CHAPTER 4- THE WAITING GAME

Only a few short hours later the rising sun cast a blanket of light upon Ryan's ICU room. The new light caused Sandy to wake up. He had fallen to sleep holding Ryan's hand. Upon waking his eyes quickly looked Ryan over. There didn't seem to be much change from last night. The machine beside the boy still steadily pushed air in and out of the teenager's chest. His color looked slightly better than the frightening blue gray of last night, but it was still way too pale for Sandy's liking. Ryan's eyes remained firmly closed and he was clearly in a state of unconsciousness.

It was during Sandy's appraisal of Ryan's condition that a doctor walked in.

"Hello, I am Doctor Jackson. I am the ICU doctor taking over for Doctor Williams- the one who saw Ryan in the ER."

"Good Morning."

"I'm just going to listen to him for a moment." Sandy nodded his acceptance at the doctor's statement and watched as the new doctor lifted his stethoscope to his ears and listened around Ryan's chest.

When the doctor had finished and stepped back looking at the monitors in the room, Sandy decided to ask some questions.

"Is he supposed to be this still? I mean Ryan is quiet for sure, but he is never really still. He's more like action coiled and ready to spring."

The doctor smiled at the image. He related to it well considering he had a teenage son of his own who was an athlete.

"Yes. It is to be expected at this point. We have him under light sedation right now so he won't become frightened and fight off the respirator that is giving his body time to rebuild strength and let the steroids kick in. We will start weaning him off the sedation later this afternoon and see how he responds. If he is strong enough to actively fight the machine then we will extubate and try him on an oxygen mask. I know it is frightening, but all things considered he is doing well. We will run some more blood work in a minute to double check that he has not picked up any secondary infections. I don't expect that he has considering we are not seeing any sign of fever. Just keep doing what you are doing. Be there for him. Hold his hand and comfort him. You might talk to him also considering many people report that they remembering being talked to even though they were unconscious."

"I'll do that. Thank you."

The doctor nodded and stepped out of the room to write up his observations. Not more than a minute later a technician walked in to take blood. Sandy decided to step out of the room for a minute while she did this. It wasn't that he was afraid of needles or anything like that; it was just that he hated to watch his kids get hurt even if it was something meant to help them get better.

One of the ICU nurses noticed him stepping out of the room and called out to him.

"Mr. Cohen? Let me show you the family room up here. There is fresh coffee and one of the other families even brought some bagels and donuts today." She called out in a friendly reassuring voice.

Hearing his name and an offer of sustenance, Sandy looked up to read the kind nurses name tag. It said Cindy.

"Thank you Cindy. Coffee is exactly what I need right now. It has been quite some time since I pulled an all-nighter despite raising two teenagers."

"Oh don't I know it. It isn't by chance I work the day-shift." She replied with a light laugh.

After getting his coffee and eating his bagel, Sandy stepped back into Ryan's room. He had a paper with him that he had found in the family room. Sitting, once more, on his chair by Ryan's side; he opened the paper to the sports section.

"Alright Ryan let's see who won last night's game…"

The next half hour continued in much the same way with Sandy quietly reading to the son of his heart. It was this loving sight that Kristen discovered when she arrived with Seth later that morning.

A gentle tap at the glass of the ICU door alerted Sandy to her presence and he gave a nod indicating he would be out in a minute.

"Hey bud I'm going to stop reading now. It looks like Kristen and Seth are here. I am going to update them and probably send Seth in to chat your ears off. If that won't make you want to get strong enough so they will let you wake up and leave then I don't know what will." With that parting comment Sandy folded up the paper and stepped out of the room towards the rest of his waiting family.

"Hey Kristen" Sandy said and then gave his wife a hug and a gentle kiss.

"Let's go to the family room so I can clue you and Seth in real quick."

Kristen nodded her acceptance.

After they had all sat down at one of the tables in the room Sandy started to explain.

"The doctor said he is hanging in there. They are waiting till this afternoon to start working him off the vent. So far he has not had any complications and that's good. His doctor said the best thing for us to do is to keep him company and talk to him."

"Hey, I can definitely do that. I brought some of my new comic strips so I'll just go in there now and let him know what's happening in the world of superheroes." Seth said excitedly. He was relieved to have something to do that might help his brother. He loved comic strips and Ryan usually only humored him for a few moments when he wanted to teach him about them. He had a captive audience now and it was on doctors' orders. With that in mind and an encouraging smile from his parents, he set off to just what he said.

After Seth had cleared the room, Kristen spoke up. "Is he really doing okay?"

"Yes- well as okay as he can be considering he isn't breathing on his own."

"How did we not see this Sandy? I feel like a horrible mother. Why didn't we have medication for him?" Kristen said nearly in tears.

"Hey now, don't cry" Sandy said hugging his wife. "We are doing the best we can. Ryan hasn't had medication in years. He just thought it was the weather and so did I. We aren't superheroes like Seth's comic books. We are going to make mistakes. All we can do is learn. We know now his asthma is still something to be aware of. The doctor will start him back on medications and we will know what to look for and avoid. It will be okay. He will be okay."

"Your right it's just I am so scared. We just found him and I know I wasn't all for it in the beginning, but that boy has worked his way into my heart and I don't want to lose him."

"We won't. I know I'm not usually very religious, but everything in me tells me God wouldn't give us a gift like this only to rip it away so soon. Keep praying like I know you do. I think it will all work out."

"Of course, I haven't stopped praying since we found him last night."

That being said the two parents held on to each other both thinking of Ryan. The waiting continued but at least they had each other.