Chapter XVII
I Have A Rock Garden. Last Week Three Of Them Died. The Poor Buggers.
"Jane?" Laura's voice came softly from behind her and she turned from her sleeping husband to face the perforated doctor with a weary smile.
Laura smiled in kind then finished what she was going to say. "I'm ready to discuss the operation if you would like." She stood in the doorway, a clipboard clasped in her arm and her piercings glistening in the lights.
Jane paused and looked down to China who lay sleeping on her shoulder, her tiny eyelids fluttering unconsciously as she dreamt. Then she looked back to her husband, who lay resting in the bed with his hand loosely clasped around hers, their finger's interlocked.
"Unless of course, you'd like to go into a different room," Laura mentioned.
"No," Jane said tiredly. "It would be best for Eddie to hear too."
"Well, should I come back later?" Laura walked into the room slowly; chewing on her thumbnail as her dark eyes switched from China to Eddie to Jane.
"No," Jane sighed again, "we better get this over with."
Laura nodded and came forward, freeing Jane's left arm of supporting China as she took the sleeping child into her arms.
She carefully shifted China up onto her shoulder with little more than a tired moan from China as she settled back into slumber. Then she watched Jane gently stroke Eddie's arm until he awakened.
Eddie groaned at the disturbance, shifting carefully up in the bed as he re-realized where he was and what his current situation was.
"It's okay baby, it's me." Jane leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, her face weighted with lack of sleep. "Laura's here to discuss what we're going to do." She waited until he nodded his acceptance, then turned back to Laura to get on with things.
Laura took a deep breath as she pulled up a chair and sat down, China still sleeping heavily on her shoulder.
"Could you please open the manila envelope on the back of the clipboard, Jane?" Laura asked, her hands holding up China and useless as far as any sort of operation went.
Jane opened the envelope with one hand, refusing to let go of Eddie's with the other.
Eventually, Jane pulled out the x-rays from the CAT scan earlier that day. But from Jane's tired eyes, they looked more like a spider had been squished against the plastic sheet and oozed blue blood all over it.
"Okay, the first one on the top of the pile, yeah, that one. That black spot near the back is the hematoma that's causing your sight deprivation." Laura looked up from the x-ray to Eddie, who nodded, even though he couldn't see what was going on.
"There are two procedures to get rid of your hematoma, one called SCD and the other is SER, unfortunately there is only a specialist that does SCD here in this hospital, and I figured that you wouldn't want to be flown clear over to Minnesota for the other one."
She paused in case they wanted to object, but neither did, instead Jane nodded intently, interest pushing through her exhaustion, so Laura continued.
"Wait a minute," Eddie said from the side, before Dr. Zigman could get out her next word. "What's SCD?"
"SCD stands for stereotactic catheter drainage, which basically means we go in and drain the fluid from the hematoma." He only stared in her general direction, kind of looking more over her shoulder than straight at her, but he didn't know and she didn't care.
"Being a doctor, I'm paid to tell you everything." She smiled encouragingly. "So, the good part about SCD is that it's a simple, precise, safe, and brief procedure with very low rebleeding and mortality rates…" Laura's face was calm in the lights.
"And the bad part?" Jane asked timidly, looking to Eddie, who only stared in the direction of Laura. She gave his hand a squeeze and he returned the squeeze without turning away from Laura.
"The bad part is that symptoms from the surgery don't show themselves until later on." Laura said informatively.
Jane sniffed and mulled over it for a bit, before spitting out another question.
"Is there any chance of complications?" Her eyes shimmered sadly.
"Unfortunately, there are," Laura said calmly, "Side-effects from the medications, the possibility of hemorrhagic stroke, and maybe even problems while the surgery is taking place are all possible complications."
Jane didn't want to know what kind of problems could occur during the surgery, so she didn't ask. Instead, she just stared at Laura, not knowing what to say.
"But I wouldn't worry," Laura noted Jane's staring and tried to ease her discomfort. "Our surgeon is highly skilled and his patient's often do exceedingly well in recovery."
"Speaking of which," Laura mentioned as she just thought of it. "I scheduled a meeting with him for you, if you would like to meet him." She looked at Jane, who nodded calmly and then to Eddie, who seemed to think over it before finally nodding his acceptance.
"Alright then," Laura smiled and rose from her chair, gently passing back China to her mother and beginning to walk to the door. "I'll have the receptionist call him down, while you two talk it over."
She smiled one last time as she closed the door behind her, leaving them to scrutinize and understand all that she had poured into their laps.
But instead, Jane and Eddie sat in complete silence, having no clue what to say or do or discuss. Jane sighed shakily and shifted China onto her other shoulder, the girl's elbow digging into her ribs.
