may we help you?"
Amanda answered, "My husband needs something for his pain. . .can you get him something right away, please?"
"Yes, Ma'am," the disembodied voice began, "Just let us check his chart. We may need to call his doctor first, but we'll get him something as soon as we can."
"Thank you," Amanda whispered.
Within ten minutes, a bouncy young nurse came in carrying a syringe and a few gauze swabs. "Hello Mr. Stetson," she said cheerily, coming around to the far side of his bed. "I've got a shot of vicodin for you. It'll take away the pain and help you get some rest. Now can you do something for me? I need you to roll over just a little ways. . .there you go!" she chirped, as he rolled over toward Amanda and grabbed onto the bed rail with his right hand. "Just a second," she said, separating the back of his gown by a few inches. She wiped his skin with one of the alcohol-treated swabs, popped the cap off of the syringe, and injected him so skillfully that she had to tell him, "all right, we're done, Mr. Stetson."
As he rolled over to lie down on his back again, the nurse rounded the bed on her way out of his room. She called back to him, "You get some rest, now!" as she disappeared into the hallway.
After a few minutes more, the tension in his face had started to ease somewhat, and Amanda asked, "Think you can try and get a little rest now?"
"Yeah. . ." he whispered, then begged, "but will you stay with me 'til I go to sleep?"
His eyebrows had helped him ask the question, and Amanda had never been able to resist that look of his. "Of course I will, Sweetheart," she replied with a loving smile, as she stroked his arm gently. "You just take it easy. . ." she trailed off, as she saw his eyes begin to close.
********
Galilee General - Tuesday Morning
Amanda was awakened out of a fitful slumber when she heard the clanking of the food cart in the hallway, followed by the voice of an energetic young woman, saying, "Here's your breakfast, Mr. Stetson!"
Amanda stretched her arms out and put a hand up over her mouth to cover an unstoppable yawn, and then she pushed up out of the uncomfortable chair and came to stand beside the bed. When she saw the candy striper taking the cover off of the unappetizing meal, she said, "That's all right. . ." she paused to read the girl's name tag, "Terri. . .we can take it from here. . .thanks."
"Okay, Ma'am. . .Sir," she nodded, backing away and leaving them to their 'breakfast'.
Lee looked at the contents of the tray with undisguised loathing, pushing the edge of the tray away as he said, "Amanda. . .you know, I really don't feel like eating anyway, but this stuff!" He grimaced and turned his face away from the offending mess, saying, "Even the smell of it. . ."
"Yeah. . ." she agreed, frowning in distaste in spite of her breakfast credo. "I know." She repositioned the cover onto the overcooked 'something' that had probably been scrambled eggs in another life, and three strips of not-quite cooked bacon, their ugliness worsened by the trapped steam. Lifting the lid of a small metal carafe, she took an approving sniff and suggested, "Would you like a cup of coffee? It may be okay."
He gave her a slight nod and turned the cup upright, accepting the offer of coffee, and poured what passed for cream into it from the miniature metal pitcher. He stirred it in and took a sip as Amanda said, "And there's a piece of toast here that looks all right. . .here, let me butter it for you."
Lee had just taken a bite of the toast when Dr. Gottlieb rapped on the already-open door and came into the room. "Good Morning, Mr. Stetson. . .Mrs. Stetson," he said, reaching into his pocket for his pen-light. He put a hand under Lee's chin and shone the light into each of his eyes as he commented, " I heard you had a little pain last night."
"And then some!" Lee added.
"Right," Dr. Gottlieb admitted, placing the pen-light back into is lab coat pocket and folding his arms in front of him. "Unfortunately, that's to be expected, especially after brain surgery. You see, the surgery itself can cause edema. . .swelling. . .that gives you some of the same symptoms as the tumor. The good news is that it'll probably start to go down in a day or so. In the meantime, I've noted on your chart that you're to receive pain medication any time you need it over the next forty-eight hours."
"Good. . .thanks," Lee said, with a sigh and a weak smile. "So what's next?" he asked, pushing the over-bed tray further away.
Dr. Gottlieb leaned a hand onto the bedside table as he replied, "Well, Mr. Stetson, this afternoon, Dr. Karen Zimmerman will be in to see you—she's an oncologist. . .a cancer treatment specialist, and she'll work out your treatment schedule with you."
Amanda looked from Lee to Dr. Gottlieb as she asked, "Doctor? What happens if the swelling doesn't go down within a couple of days?"
"Then we'll have to go back in and put in a shunt, to drain off the excess fluid," he answered, as though invading someone's brain was a routine matter. At Amanda's continued look of concern, he said, "Hopefully that won't become an issue, Mrs. Stetson. We'll just monitor the situation and hope for the best, all right?"
