CHAPTER 9: Shannon
When we arrived at the room, Bart and the nurses helped me transfer to the bed. It was a fairly nerve-wracking experience, because I thought for sure that they were going to drop me. Then again, I know nurses are trained to be careful, but even so, I grabbed their arms as tightly as possible during the transfer. Let's just say that for the first time in my life, I knew exactly how Denise Nickerson (AKA Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) felt when those Oompa-Loompas were rolling her down the hall. Thank God those nurses knew what the hell they were doing!
"Well, I should get home," Bart told me after they'd left. "I'll drop your clothes off on the way."
I nodded In case you're wondering, yes, Bart does have a key to my apartment. "See you later. And don't worry, I'll get your mail while you're here, too," Bart said, giving me a kiss. Then he left the room, taking the bag with him.
"Thanks," I called as he left.
As soon as he left, a nurse came in. She had long dark brown hair with a few gray streaks in it, and her name tag read "Elaine".
"Hi," I said. Elaine filled my cup with water, checked my vital signs, and left the room.
After she left, I took a sip of water, and as I fell asleep, I wondered what the next couple of days would bring.
The next morning, I was awakened early when another nurse came in. He basically looked like Scott Leonard, the high tenor in Rockapella (or, as James Hobart once told me, his nickname for him being "the blond guy with the mullet"), except he had a really ugly pencil-thin moustache and goatee, and his name tag read "Joe". After he gave me a good morning nod, he shook the cup to make sure I had water, checked my vital signs, then hurried out of the room, without asking how I was feeling. I thought that was kind of rude, but I let it slide, because I figured he had a lot of patients to see that day.
Mom came after lunch. I could tell that something was wrong when I saw her face. "What is it, Mom?" I asked.
"I got a call from Watson Brewer last night," she said. "Karen and her friends were in a serious car accident."
"Oh, no," I said in disbelief. "Are they all right?"
"Well, Hannah suffered a broken wrist, but was treated and released. Nancy broke her leg, spent the night in the hospital, and was released this morning, but Karen's in a coma."
"How's Kristy taking it?" I asked. Since I knew that Kristy was in her first trimester, I figured that she'd lose either her mind, or the baby.
"She's doing pretty well," Mom answered. "In fact, I told her about you, and she said she and Jason would try to come and visit."
"Thanks," I said.
"Well, see you later, okay?"
"'Bye, Mom. Thanks for coming."
After Mom left, I took a nap. If there's one thing I knew about Karen, it's that she's a fighter, and she'd pull through this.
That evening, I had just finished dinner, and the nurse had taken my empty tray, and pulled out my Kindle to do some reading, when a third nurse came in. She had shoulder-length black hair, and her name tag read "Beth". I wonder how many times she's heard that song by KISS?
"Hi, Ms. Kilbourne," she said in her thick Boston accent as she finished checking my vital signs and picked up the cup to check it for water. "How are you tonight?"
"Oh, pretty good," I answered. "The pain in my shoulder's going away."
"That's good," she said as she filled the cup with water. "That IV must be working, huh?"
"It sure is. By the way, I wanted to ask you about Joe, my nurse from this morning. What's his deal?"
"He's deaf," Beth explained. "Well, that's what one of the other day shift nurses told me."
That explains why he didn't talk to me, I thought.
"Thanks," I said as she replaced the cup on the bedside tray. "Listen, I hate to say this, but I have to go to the bathroom."
"No problem."
She lowered the bedrail and helped me up, then followed me to the bathroom door and waited outside until I was done, then helped me back into bed. Just when she'd raised the bedrail again, a loudspeaker out in the hall started blaring, "Dr. McVicar, please report to Trauma One. Dr. McVicar to Trauma One, stat."
"See you later," Beth said, and was gone in a flash. Later that night as I drifted off to sleep, I wondered how Karen was doing, and how Kristy was holding up.
Early the next morning, yet another nurse came in—four in all. She had red hair that was pulled back in a bun, and her name tag read "Sue".
"I'll be your nurse until you leave today," she told me. "In fact, when I get done here, I'm going to disconnect the IV."
"Okay," I said. At the same time, I thought, Hallelujah! There are very few things that are worse than having an IV in your arm.
When she finished, as promised, she disconnected the IV. "The doctor will be here this afternoon, and you may get to go home then," she said as she wrapped the tubing around the pole. "We've also called your fiancé, and he's on his way in."
"Thanks," I said. The nurse left, taking the pole with her, and you'd better believe I was glad to be rid of it. As I raised my arm and let it fall on my lap a few times, I remembered when Stoneybrook Day School had done Les Miz my senior year. Bart and I had played Fantine and Jean Valjean respectively—and for that one, I got my hair cut, like Anne Hathaway had done before filming the movie, and wore a wig for the scenes where Fantine has long hair, and I'd done that bit during "Come to Me" when I sang, "You've played the day away, and soon it will be night..." I know this sounds crazy, but if you've ever disliked having an IV in your arm, or the discomfort that comes with it, you'll understand how glad I was to be rid of it. Looking back on that show, I'm not a natural ham, so Bart didn't have to worry about me grabbing his shirt, and he didn't have to resort to saying, "Would you just die already?"
Bart arrived a little while later. "I get to come home this afternoon," I told him as I crawled to the foot of the bed and got out to go to the bathroom.
"That's great," he grinned as he laid my outfit on a chair and started packing the rest of my things.
"We'll need to stop by the drugstore and pick up my prescription, though," I called to him from the bathroom.
"No problem," he said as I came out of the bathroom and sat on the edge of the bed.
The nurse had just left with my empty lunch tray when Dr. Owens came in. "Well, Shannon, you're free to go," she said.
"Thank you," I said. After she left, I slipped into the bathroom to change my clothes: a white short-sleeved top, a peach sundress with spaghetti straps, and white flip-flops. Abby had gotten the dress for me when she, Jessi, and Mal were in Arizona, and I'm amazed it still fit.
I couldn't wait to get home.
