Denise was awake by the bugle call in the morning. Frank had a meeting with Michael about returning to full duty. He slept through Reveille, the alarm, and Jeremy running out of the house five minutes late for PT. Denise went to their room to wake him.
"Frank, honey time to wake up," she said kissing his cheek trying to wake him.
He stirred, "Hey." It was clear he was still very tired.
"Hey, you slept like a rock this morning. you feeling okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, little tired. Big day yesterday." He got out of bed fighting dizziness and a headache. "You have to go to that FRG thing right?
"Yeah, I need to get going," she said as she straightened their bed.
"You better get a move on," Frank said kissing her. "I'll get my own breakfast."
"You sure?" she asked as she finished getting ready.
"Yeah, go, have fun. I'll see you for lunch." He kissed her again then went to the shower to try and wake himself up.
Denise said her goodbyes and left, Frank was still battling dizziness and the headache, Jeremy came home not knowing his father was ill.
Jeremy was welcomed by the scent of his mother's coffee and the sound of his father becoming sick in his parents' bathroom. He'd seen his mom so he knew his dad was alone. He hurried to Frank, "Dad? Again? Same thing?"
"No son, I'm sure it's nothing," He tried to stand up but was too dizzy.
"Doesn't look like nothing," Jeremy said. "You need help?"
"No, I got it," Frank said waiting for the dizziness to pass. It finally did, in enough time for another wave of nausea to grab hold.
"Dad, maybe you need to go to Mercer," Jeremy told his father.
"It's just something I ate. I'll just lie down," Frank said his breathing getting heavy. "I'll lie down with the oxygen; it helped when your mother did it."
"Okay," Jeremy sighed, he helped his father back to bed and placed the oxygen mask over his face.
Jeremy didn't leave the house again that day; he kept careful watch over his father and got his things ready for deployment. He'd heard Frank get sick on and off and saw him stumble once on the way back from the bathroom but all in all it didn't seem too bad, though he knew his mom would freak when she got home.
The first thing out of Denise's mouth when she arrived at her house was, "Where's your father?"
"He's in bed?" Jeremy said it more like a question. He was terrified of how his mother would handle this.
Denise didn't say another word and took off toward the bedroom to see Frank laying there with the mask on his face.
"He said he's fine," Jeremy told her quickly following her. "He said the last time you gave him the mask and he felt better."
"Anytime he needs that thing he is NOT fine!" Denise was getting more upset by the minute.
"He said he was, he threw up some but he walked himself and all. Looked like his coffee was too strong," Jeremy said trying to calm his mother down.
"Oh God! Jeremy that's not coffee, that means he's bleeding in his stomach!" She was working up to terrified. She thought this had passed.
"No, it was black, like coffee," Jeremy insisted. "It wasn't red like that one time."
Denise sighed, her little boy was just that sometimes, so she played into his delusion. "Oh okay, well still, did you ask him if he needed to go to Mercer?"
"Yeah, he said no, he wanted to lie down and use the mask," Jeremy told her. "He said you gave it to him once and he felt better. I have to go to the PX for some filters, I'm out, is it cool?"
"Yeah its fine, you go, I'll be here with him," she told him.
Denise kicked off her shoes and curled up on the bed next to Frank. He was sweating and breathing hard, she placed her fingers on his neck to check his pulse, it was too fast to count. She tried to wake him.
"Frank, wake up." She shook him gently.
He responded to her touch and looked for her. "Dee?" His voice was weak and breathy.
"Yeah honey, it's me. How are you feeling?" she asked him softly.
"Not feeling good, so tired," he said breathing very faster, then suddenly slow. "Can you feed Jeremy? Need a break."
Denise look at him confused. "Honey what are you talking about Jeremy is at the PX getting ready for his deployment."
Slowly he moved his hand to her belly, "Jeremy."
"No honey, Jeremy is already here, he is all grown up," she told him.
Frank looked at her like he had no idea what she was talking about. He started to drift off on her.
"Frank! Honey stay with me!" She was afraid to let him go to sleep.
He fought the fatigue, "Water?"
"Sure." She ran to the kitchen and got him a glass and hurried back to his side.
