Previously on 'Our Little Problems'
Now it's Tuesday afternoon and Hanna and I are taking Mike to his appointment with the eye doctor. We are sitting in the waiting room waiting for them to call us back. "Now Mike no matter what he says everything is going to be alright. If you can't get your sight back on your own then we can see if there is some kind of surgery that can at least give you some sight." I reassured him.
He nodded his head, "I know." he told me with a nervous smile.
"Mike Montgomery to room 3." we heard over the intercom. So Hanna and I led Mike to room three and got Mike sat down in his chair. Hanna and I then took the extra seats near the door.
Just a few minutes later the doctor came in. "Alright Mike. Let's get the bandages off of your eyes and see how they look." he said removing the gauze from Mike's face.
The way that his face looks without all of the gauze covering it Is honestly scary. Half healed wounds and a few stitches. I couldn't bare to look at his eyes. "Well the wound on his eyes look really good. They are healing very well. I do fully believe that he will be able to see again, but he will have to have surgery. You can set the appointment for that up at the desk as you are paying out. Do any of you have any questions?" he asked us.
"What all will be involved in the surgery?" I asked him.
"Nothing too much. I mainly just want to take care of some of the scars. In fact he should be getting his sight back fairly soon." he looked to Mike, "Now don't freak out if you start being able to see again and it looks like there is a film over your eyes or everything is blurry. That is what we will taken care of in surgery." he informed us.
The doctor then put new gauze onto Mike's face everywhere that it had been before except for his eyes so when he does start to get his sight back his eyes aren't covered up to where he still wouldn't have been able to see. He then said that we could pay out and leave. So when I paid out I scheduled his surgery.
When we got out to the car Hanna turned to Mike, "So how did this appointment make you feel?" she asked him. We are both hoping for the best in his answer because we know that he is probably freaking about having to have eye surgery.
He shrugged, "I'm glad that my sight is going to come back, and if a surgery makes it come back easier, then I welcome it." he stated.
He nodded his head and we got dressed, and I got my makeup on. After we were both totally ready we walked upstairs to see if Mike is ready. I knocked on his door, "Mike are you ready?" I asked him through the door.
He opened the door and walked out. He is wear some old sweats and a t-shirt. "Yeah I'm ready. Are you sure that I'm not allowed to have anything to eat? I'm starving!" he complained as we walked down stairs. His sight is a lot better but as the doctor said, it's like he's seeing through a film. He's ran into things more than once.
We both laughed at him, "Sorry buddy but the doctor said no food before the surgery. Afterwords we'll take you out for a big lunch though, okay?" Ezra told him.
Hanna and Caleb walked over to us, and Hanna gave Mike a hug, "I hope that everything goes really good today Mike, and I know that it will." she stated, then gave me a hug. "And you don't worry too much while he's in surgery, you've gotta take care of the little one on there." she said patting my stomach.
I laughed, "I won't. My baby brother is going to be just fine. I'll call you once he's in surgery." I informed her.
Caleb hugged Mike, "Everything will go great." he said comforting Mike.
Mike nodded his head, "I know that it will." he said and gave us a small smile.
The surgery went well and we are just now bringing him home. The surgery took about two hours then they kept him in recovery for about two hours.
Previously on 'Our Little Relapses'
My eyebrows furrowed together. "What do you mean he hasn't been feeling well? Has he been going to school? Has he seen his doctor?" I interrogated wanting to know why I hadn't heard about this before and how sick is he really.
He took a deep breath, "Yes he has been going to school, and yes we have taken him to his doctor. He has a follow up appointment next week." he replied with the tone of voice making it obvious that he really does not want to say anything else.
I could not just leave it at that. "Follow up appointment? What is wrong with him? Ezra I'm responsible for him I've got to know when things like this happen." I got on to him, honestly starting to freak out.
He shook his head, "He has started to loose his vision again and he's been having some pretty bad headaches. They are going to do an MRI to see if what happened did any damage to his brain." he informed me with pain in his voice.