Both Lee and Amanda whispered, "All right." Their eyes connected for a moment, each drawing strength from the other. 'We'll lick this thing together', Lee reminded himself, hardly noticing when Dr. Gottlieb left them alone.
********
Lee's face was somewhat flushed and he was slightly short of breath after his first lap around the halls of the fifth floor. Although, in a sense, it felt good to get up and move around a bit, he'd been unsteady on his feet, even with the nurse's help. That had been an unsettling feeling, one he hadn't experienced in a long time. He resolved to himself that he'd take two laps tomorrow--he knew he'd have to build his strength if he was ever going to get out of this wretched place. As he lay there counting the holes in the ceiling tiles, he started to get fidgety, tapping on the side of the bed with his fingers. He frowned when he held up his wrist, only to see bare skin where his watch should have been. Leaning forward in the bed, he stared out through the partially open door. Where was Amanda? 'Oh yeah,' he remembered. 'I pushed her outta here. . .told her to go get herself something to eat.' He didn't think she'd left him all night. . .good grief- -she must have been starving by this time. He lay back against the pillow and started drumming his fingers on the bed rail when he noticed shadows of movement from beneath the door. He started to smile when a delicate hand reached around the door. "Oh, good! You're. . ."
"Not who you were expecting," the tall redhead said dryly as she entered the room. "I get that a lot." She smiled and reached out to shake his hand. "Karen Zimmerman, M.D.," she said in introduction. "I'm your oncologist. We're gonna get to know each other real well, Mr. Stetson. . .may I call you Lee?"
"Sure, Doctor. . ."
"Karen, please! No sense in being too formal about these things," she insisted as she directed her attention to his chart, folding the cover-page over the top and setting it on the bedside table. She fisted her hands and stuffed them into her lab coat, saying, "So Lee. . .d'you have any questions about the therapy?"
"When can we get started?" he asked, as he looked past her toward the hallway.
Karen waved a hand in front of his face and he gave her an apologetic smile as she answered, "That'll depend on when Jake Gottlieb releases you. He told me you might have some swelling, and he'll want to watch that for a few days before turning you over to us." She went on with a sardonic grin, "I guess he figures you don't need more than one set of side effects at a time--now me, I believe in multi-tasking."
Lee wasn't quite sure how to take her last comment, until he noticed the glint in her eyes and her slightly upturned lips. He allowed himself a small chuckle before he turned serious again. "So just what are these side effects, anyway?" he asked.
"Well, some people have nausea right after the treatments, and most people experience hair loss, and to be honest, you'll feel tired a lot of the time, but. . ." she began, just as Amanda rushed into the room.
Seeing that the doctor was apparently telling Lee something important, she touched the doctor's arm, and said in an embarrassed whisper, "Oh, excuse me, Doctor. . ."
"Zimmerman, Karen Zimmerman. . .just call me Karen," she said. "I was just telling Lee about some of the side effects of radiation therapy, and I was about to tell him. . .that most often they go away soon after we're finished with the treatments."
"Oh, " Amanda said quietly, looking to Lee as she carried on with a smile, "Well that's good to know, isn't it?"
"Yeah. . ." Lee replied, but he wasn't looking forward to feeling tired and sick all the time. His continuing headaches were bad enough. He winced slightly as he felt the pain coming back.
Amanda picked up on his look, as she caught his eyes and said, "Do we need to. . ."
He nodded, placing a hand up to his forehead, and Amanda pushed the call- button for him.
Karen Zimmerman had watched their interaction and hurried to finish what she'd come to tell them. "I'll be outta here in a minute, but I did want to let you know a little about the treatment schedule. As I said, whenever Dr. G. releases you, we'll get started, and you'll have treatments five days a week, for probably six or seven weeks, depending on how you're doing at that point."
"How long does each treatment take?" Amanda asked, as she leaned her hip into the opposite side of Lee's bed.
"Well. . .the treatments themselves are really fast--just a few minutes, but you need to allow about thirty to forty-five minutes for each one," Karen replied. "Anything else?"
Lee and Amanda looked to each other and both shrugged, not being able to thing of any more questions just yet. "All right, then," Karen said, "I'll just leave you these brochures and be on my way."
After Karen Zimmerman left them and the nurse of the hour gave him the pain medication, Lee reached up to take Amanda's hand, entwining their fingers. He looked up into her tired eyes and said, "Well. I guess it's gonna be a long road, hm?"
"Yeah," she said softly, leaning down for a kiss, "but we're gonna make it, Sweetheart."
********
At Lee's insistence, Amanda finally agreed to go home and try to get some sleep in a real bed. She hated leaving him there, but she had to admit the last couple of days had been exhausting, and the doctor's treatment forecast didn't bode well for easier days any time soon.
TO BE CONTINUED