Frank tried to reach for the glass but neither arm obeyed. Denise held his head and helped him drink only for another symptoms to rear its head. He wasn't able to swallow even the smallest sip.
Denise became very worried. "Frank we need to go to Mercer, you are getting worse."
He was looking at her but didn't seem to be seeing her, his breathing sped up again as if he was very afraid, the slowed to nearly undetectable before stopping altogether.
Denise knew how to handle this; she remained calm and began doing CPR on her lifeless husband.
"Mom!" she called out between breaths hoping her mother was home.
Elizabeth came running in noticing the distress in her daughter's voice "Honey what is it?"she asked then noticed her son-in-law laying there.
"Call 911 , call the Holden's and have someone find Jeremy," she ordered giving another two rescue breaths. "Now!"
Frank's breathing started again after a few breaths but remained weak and inadequate. Denise knew it was now or never, she prayed as she held him until help arrived. Once it did she collapsed into her mother's arms.
"Mom what is happening to him? This is crazy! One minute he is fine, the next he stops breathing!" She cried hard holding onto her mother.
"I don't know baby," Elizabeth said rocking Denise in her arms. "But you, you do know. You know Frank, you know medicine, you know how to help him."
"Mom those doctors can say what they want, that wasn't a stroke the other night," she told her
"No, it wasn't," Elizabeth agreed. "He'd have been far more debilitated, right?"
"Yeah," she answered.
"And it comes in cycles? He has ups and downs?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah, one minute he is fine and the next he is sick as a dog," she was slowly putting the pieces together in her mind.
"What triggers it?" Elizabeth pressed. "Or is it random?'
"Random, most of the time and sometimes stress triggers it," Denise recalled. "It's almost like it's connected to spike in his blood pressure."
"What about the first episode he had? Was that keeping with what the doctors said it was?"
"Not really," she answered. "The symptoms made sense, his heart rate was tachy, he had a hard time breathing, it made sense, but not for Frank. He's not one to panic. He's trained not to."
"Think, Denise," Elizabeth encouraged. "You are his wife, you are a nurse, you are his nurse, think and you'll know. Now let's go, he'll wake up and make himself sicker if you aren't there."
Michael was already there talking to the doctors when Denise arrived. She walked up to them said hello, the firmly stated her wishes, "I want you to do a full cardiac work-up, including enzymes, chest X-ray and EKG. I want a head CT and MRI with contrast. I want a full blood work up, counts, electrolytes, toxicological and a full one, test for anything related to diesel, exhaust, foreign bacteria, molds, metals, everything and then you tell me what's wrong with him, you get it right this time or I will personally sue you, the hospital, and the Army. Do you understand?"
"Okay Mrs. Sherwood calm down we will do everything we can to help your husband," the assured her more to placate her than to help her.
"You said that before, he's been diagnosed with everything from anxiety to stroke and he keeps getting worse. Fix it now," Denise said still calm though inside she was shaking.
"Okay we will," the doctor replied and went to work doing what Denise had said. She had General Holden as back up, he had to obey her.
Denise looked at Michael, "How is he? Did you see him yet?"
"Yeah I saw him, he is not looking good Denise, but I'm sure he will be fine in a few days," Michael told her trying to comfort her anyway he could.
"Where's Jeremy?" Denise asked. She was starting to lose her control.
"He is on his way," Michael told her.
No sooner than Michael said that, Jeremy came around the corner. "Mom, how is Dad? Are you okay? What did the doctor say?" he asked in a rush and was breathless from running in the hospital.
"The doctor said most likely stroke," Michael replied. "Brain stem, but your mother said test him for everything. He's unconscious, on a ventilator, and listed as extremely critical. I hadn't had the chance to tell you, Denise. He's in ICU."
"I want to see him," Denise said immediately starting to walk towards the elevator. Jeremy, Michael, and Elizabeth followed her.
"Denise, maybe that's not such a good idea," Elizabeth said hurrying to catch up with her.
"Mom, if it were me Frank would move Heaven and earth to get to me no matter what, I have to be with him. We don't know what this is, this could be the last time I…I can't let him be alone, Mom. I can't," Denise told her mother fearing the worst but not wanting to upset Jeremy and more than he was already.
