CHAPTER 5- WAKING UP
The doctor was true to his word and by early afternoon they started tapering down on the sedation. After a while Sandy, who had once again taken over the vigil, started noticing Ryan was getting more restless. It started with the twitching of his feet. The movement scared Sandy at first even though it was expected. Once he calmed a bit and realized Ryan was moving around some the fear turned to joy and then humor. It would be the boys kicking foot that moved first. Sandy vaguely wondered if Ryan was dreaming of playing a tough soccer game.
Around an hour later Sandy noticed twitching around Ryan's eyes and waited eagerly to see the ice blue eyes that held so much emotion. The opening of Ryan's eyes, however, turned out to be more dramatic than Sandy had anticipated. Instead of the calm blue eyes he saw terror. Clearly waking up on a ventilator was a frightening experience and what was worse was Ryan's hands were in soft restraints to prevent him from pulling out anything. The practice meant to protect and reassure the patient was having the opposite effect of terrifying him into thinking he was being held captive. Sandy noticing his distress immediately hit the call button and started trying to reassure Ryan. He grabbed one of his hands in his own and touched the boy's face turning the frightened eyes toward him.
"Calm down Ryan. I know you're scared, but you are going to be okay. The doctor will be here soon and maybe we can get some of these restraints off. You are in the hospital. You had a bad asthma attack and stopped breathing. They had to hook you up to this machine and that's what you feel in your throat. Its helping you, not hurting you, so try not to fight it."
Upon hearing Sandy's voice and seeing him Ryan started to try and do what he asked. He tried to calm down and not fight the vent, but it seemed almost impossible. Everything felt so foreign. His body felt sluggish and unresponsive and his chest felt like it was being crushed. The tube in his throat felt like he was being smothered. On one side he understood what Sandy was saying and was grateful to know what was going on, but on the other hand he hated hospitals. He had never had a good experience in them. They always meant either pain or death which was two of his least favorite things. All Ryan could grasp was he wanted out. As a result he was soon coughing and fighting the vent sending alarms off in every direction. The added noise did nothing to calm him down.
Suddenly a team of nurses and doctors was with him.
"Ryan, I am Doctor Jackson. You have to calm down. I know you want this out and I will help you get the tube out, but you have to listen. Stop fighting. If you keep fighting I'll have to sedate you again and then you will have to wait longer to get this tube out."
The firm no-nonsense voice of the doctor and the threat of the tube staying in longer was enough to cut through Ryan's panic and he struggled to comply. After a tense few minutes the alarms stopped sounding and Ryan stopped fighting. He was obviously still scared if the trembling of his body was any indication. Also his coughing while having slowed some still continued.
"Alright that's good. The fact that you are trying to cough and fight the vent is good. Here's what we are going to do. I am going to count to three and I want you to try and blow out as hard as you can while I pull the tube out. Blink twice if you understand."
Two blinks quickly followed the doctors' orders.
Soon they were doing just what the doctor had said and almost before he had time to realize it the tube was out. Ryan continued coughing long after the tube was pulled. His throat was sore and irritated from the invasive object. The doctor watched the monitors while he coughed closely observing his oxygen levels. They were still low at 90 but not nearly as frightening as the 80's reported by the ambulance. Soon an oxygen mask on full flow was placed over him. The nurse handed Sandy some ice chips and said he could offer them to Ryan every few minutes. It was too soon after sedation to try liquids.
"Alright Ryan. Now that you are awake and off the tube we can get rid of these restraints." Quick work soon had that task completed. Ryan immediately moved his hands and gently rubbed his wrists glad to be free of the oppressive instruments.
"Why don't I explain what is happening?" A nod from Ryan encouraged the doctor to continue.
"You had a very severe asthma attack. The attack was due to the weather conditions, extreme exercise, and a lack of controlled medications in your system and your body just couldn't handle everything at once. Had you come in sooner, when you first started wheezing, it might not have been so bad. Now, I'm not saying this is your fault. I know it was unexpected based on the lack of an attack in so long. Now that you know, though; you will have to monitor yourself better and any wheezing lasting longer than ten minutes needs to be addressed medically. That doesn't mean you will have to come to the hospital each time. I will be starting you on regular medications again and I want you to always have a rescue inhaler around to use. For the most part the inhaler should be sufficient and if it isn't that's when you'll make an appointment with your doctor for something stronger. We will also be starting you on a daily preventative medication called Advair which will help build up your lungs over time and hopefully cut down on your need for the rescue inhaler. Do you understand? "
Again Ryan nodded.
"Good any questions?"
"When can I leave?" Ryan managed to gasp out between breaths.
"Not for a while yet. Your oxygen level is still low. We will move you out of ICU though and to a regular room. Just keep resting and hopefully in a day or two you can go home. Okay."
"Yeah"
After that the doctor stepped out leaving just Ryan and Sandy.
"Well kid I'm glad to see you awake. We have been worried. You just missed Kristen and Seth though I suspect they will be back by dinner and thrilled to see you awake. Be prepared Seth will probably quiz you on his superhero comics. He read to you while you were unconscious and I am sure he will want to test and see if you remember anything."
A roll of his eyes indicated what Ryan thought of that. Truthfully though his heart swelled at that thought that these people cared so much for him and that they stayed with him even when he didn't know they were there."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it kid- that's what families do."
"Family." Ryan softly said the word to himself. In fact he probably didn't even realize he had said it out loud. He had never thought of family in such a way. Family just meant blood to him, but not the way Sandy used it. When Sandy said family it meant so much more. It meant love, safety, hope…
"Yes Ryan. Family. You are stuck with us now kid and we aren't ever letting you go. Not even asthma can scare off the Cohen's."
At that comment Ryan smiled. Slowly his eyes started drifting closed content in the thought that his family was watching over him.