My heart sank in my chest. "Brain damage? If he had brain damage why didn't they see that last year when all of that mess happened? He should be just fine now, he shouldn't have to be still paying for our parents mistake." I said with my voice filled with anger.
"Aria-" Hanna started, but I didn't want to hear it.
"He had an MRI last year when the accident happened, if there was damage to his brain why didn't they see it then?" I demanded.
Ezra rubbed my leg to try to calm me down, but I ignored it. "Some injuries take a little while to show up, so they probably couldn't see them last year. Aria, we don't now anything right now. We knew that his sight might start to get worse, and the headaches might be because of the worsening eye sight. This is why we've kept this from you, because, at the moment at least, there is no reason to freak out." I told me with the intonation of 'you'd better calm down.'
I nodded my head with a sigh. "I just don't want him to have to suffer any more then he already has. He's been through so much." I stated with tears falling down my face.
One week later.
"Aria you have got to calm down, you are making me nervous. They will call when they know something, these things take time." Hanna stressed to me as I readjusted my self on my bed for the fifth time in about a minute.
"She's right Ar. You have got to stop stressing, I've got your son right here to see you, why don't you give your little man a little bit of attention. He misses you and it's driving him crazy that you aren't paying any attention to him." Alison agreed with Hanna and plopped Atticus next to me in the bed.
I smiled at my son and gave him a bog hug. "Hey buddy. Mommy doesn't mean to ignore you, she's just concerned about your uncle Mike." I told him as I attempted to tame his dark curls with my fingers without much luck. He definitely has his daddy's hair.
Hanna sighed, "Stop worrying until we know something, we know nothing at this point, so you are worrying about nothing." she ordered shifting Tiffany around in her arms.
I sighed, "Well maybe I'd feel better if I could get my roots touched up. The purple isn't that attractive with these horrendous roots." I complained running my fingers through my hair and smiled at the purple highlights.
Alison laughed at me, "Well maybe you could convince your husband to take you on an outing to the hair salon on Saturday, but I can't do anything about that. I'm not allowed to check you out of here. Sorry. I can call Em and see if she could bring some makeup and stuff over and we could do both of your hair and makeup." Alison suggested trying to take my mind off of everything and make me feel better.
Hanna face lit up, "Yes! I would seriously love that. I don't care what Aria say's you need to call Emily and get her to bring me makeup. I miss my makeup so much! Oh and my curling iron. My hair has been lying limp for over a month now. Something needs to change that, like now." Hanna decided for the both of us to take Ali up on her offer.
Alison laughed at Hanna, "Okay, okay Han. I'll give Em a call. Just hold your horses." Alison told Hanna as she picked up her purse and pulled her phone out of it and dialed Emily's number.
Thirty minutes later Emily can in with an over sized bag of hair and makeup stuff. Hanna squealed when she saw her curling iron. "Oh I've missed you so much!" she told it as she grabbed it and gave it a kiss.
Emily laughed at her, "And Tiffany is just sitting there all confused as to why you just ditched her for a curling iron." she joked as she planted a kiss on top of Tiff's head and took a seat on the foot of Hanna's bed.
Hanna rolled her eyes at Emily. "I still love you my precious angel, but I haven't seen this in months!" she tickled Tiffany's tummy and the baby let out a giggle and a priceless smile.
"So Em, why don't you do Emily's hair and I'll do Aria's makeup, then we can switch." Ali suggested as she started to scoop up the makeup and placed them on my lap next to Atticus. "Hey Atti, Auntie Ali is going to make your mommy all pretty!" Alison told my son planting a kiss on the top of his head leaving red lip prints behind.
I laughed at them, "And it looks like she's trying to make you all prettyful too, but I don't think little boys need to be wearing makeup." I smiled at my friends and my son.
My phone started ringing and my face fell from a smile to a nervous frown. I looked at the caller ID, it's Ezra. "Hey, how'd it go?" I asked, mentally preparing myself for the worst.
"There is damage to his brain. He'll slowly loose his vision all together if they don't operate. We just scheduled surgery for next week." he informed me, he sounds like he's about to cry himself, I know that I am.
