~*~
"Are you nervous?" Leo looks across to Margaret in the back of the cab
as they make their way to the hospital to be admitted. Her head shakes
firmly no, full of this mornings kiss though that isn't where her focus
needs to be.
"There's no greater gratification than saving a life." Margaret tells
him, still staring out her window. This time his hand finds hers,
interlacing their fingers drawing Margaret's attention from the scenery
passing outside. She stares at their joined hands for a moment and then
looks up to Leo. She finds herself lost in his pair of eyes which say so much and this time it is Margaret who leans slightly closer to him
allowing her lips to gently brush his before deepening the kiss.
In the back of her mind as they part, Margaret wonders where in the
timeline of the past month or so it was that comfort and support lead to holding hands and very recently romantic kisses and whether it will
still be the same when she wakes up with half a liver.
~*~
"Good morning." the cheerful woman at the front office hands over the
clipboard of admission paper work, knowing instantly who they are as Leo and Margaret settle in for a day of waiting and monitoring.
Late in the afternoon Margaret after taking her father to the cardio
ward for a check up finds Leo in the children's ward recreation room
with the TV on CNN.
"What's going on?" she asks standing next to where he sits in a
children's plastic chair.
"Treasury just..."
"No I mean what's going on?" Margaret interrupts.
"I had to take a break from Mal, she was..."
"I don't mean that Leo." Margaret pulls up a red chair and sits next to
him.
"I kissed you, I shouldn't have done that." his eyes don't leave the TV
screen.
"I kissed you too." Margaret points out.
"I don't know what...I don't know if I'm coming or going, I don't know
what I'm feeling because you're doing this wonderful thing and I feel
closer to you than ever, not to mention indebted to you and I don't know if it's the emotion of the whole thing and when I wake up or in a months time it will be gone or if this is my signal from a higher power telling me to wake up and see what's been right in front of me all this time and to grab it before someone else does."
Leo looks at her like she might have all the answers. She can only offer a kiss on the forehead and a reminder that their beds will be ready soon and people are going to come looking for them.
Margaret chooses to curl up and encourage sleep early that night after
showering in a medicated soap, Leo on the other hand burns the oil well
into the early morning, sitting up on the sterile smelling bed and
thinking.
~*~
It's five when the fluorescents go on again, but Margaret only half
wakes up it's not even enough to notice the numbing cream that is put on her hand for the insertion of the IV. Later at six a male nurse wakes her fully before hooking up the IV with antibiotics. Next to her Leo is being administered to in the same way.
At six thirty Margaret and Leo are rolled towards the operating room.
Along the way they stop to say goodbye to Jenny and Mallory and
Margaret's family and before they're wheeled into separate rooms Leo
looks across at her and says 'It's not to late to change your mind."
Margaret's head nods firmly in the negative and the last things she
remembers are climbing onto the operating table and having an oxygen
mask placed over her face...Leo the same.
~*~
The next thing Margaret knows, she's being wheeled into what she
suspects is the Intensive Care Unit, she can barely open her eyes and
when she does she's so knocked out that she can barely see. The
naso-gastric tube prevents her from asking what the time is or where Leo is. She continues to fade in and out of consciousness for the next
twelve hours. At one stage her family and Jenny and Mallory come into
see her she thinks but the morphine leaves faces blurred and images
milky.
An ICU nurse brings her a pen and paper when Leo comes into the room but Margaret writes each letter of what she wants to ask the nurse about Leo on top of each other, unable to advance the pen.
She can hear the quiet conversations of the nurses going on around her
and the gentle beeping of the machines that monitor her vital signs and
the gentle rise and fall of the ventilator.
The clock on the wall says eight am as the Intensive Care Nurse removes
the breathing tube enabling Margaret to talk; it's been fourteen hours
since she was taken into the operating room. She's been fully conscious
for an hour or so and doesn't know where Leo is, she's quickly informed
they've both been moved from the post operative room into their own
rooms.