"Okay honey, your right. I'm sorry, let's go see him." Elizabeth was trying her best to control her daughter's upset.
Denise had seen so many sick people in her career and she's cared for everyone of them, but she'd never seen Frank look anything other than strong and vibrant except these last week's so this was hard on her. Still, she took a deep breath and went to his side. She touched his cheek, his hand and the corner of his lips with her fingers. "I know you can hear me. I know you can and I'm going to be right here. You don't have to be afraid, you don't have to be brave or strong, but you do have to fight, Frank. We are going to fix it, I promise, but you have to fight until we know how to help you."
Frank remained motionless and unresponsive, but denies knew she had heard him, she could feel it.
Jeremy walked in and went to stand beside his mother, placing his arm around her shoulder, he had been crying and his face was red along with his eyes. "He has to fight this mom," he told her.
"When I found out I was having you, your Dad and I had been married less than three months and at first he wasn't very happy about it, it wasn't how we planned it," Denise said trying to comfort her little boy. "But once it sank it he was so happy, Jeremy, everything about him changed, he lived for me and for you. I told him I knew the baby was going to be a boy and he teased me mercilessly about superstitions until you came and he got the call he had a son. When I found out about this one, I knew immediately it was going to be what it is and I was right again, so I know in my heart your dad is going to come through this just fine, we can't give up on him, he never gave up on us Jeremy. We came let him down."
"Your right mom, and we won't let him down," Jeremy said hugging his mother.
Denise and Jeremy kept vigil for hours and Frank's condition continued to decline slowly. Finally after nearly ten hours one of the doctors in charge of Frank's care came in to speak to Denise, "Mrs. Sherwood, we have some news about your husband."
Denise looked at him scared but ready to hear it. "What is wrong with my husband?"
"His kidneys are failing," the doctor said without preamble. "So is his heart and lungs. We are still waiting on a lot of the results to come in but we saw in his service record your husband served in Iraq with your son. I'd like to run some tests on Jeremy and try to see if there are any abnormalities in his tests. That might give us a better idea of what's happening with your husband, but you were right, this isn't caused by a stroke or anything related to it."
"Do you think he got something from being in Iraq?" she asked the doctor.
"I don't know," the doctor sighed. "There is so much information coming back from the tests we are trying our best to wade through it all, he has symptoms of a lot of things but then others are contraindicative to those things, what I'm hoping is if we see elevations or differences in your son's blood it'll give a better idea where to look."
"Okay do the test, whatever it takes," Jeremy spoke up, ready to go with the doctor.
The doctor took Jeremy and left Denise with Frank. For the first time since he'd been admitted she was having a hard time believing he'd leave this hospital the same person he was when he came in. She laid her head on Frank's chest and began to cry, she was already grieving, whether she knew it or not.
Michael entered the room shortly after Jeremy and the doctor left and saw denies crying "Denise, Frank is going to be fine," he told her hoping he would be right and that she would believe him.
"No, Michael, he's not," Denise sobbed. "The doctor was just here, he's got multisystem organ failure now, that's the beginning of a very bad end."
"Oh God denies, is there anything I can do to help you? I know that must have been the hardest thing in the world to hear," he said trying to comfort her.
"You can't give me what I need, Michael. I need Frank to pull through this, but I'm a nurse, I know the reality, you can pull through if one system starts to fail, maybe two, maybe three, but not four, not four and he's at three already. They have my son now, they are testing him…The rest of his unit in Iraq, do you know where they are, the ones that are state side?" Denise had an idea.
"Yeah," Michael nodded. "Most of them are still on Post or living around Charleston. I'll see what I can do. Why?"
"I want you to see if they'll be willing to get blood tests. The doctor is testing Jeremy to see if anything in his blood matches abnormalities in Frank's blood. If the other members were tested too…" Denise trailed off. "Maybe we'd find out what is doing this fast enough to help him and if not, Frank would want something to come of this, he'd want others to get help sooner."
"Yeah, he would," Michael agreed. "I'll start tracking them down."
Michael left to do as promise and once again Denise was alone with her husband, she held his hand. "We're close now, my love. We are I can feel it. Hold on," she told him placing his limp hand on her tummy. "Please, for me and the baby, for everyone, please, please, hold on."