The fact that there are tears streaming down my face is bothering Ali, "Aria, how am I supposed to do your makeup is you're crying?" she complained, not knowing what my husband just told me.
I ignored her, I ignored Atticus squirming at my side, and I ignored Hanna and Emily's stares. All I did was intently listen to Ezra. "How's Mike taking it?" I asked with a voice not louder then a whisper. That's all I could manage to get out, all I had the breath to say.
"He's scared, which is to be expected. I don't think that it's really hit him yet. We're about to go pick up Toby and go get some pizza or something." he replied.
"When you're done if he feels up to it can you bring him to see me?" I asked knowing that if I don't see him soon I will in fact explode.
"Yeah, if he's feeling up to it, but he's already pretty tired. Any way it goes I'll come and talk to you once we've put him to bed. I know that you probably have a lot of questions, but Mike needs me right now... But Aria, I don't want you to freak out, I want you to stay calm. He's going to be okay, we all are." he told me.
I took a shaky breath, "I'll talk to you later. You take care of Mike." I told him, not giving any promises because I really don't know whether or not I can stop a major freak out session or not, but even if I can't I also know that I need to stay strong for my baby brother.
We hung up and I took Atticus into my arms and gave him a big bear hug. "Aria?" I head Hanna ask, "What happened?" she sounded concerned but all I could see was Atti's curls.
I gave Atticus to Alison and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, "The accident last year caused damage to his brain that they weren't able to find when the accident initially happened. Because of the damage to the brain, he'll slowly loose his vision until he goes blind. So they have to do surgery on his brain to try and repair the damage." I informed them as tears blurred my vision.
"Oh my goodness. How's he taking it?" Emily asked.
Ali shoved a tissue in my hand and I wiped my tears again so that I can see them clearly. "He's reacting the way that anyone would, he's scared. Ezra and Toby are taking him out of go get some pizza or something." I replied as I took some deep breaths to try and calm myself down.
Hanna took a deep breath, you could tell that she was really willing herself not to gag at the news. "Good, he could use the distraction." she managed to choke out as she passed Tiffany to Emily so if she were to loose the contents of her stomach she wouldn't do that all over her daughter.
We nodded out heads in agreement. "Why don't we get back to what we were doing. I think that the two of you could use a distraction as well." Alison decided as she shifted Atticus from her right side to her left and continued on my makeup with one hand.
Our nurse walked in to check on us right about then. "Whoa, looks like we're having a little party going on here! What's with all of these frowns?" she asked as she picked Hanna's chart off of the foot of her bed.
We shrugged, "My brother is going to have to have brain surgery next week. We just got the news." I informed her when everyone stayed silent after she asked the question.
Her eyes went wide, "How are both of you feeling? I know how much he means to you." she asked as her eyes shot down to my hip, and to the waste bin right next to Hanna's bed. She knows us well enough to know that we probably aren't taking this news all that great.
"I feel like throwing up." Hanna stated with a pale face and a thin layer of sweat covering her body.
The nurse looked at me then, "Both my hip and my head are throbbing." I told her, there isn't any point in hiding it. Me being dishonest with the people trying to help me get better is not going to help me or Mike.
She nodded her head, "Okay, I'll be back in just a minute with some medicine for your nausea," She looked at Hanna, then moved her gaze to me, "And some for your pain." she stated quickly walking out the door.
Ali finished my makeup, so she fished out my curling iron out of the bag Emily brought. It would seem that Emily packed pretty much all of both of our hair and makeup collections. "I've been wanting to get my hands on your hair for weeks Aria. This messy bun you've been sporting has gotten really old. And those pictures of the two of you that Hanna posted on facebook the other week made me want to get a hold of that hair even more. Both of your hair was crazy!" Alison informed me trying to keep up a conversation.
Both of the kids were out for their nap by then so they had been moved for our arms the their car seats in between our beds. This makes our hair doing easier and safer for all of us.