"I don't know how I feel about all this," Eddie said awkwardly, turning in the general direction of Jane.
"Me neither," Jane chewed on her bottom lip, "but Laura seems to approve of it, and she's our best bet on anything right now."
"Yeah," Eddie sighed, "you're right." There was a moment of silence before he spoke up again. "Where's China?"
"She's here," Jane said calmly, looking down at China's sleepy face. "Killing my arms," She added, feeling her muscles begin to shake with tension.
"Here," Eddie held out his arms, "put her up here." Cautiously, Jane lifted China up into her father's arms, allowing him to cradle her against his chest as he settled back into the pillows again, closing his eyes.
Jane stared at them for a moment, not noticing the small smile that was creeping across her face. They were just so beautiful, her two baby's lying calm in the middle of something so big, it was a shame it couldn't last forever.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Laura stuck her head through, smiling wonderingly at Jane. "You can come in," Jane stood, smoothing the creases in her tee shirt as both Dr. Zigman and the surgeon came in.
"Jane, I'd like you to meet Dr. Richard L. King, your neurosurgeon." Laura smiled broadly as Jane shook his strong hand. Her eyes playing over the man's crisp, extraordinary features.
He had a shock of jet-black hair that was so dark it almost shimmered purple in the lights of the room. He had thick, rich eyebrows and eyes that were an explosion of blue and green, incredibly beautiful.
His face was square and angular, coming to well-shaped corners and curves that were tinted with a golden light. And his white and blue garb accented his striking features with such a tone that he seemed to glow.
"Hello Mrs. Alden, it's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled broadly, his pearly white teeth shining unnaturally in the lights.
And his voice was a force to be reckoned with, it sounded almost as though the words he produced dripped from his tongue like honey, tinted with a slight German accent.
"H-h-hi…" Jane stuttered, completely in a state of shock.
Laura smiled in understanding of the situation and shuffled toward Jane, lying a hand on her shoulder and bringing her back to reality.
"And this is her husband Eddie," Laura introduced them, watching Eddie nod in compliment, unable to move both because of China and having no clue where the neurosurgeon was at this moment.
"So this is my patient," Dr. King boomed, smiling again, Laura having to help Jane sit back down before she fell down.
It was probably a good thing Eddie was blind at the moment; he wouldn't have liked Jane staring the way she did at Dr. King. But he had been surrounded by a whole bunch of women doctors, so why doesn't she get to have some fun?
Dr. King took Laura's seat, next to Jane, and closed the little circle they had allianced before. He gently folded his left ankle on top of his right knee and sat with a straight posture.
"I've already told them about your specialty and have roughly explained to them what the procedure is, but you may want to fill them in on the details." Laura smiled as she stood behind Jane's chair, her eyes trailing from the surgeon, to Eddie.
The neurosurgeon clapped his hands together as though he were hyped up for a big game and leaned forward in the chair, untangling his feet.
"Basically, the steps you'll be experiencing are as follows; first, we'll need to shave your head so that we will be able to see what we're doing. Second, you'll be induced with a heavy anesthesia that will put you into a deep and pain-free sleep."
He paused, thinking about something. "Should I sugar-coat it, or get on with it?" He asked, wanting to know which road to take.
"Just get on with it," Eddie said, wanting to know everything that they were going to do to him.
"Alright, third, we'll drill three holes into the back of your skull - called burrholes - localized around the general area of the hematoma. Then, having done that, we'll, or actually, I'll insert ICP monitoring catheter and a pencil-tip sized camera into the holes to help me see what I'm doing and monitor everything."
"Most likely we will have to remove a section of the skull about the size of a golf ball in order to puncture the hematoma and drain its contents. Then we'll administer urokinase, which induces the re-growth of tissue and plasma to re-grow the tissue we had to cut away."
"And lastly, before you know it, you'll be out on the golf course hitting holes-in-one and drinking beer with your buddies." He smiled again, signaling he was done, and all Jane could do was blink in confusion.
She slowly turned to Eddie, whose pallor seemed to have drop a shade or two, but otherwise sat stiffly in the bed, China still wrapped in his arms.
"Alright," Eddie said coldly, breaking the silence. "Sounds good." He lied.
"Great," Dr. King smiled ecstatically, his brain alive with the image of a new BMW sitting nicely in his garage. "Have Mr. Alden ready at six o'clock sharp."
And with that, Dr. Richard L. King was out the door.
Laura seemed reluctant to move, but eventually did when nothing went on, leaving the two alone.
Silently, Eddie turned in the direction of Jane, his face slick of any emotion.