The nurse informs her that her catheter in her bladder will be removed
over the next twenty-four hours as well as the nasogastric tube to drain her stomach contents and the surgical drain near the incision for any blood and fluid, nobody has any real information on how Leo is.
Despite drastic dryness in her mouth, the nurses in the ICU will only
give Margaret a lemon-glycerin swab, with her bowels immobilized the
concern is filling her stomach will lead to vomiting, undesirable after
having her side opened.
She becomes concerned when she can't feel her left arm, even after such
a long time. When she tries to move it Margaret finds it's completely
paralyzed and virtually insensitive. The surgeon assures her it's 'Dead
fish syndrome' as if it is supposed to bring her some comfort, it's a
stretched nerve injury from having her arm laid out and immobile for
such a long period of time. By the time she's moved into the regular
ward in another days time some of the function has returned.
Jenny and Mallory come by to visit Margaret on her first day in the
postoperative ward. They fill a grateful Margaret in on Leo's condition. They admit to being frightened seeing him hooked up to heart monitors, intravenous lines and tubes and drains. It took him about thirty six hours to recover from the anesthesia before he was strong enough to breath alone and the doctors would remove the breathing tube that was attached to the ventilator.
"Is he in pain?" Margaret asks weakly, feeling not fully returned to her left arm yet.
"He's on too much morphine." Mallory smiles at her mother. "He was
garbling on this morning." both women look relieved at Leos return to
something that resembles normalcy.
"Where is he?" Margaret asks. "The post operative unit?"
"They're moving him into here day after tomorrow." Jenny tells her.
"I'm moving out of here tomorrow." Margaret says disappointed.
"He can have visitors, as long as you're not sick because he's
immunosuppressed." Mallory says brightly. "We're only allowed in for a
short time in the ICU, we'll be able to stay with him all the time when
he's moved."
Their visit is cut short as an unappealing meal is rolled into
Margaret's room and the three women hug goodbye asking them to tell Leo
she'll be in to see him as soon as she can.
~*~
"Are you nervous?" Leo looks across to Margaret in the back of the cab
as they make their way to the hospital to be admitted. Her head shakes
firmly no, full of this mornings kiss though that isn't where her focus
needs to be.
"There's no greater gratification than saving a life." Margaret tells
him, still staring out her window. This time his hand finds hers,
interlacing their fingers drawing Margaret's attention from the scenery
passing outside. She stares at their joined hands for a moment and then
looks up to Leo. She finds herself lost in his pair of eyes which say so much and this time it is Margaret who leans slightly closer to him
allowing her lips to gently brush his before deepening the kiss.
In the back of her mind as they part, Margaret wonders where in the
timeline of the past month or so it was that comfort and support lead to holding hands and very recently romantic kisses and whether it will
still be the same when she wakes up with half a liver.
~*~
"Good morning." the cheerful woman at the front office hands over the
clipboard of admission paper work, knowing instantly who they are as Leo and Margaret settle in for a day of waiting and monitoring.
Late in the afternoon Margaret after taking her father to the cardio
ward for a check up finds Leo in the children's ward recreation room
with the TV on CNN.
"What's going on?" she asks standing next to where he sits in a
children's plastic chair.
"Treasury just..."
"No I mean what's going on?" Margaret interrupts.
"I had to take a break from Mal, she was..."
"I don't mean that Leo." Margaret pulls up a red chair and sits next to
him.
"I kissed you, I shouldn't have done that." his eyes don't leave the TV
screen.
"I kissed you too." Margaret points out.
"I don't know what...I don't know if I'm coming or going, I don't know
what I'm feeling because you're doing this wonderful thing and I feel
closer to you than ever, not to mention indebted to you and I don't know if it's the emotion of the whole thing and when I wake up or in a months time it will be gone or if this is my signal from a higher power telling me to wake up and see what's been right in front of me all this time and to grab it before someone else does."
Leo looks at her like she might have all the answers. She can only offer a kiss on the forehead and a reminder that their beds will be ready soon and people are going to come looking for them.