I smiled at my resting son, "Well it's not like I've had the energy or the resources to do much more. After my quote unquote shower I'm exhausted and I usually take a nap, by then my hair is dry any all over the place, so I just put it into a bun." I defended myself to Ali, not taking my eyes off of Atticus. "Besides those little ones don't care whether my hair is done or not at this point." I added.
Emily's face shot to me, "Aria! That is not the way that you need to be thinking, you thinking like that is how we got here in the first place. You should do, or get done, your hair and makeup to make you feel good, not to impress others, namely two children under the age of one." she scolded me. She knows that both of us are making some awesome progress, but she also knows that everything with Mike has been a major step back in our recovery.
The nurse walked back in with our medicine and glasses of water, "Okay girls, after you're done playing beauty parlor I think it's time for you guys to pack up and leave Aria and Hanna to rest. They've both had pretty long weeks." she told them as she watched us take our medicine and then left us to wrap things up.
Alison took her time to do my hair until it was perfect, but then respected our nurses' wishes and packed things up, "Okay well we will talk to you later." Emily told us and kissed both of our foreheads while Alison got the babies buckled.
Emily took Atticus and Alison took Tiffany and they both left us to rest for a little while before our husbands came to see us. "Will all of this never end? I thought when we ditched -A our life would go back to normal. This," I motioned to the room around us, "is not normal." I complained, unable to stop thinking about Mike and all that he's been through in the last year. So many things that had nothing to do with him that he had to be dragged into and hurt because of it.
Hanna sighed, "No, it's not. I'm not even sure what normal is anymore. I don't think our lives have been normal since we met Alison to tell you the truth... But things are getting better, I mean it wasn't too long ago that we were at deaths door." she commented as she leaned back and rested her ear on her pillow.
I nodded my head in agreement. My pain meds have have started to kick in and are making me pretty drowsy, so I followed in Hanna's footsteps and leaned back to get comfortable before my nap. "Yeah, I'm just ready for everything to finally calm down again." I replied.
"I think we all do, but it's not necessarily something that we can control. So, we just have to roll with the punches and try to stay strong and accept the help given to us." she said, all but quoting our therapist, I think she's talking to herself about all of this as much as she is to me.
We both fell asleep shortly after that, and didn't stir until Caleb and Ezra came to visit us for the evening. "How's Mike doing?" I asked him as soon as I noticed my husband sitting beside my bed, staring at me with a desperate lust. He looks like he's had a long day and wishes that he could clear his mind in bed with me, and if I were feeling up to it then I would be more then happy to give that to him, but I am seriously unable to.
He took a deep breath, raising his chest like he had been holding his breath waiting for me to wake up, and now that I'm awake he exhaled in relief. He gave a feeble attempt to smile, but it didn't come out right. He just looked... stressed. He took my right hand in both of his and looked my in the eyes. "He's scared, he hasn't really said much since we got the news. I don't really blame him though, it's a lot to take in, and it's a major surgery on his brain." he informed me.
"How are you doing?" I replied seeing the lines of stress on his face and and heaviness in his voice.
He took a shaky breath and broke our eye contact, shifting his gaze from my eyes to my hand in his. "It's hard. I thought that Mike had made a full recovery, so with that mixed with everything else that's gone on these last few months... I'm exhausted." he honestly told me. You could tell that he didn't have the strength to say anything other then the truth. For the first time in since before the baby was born, Ezra needs my support, not the other way around.
I could feel tears gather in my eyes, but I took a deep breath and tried to contain myself, "We all thought that he had recovered, even his doctor thought that he had. Who would have thought that a lamp could have done so much damage." I commented, unconsciously thinking about the night that we went to rescue him with shards of glass covering his face and blood everywhere... I shuddered.
He looked back up at my face, with a look saying he knew more then he's told me. "That's jut the thing. There was no way that lamp could have done that damage, the doctor said so. When he said that Mike looked like he'd seen a ghost and left the room... There's more to the story of that night then we know about. He's keeping something from us, and I don't think he'll talk to anyone but you on the matter." he informed me, his eyes pleading for me to talk to my brother, to find out what else happened.