"I don't golf."
I Have A Rock Garden. Last Week Three Of Them Died. The Poor Buggers.
"Jane?" Laura's voice came softly from behind her and she turned from her sleeping husband to face the perforated doctor with a weary smile.
Laura smiled in kind then finished what she was going to say. "I'm ready to discuss the operation if you would like." She stood in the doorway, a clipboard clasped in her arm and her piercings glistening in the lights.
Jane paused and looked down to China who lay sleeping on her shoulder, her tiny eyelids fluttering unconsciously as she dreamt. Then she looked back to her husband, who lay resting in the bed with his hand loosely clasped around hers, their finger's interlocked.
"Unless of course, you'd like to go into a different room," Laura mentioned.
"No," Jane said tiredly. "It would be best for Eddie to hear too."
"Well, should I come back later?" Laura walked into the room slowly; chewing on her thumbnail as her dark eyes switched from China to Eddie to Jane.
"No," Jane sighed again, "we better get this over with."
Laura nodded and came forward, freeing Jane's left arm of supporting China as she took the sleeping child into her arms.
She carefully shifted China up onto her shoulder with little more than a tired moan from China as she settled back into slumber. Then she watched Jane gently stroke Eddie's arm until he awakened.
Eddie groaned at the disturbance, shifting carefully up in the bed as he re-realized where he was and what his current situation was.
"It's okay baby, it's me." Jane leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, her face weighted with lack of sleep. "Laura's here to discuss what we're going to do." She waited until he nodded his acceptance, then turned back to Laura to get on with things.
Laura took a deep breath as she pulled up a chair and sat down, China still sleeping heavily on her shoulder.
"Could you please open the manila envelope on the back of the clipboard, Jane?" Laura asked, her hands holding up China and useless as far as any sort of operation went.
Jane opened the envelope with one hand, refusing to let go of Eddie's with the other.
Eventually, Jane pulled out the x-rays from the CAT scan earlier that day. But from Jane's tired eyes, they looked more like a spider had been squished against the plastic sheet and oozed blue blood all over it.
"Okay, the first one on the top of the pile, yeah, that one. That black spot near the back is the hematoma that's causing your sight deprivation." Laura looked up from the x-ray to Eddie, who nodded, even though he couldn't see what was going on.
"There are two procedures to get rid of your hematoma, one called SCD and the other is SER, unfortunately there is only a specialist that does SCD here in this hospital, and I figured that you wouldn't want to be flown clear over to Minnesota for the other one."
She paused in case they wanted to object, but neither did, instead Jane nodded intently, interest pushing through her exhaustion, so Laura continued.
"Wait a minute," Eddie said from the side, before Dr. Zigman could get out her next word. "What's SCD?"
"SCD stands for stereotactic catheter drainage, which basically means we go in and drain the fluid from the hematoma." He only stared in her general direction, kind of looking more over her shoulder than straight at her, but he didn't know and she didn't care.
"Being a doctor, I'm paid to tell you everything." She smiled encouragingly. "So, the good part about SCD is that it's a simple, precise, safe, and brief procedure with very low rebleeding and mortality rates…" Laura's face was calm in the lights.
"And the bad part?" Jane asked timidly, looking to Eddie, who only stared in the direction of Laura. She gave his hand a squeeze and he returned the squeeze without turning away from Laura.
"The bad part is that symptoms from the surgery don't show themselves until later on." Laura said informatively.
Jane sniffed and mulled over it for a bit, before spitting out another question.
"Is there any chance of complications?" Her eyes shimmered sadly.
"Unfortunately, there are," Laura said calmly, "Side-effects from the medications, the possibility of hemorrhagic stroke, and maybe even problems while the surgery is taking place are all possible complications."
Jane didn't want to know what kind of problems could occur during the surgery, so she didn't ask. Instead, she just stared at Laura, not knowing what to say.
"But I wouldn't worry," Laura noted Jane's staring and tried to ease her discomfort. "Our surgeon is highly skilled and his patient's often do exceedingly well in recovery."
"Speaking of which," Laura mentioned as she just thought of it. "I scheduled a meeting with him for you, if you would like to meet him." She looked at Jane, who nodded calmly and then to Eddie, who seemed to think over it before finally nodding his acceptance.
"Alright then," Laura smiled and rose from her chair, gently passing back China to her mother and beginning to walk to the door. "I'll have the receptionist call him down, while you two talk it over."
She smiled one last time as she closed the door behind her, leaving them to scrutinize and understand all that she had poured into their laps.
But instead, Jane and Eddie sat in complete silence, having no clue what to say or do or discuss. Jane sighed shakily and shifted China onto her other shoulder, the girl's elbow digging into her ribs.