Margaret chooses to curl up and encourage sleep early that night after
showering in a medicated soap, Leo on the other hand burns the oil well
into the early morning, sitting up on the sterile smelling bed and
thinking.
~*~
It's five when the fluorescents go on again, but Margaret only half
wakes up it's not even enough to notice the numbing cream that is put on her hand for the insertion of the IV. Later at six a male nurse wakes her fully before hooking up the IV with antibiotics. Next to her Leo is being administered to in the same way.
At six thirty Margaret and Leo are rolled towards the operating room.
Along the way they stop to say goodbye to Jenny and Mallory and
Margaret's family and before they're wheeled into separate rooms Leo
looks across at her and says 'It's not to late to change your mind."
Margaret's head nods firmly in the negative and the last things she
remembers are climbing onto the operating table and having an oxygen
mask placed over her face...Leo the same.
~*~
The next thing Margaret knows, she's being wheeled into what she
suspects is the Intensive Care Unit, she can barely open her eyes and
when she does she's so knocked out that she can barely see. The
naso-gastric tube prevents her from asking what the time is or where Leo is. She continues to fade in and out of consciousness for the next
twelve hours. At one stage her family and Jenny and Mallory come into
see her she thinks but the morphine leaves faces blurred and images
milky.
An ICU nurse brings her a pen and paper when Leo comes into the room but Margaret writes each letter of what she wants to ask the nurse about Leo on top of each other, unable to advance the pen.
She can hear the quiet conversations of the nurses going on around her
and the gentle beeping of the machines that monitor her vital signs and
the gentle rise and fall of the ventilator.
The clock on the wall says eight am as the Intensive Care Nurse removes
the breathing tube enabling Margaret to talk; it's been fourteen hours
since she was taken into the operating room. She's been fully conscious
for an hour or so and doesn't know where Leo is, she's quickly informed
they've both been moved from the post operative room into their own
rooms.
The nurse informs her that her catheter in her bladder will be removed
over the next twenty-four hours as well as the nasogastric tube to drain her stomach contents and the surgical drain near the incision for any blood and fluid, nobody has any real information on how Leo is.
Despite drastic dryness in her mouth, the nurses in the ICU will only
give Margaret a lemon-glycerin swab, with her bowels immobilized the
concern is filling her stomach will lead to vomiting, undesirable after
having her side opened.
She becomes concerned when she can't feel her left arm, even after such
a long time. When she tries to move it Margaret finds it's completely
paralyzed and virtually insensitive. The surgeon assures her it's 'Dead
fish syndrome' as if it is supposed to bring her some comfort, it's a
stretched nerve injury from having her arm laid out and immobile for
such a long period of time. By the time she's moved into the regular
ward in another days time some of the function has returned.
Jenny and Mallory come by to visit Margaret on her first day in the
postoperative ward. They fill a grateful Margaret in on Leo's condition. They admit to being frightened seeing him hooked up to heart monitors, intravenous lines and tubes and drains. It took him about thirty six hours to recover from the anesthesia before he was strong enough to breath alone and the doctors would remove the breathing tube that was attached to the ventilator.
"Is he in pain?" Margaret asks weakly, feeling not fully returned to her left arm yet.
"He's on too much morphine." Mallory smiles at her mother. "He was
garbling on this morning." both women look relieved at Leos return to
something that resembles normalcy.
"Where is he?" Margaret asks. "The post operative unit?"
"They're moving him into here day after tomorrow." Jenny tells her.
"I'm moving out of here tomorrow." Margaret says disappointed.
"He can have visitors, as long as you're not sick because he's
immunosuppressed." Mallory says brightly. "We're only allowed in for a
short time in the ICU, we'll be able to stay with him all the time when
he's moved."
Their visit is cut short as an unappealing meal is rolled into
Margaret's room and the three women hug goodbye asking them to tell Leo
she'll be in to see him as soon as she can.
~*~