I looked around the hospital room, "He's not going to tell me anything here. He doesn't say anything but I know he hates it in here. It'll have to be somewhere else. Do you think you could see if I could go home long enough to eat dinner with Mike tomorrow?" I asked trying to think of the best plan of action to get Mike to talk to me.
He nodded his head, "Yeah, I'll talk with your doctor... He's kept this bottled up for so long that when he does say what happened it might not be pretty..." he said as he let his mind wander to the said talk that Mike and I are going to have.
I nodded my head, I definitely know the repercussions of keeping things bottled in for too long. That's how I ended up in this place. "You should go talk with him before he leaves for the evening." I ordered him.
He nodded his head, "You're right. I'll be back in a few minutes." he said as he slowly stood up out of his seat like he'd been there for quite awhile starting at my sleeping figure. He as he walked you could see the stiffness leave his legs, and he was out the door.
I looked at Hanna and Caleb quietly whispering to each other, and starting at me. "So there's more to the story." Hanna stated with a tired, but yet determined tone. Mike is just like a brother to her and you can see the pain in her face realizing that there has been things that he hasn't shared about that night that is still affecting him.
I nodded my head, "There always seems to be, but the thing is there isn't anything we can do about it other then know that it happened. My parents are already spending more or less the rest of their lives in jail." I sighed, I wish there was something that I could do to change my parents, to make it where they didn't always fight and just be normal loving parents, but since that isn't the case I guess I'm just going to have to suck it up and treat this situation like a big girl and clean up their mess.
Hanna shrugged, "Unless it wasn't your parents... Although I highly doubt that..." she replied. There is a glint of hope in her voice, she doesn't want to believe that my parents were capable of that any more then I do even though we all know that they are. They are not the people that we thought they where up until about a year and a half ago when their true colors became obvious.
Caleb rubbed her leg in a feeble attempt to comfort her. "It will help his doctors care for him, and it can help us understand more of the truth. It'll help us in finishing raising Mike and to be able to support him for the rest of his life. He's family, we have to do everything we can to love him and help him." he stated, making it clear that we wouldn't be prying information from him for nothing, which was a comfort in and of itself.
Ezra walked back in a few moments later and took his seat back beside me, "They'll let you leave for a few hours, but you have to rest all day up you can't play with the kids or spend all day doing you hair and makeup. They were reluctant to let you go, but I explained the situation to them and they finally agreed." he informed me.
I nodded my head, those are very reasonable conditions. "Okay, when Alison comes in the morning I'll have her bring me some things to do my hair and makeup again, so I can look more like the normal me, and not the I almost died just two months ago. He'll be more apt to talk to me if I look like his big sister, not this sick person that I am right now." I said thinking about how to go about talking with Mike about everything.
He nodded his head, "That sounds okay, but I know that you spent most of the morning doing that this morning, so I just want to request that you not take so long tomorrow. You don't have to look perfect, just presentable." he requested as he brushed a strand of hair out of my face. "But, you look great by the way. You're finally starting to look like yourself again." he smiled, you can tell that he is loving seeing a little glimpse of the old me. I have to admit, I am too.
I smiled back at him, "Now if only I could start feeling like myself again, the me before all of this happened." I sighed, I'm getting sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, oh, and being in constant pain. All of this, the hospital room, the pain, the sickness, is all getting very old. I really wish that I could just be better already. I'd do anything.
He stroked the side of my face with the back of his hand. "Soon enough, soon enough. You've made it so far, and even though you still have a long ways to go, but you're more like yourself everyday." he told me with a reassuring smile on his face.
"I love you." I told him as I pressed his hand to my lips.
A/N So what did you think about this chapter? Alison and Emily came by so Hanna and Aria could spend some time with their kids, then they did make overs to help distract them from everything that is happening with Mike.
Please leave a review and let me know!
I know that I didn't update yesterday! I am really sorry about that, I will be perfectly honest with you- it completely slipped my mind. I'll work on getting a second chapter posted today to make up for it!
Thank you so much for reading! Love you guys :) XOXO ~ TotalCowGirl