"I don't know how I feel about all this," Eddie said awkwardly, turning in the general direction of Jane.
"Me neither," Jane chewed on her bottom lip, "but Laura seems to approve of it, and she's our best bet on anything right now."
"Yeah," Eddie sighed, "you're right." There was a moment of silence before he spoke up again. "Where's China?"
"She's here," Jane said calmly, looking down at China's sleepy face. "Killing my arms," She added, feeling her muscles begin to shake with tension.
"Here," Eddie held out his arms, "put her up here." Cautiously, Jane lifted China up into her father's arms, allowing him to cradle her against his chest as he settled back into the pillows again, closing his eyes.
Jane stared at them for a moment, not noticing the small smile that was creeping across her face. They were just so beautiful, her two baby's lying calm in the middle of something so big, it was a shame it couldn't last forever.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Laura stuck her head through, smiling wonderingly at Jane. "You can come in," Jane stood, smoothing the creases in her tee shirt as both Dr. Zigman and the surgeon came in.
"Jane, I'd like you to meet Dr. Richard L. King, your neurosurgeon." Laura smiled broadly as Jane shook his strong hand. Her eyes playing over the man's crisp, extraordinary features.
He had a shock of jet-black hair that was so dark it almost shimmered purple in the lights of the room. He had thick, rich eyebrows and eyes that were an explosion of blue and green, incredibly beautiful.
His face was square and angular, coming to well-shaped corners and curves that were tinted with a golden light. And his white and blue garb accented his striking features with such a tone that he seemed to glow.
"Hello Mrs. Alden, it's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled broadly, his pearly white teeth shining unnaturally in the lights.
And his voice was a force to be reckoned with, it sounded almost as though the words he produced dripped from his tongue like honey, tinted with a slight German accent.
"H-h-hi…" Jane stuttered, completely in a state of shock.
Laura smiled in understanding of the situation and shuffled toward Jane, lying a hand on her shoulder and bringing her back to reality.
"And this is her husband Eddie," Laura introduced them, watching Eddie nod in compliment, unable to move both because of China and having no clue where the neurosurgeon was at this moment.
"So this is my patient," Dr. King boomed, smiling again, Laura having to help Jane sit back down before she fell down.
It was probably a good thing Eddie was blind at the moment; he wouldn't have liked Jane staring the way she did at Dr. King. But he had been surrounded by a whole bunch of women doctors, so why doesn't she get to have some fun?
Dr. King took Laura's seat, next to Jane, and closed the little circle they had allianced before. He gently folded his left ankle on top of his right knee and sat with a straight posture.
"I've already told them about your specialty and have roughly explained to them what the procedure is, but you may want to fill them in on the details." Laura smiled as she stood behind Jane's chair, her eyes trailing from the surgeon, to Eddie.
The neurosurgeon clapped his hands together as though he were hyped up for a big game and leaned forward in the chair, untangling his feet.
"Basically, the steps you'll be experiencing are as follows; first, we'll need to shave your head so that we will be able to see what we're doing. Second, you'll be induced with a heavy anesthesia that will put you into a deep and pain-free sleep."
He paused, thinking about something. "Should I sugar-coat it, or get on with it?" He asked, wanting to know which road to take.
"Just get on with it," Eddie said, wanting to know everything that they were going to do to him.
"Alright, third, we'll drill three holes into the back of your skull - called burrholes - localized around the general area of the hematoma. Then, having done that, we'll, or actually, I'll insert ICP monitoring catheter and a pencil-tip sized camera into the holes to help me see what I'm doing and monitor everything."
"Most likely we will have to remove a section of the skull about the size of a golf ball in order to puncture the hematoma and drain its contents. Then we'll administer urokinase, which induces the re-growth of tissue and plasma to re-grow the tissue we had to cut away."
"And lastly, before you know it, you'll be out on the golf course hitting holes-in-one and drinking beer with your buddies." He smiled again, signaling he was done, and all Jane could do was blink in confusion.
She slowly turned to Eddie, whose pallor seemed to have drop a shade or two, but otherwise sat stiffly in the bed, China still wrapped in his arms.
"Alright," Eddie said coldly, breaking the silence. "Sounds good." He lied.
"Great," Dr. King smiled ecstatically, his brain alive with the image of a new BMW sitting nicely in his garage. "Have Mr. Alden ready at six o'clock sharp."
And with that, Dr. Richard L. King was out the door.
Laura seemed reluctant to move, but eventually did when nothing went on, leaving the two alone.
Silently, Eddie turned in the direction of Jane, his face slick of any emotion.
"I don't golf."