The pounding and piercing pain in my head was debilitating. I wanted to go into a coma right at the next second. The door opened, and a nurse came in.
"Hi sweetie," she said. She was middle-aged, and brought a warm presence to the room. "Are you having discomfort or pain at all?"
Talking was exhausting, so instead of speaking, I gave her a slight nod of my head.
She left the room to get pain medications. She came back with pills which I swore could be for horses.
"Alright Honey, I'm going to need you to swallow two of these. Drink a little water to help them go down. If you need anything else just ring the bell next to your bed, and I'll be at your bedside."
I did as I was told, and swallowed the pills. Within 10 minutes I felt tired, yet the pain was becoming more bearable. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep in seconds.
When I awoke, I found some more medications next to my bedside. I forced them down my throat, and tried to sleep some more. I'dnever been this tired in my lifetime.
I assumed I slept for about an hour. When my eyes opened, the pain in my head was indescribable. I clutched the arm rests on the bed, and let out a small wail for someone to help me. It felt as though my brain was going to burst. I forced myself to take a hand off the armrest, and literally slammed the bell. The nurse came in with a smile on her face, but it faded slowly when she noticed how much pain I was going through.
"Did you take your medication?" She took my hand and was stroking it, trying to calm me down. I nodded my head, clenching my eyes, trying to find a way to relieve the pain.
"Sweetie, on your fingers, tell me how bad the pain is on a scale from 1-10."
I raised my hands, my arms shaking, and showed ten fingers. By that time my eyes were watering, and I was biting my tongue in order not to scream.
The nurse looked horrified. She told me to try and stay awake while she went to get the head doctor.
The doctor I saw earlier before, rushed in with the nurse following closely behind.
He had a needle on hand, and before I knew it, the needle was in my arm. It stung as it went in deeper and deeper, but the pain was nothing like what was happening in my head. I knew that whatever it was, it was going to help immensely. I also knew something serious was wrong with me.
I could hear the doctor talking to me, but I was slowly not being able to hear him. His words were slurring and becoming incomprehensible. My eyes closed and the pain slipped away in a matter of seconds.
I opened my eyes slowly, only to see a bright light. I winced at my first glimpse of sunlight for what seemed like weeks. I was confused, and in a room I'd never seen before. I looked around cautiously, noticing I was hooked up to at least three different monitors. My eyes scanned for other beings in the room, but thankfully I was alone.
I felt stiff as a board, and had a little discomfort in the back of my head. I tried to lift up my arm to rub the back of my head, but remembered what had happened. I remembered it all too well.
"Oh honey, you're awake! How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling alright. Just a little discomfort on my head, but that's it. I think I'm fine for now."
"Thats very relieving to hear. We were all so worried about you. If you were wondering where all these flowers came from, we wrote down all the names of the people who visited."
There were a few moments of silence before she stated, "Your doctor will be here in a few minutes to give you the latest news."
She left the room, and shortly after, who I assumed was the doctor walked in.
"Helga , it's great to see you awake and well. Would you like to now what went on while you were on the medications? I'm sure you're curious."
"Yes, I'd like to know."
"Well, to start off, in the car accident, we suspect the other car hit the back of your head with great force. When you started to get in a lot of pain, we immediately gave you the medication to give you a little relief from the pain. After running quite a lot of tests, and keeping common knowledge in mind, we came to the conclusion that you got Subarachnoid hemorrhage. That means there was a rupture of an aneurysm malformation. The rupture caused bleeding in the back of your head. You got immediate surgery from our head neurological surgeon. This may be a lot to take in right now, so do you have any questions?" He was right; it was a lot to take in.
"Um, I think I got most of it."
"Good. Now you get some rest."
"Thank you." he walked out the door quietly.
After trying to sleep for 30 minutes, I decided to look at the list of people who visited me. The list had Luna and Caressa, a few other girlfriends, and a couple others. Then something caught my eye. I was surprised Arnold wasn't there. But Rob was there.
Rob, my ex-husband, who left me because I wanted a better life for our daughter. I felt butterflies in my stomach. Then I realized they wrote down when people came. He came everyday at the same time. For the past two weeks. Maybe he still has feelings for me. Even though he hurt me, part of me wanted to forgive him. Maybe he changed and was sorry about what he did.
Then there was Arnold. That jerk! He hurt me more than ever, and he doesn't even bother to come and visit? It was basically his fault. He made me angry and sad, which made me not focus and crash. I wanted to blame him for this; blame him for changing me forever, mentally and physically. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come to doing so.
I looked at the time Rob visited, and it was 11:30-1:00. I turned my head, which was still in discomfort, and realized it was 11:15. Rob would be here any minute! I didn't know how to prepare myself. I hadn't seen Rob in months, and so much has changed. I sat in my hospital bed for about 30 minutes thinking about what I was going to say.
Then the door opened, and I saw him. He was holding Caressa in his arms. When he saw I was awake, he ran over to the bed, grabbed my body lightly, and embraced me.
My eyes widened, and I whispered, "I've missed you so much...". I wrapped my arms back around him and Caressa, who was now in-between us.
"I'm so sorry, Helga. I was so worried about you. I can't-"
"Ssshhh...don't talk...it's fine."
We sat, holding each other in silence for what seemed like hours.
Rob broke the silence. "Helga, the doctors and nurses told me you need someone at your house to take care of you, and make sureyou're alright. So, I've decided to move in for at least two months. I'm going to take care of Caressa, and you're going to relax."
The nurse came in and said, "The visiting time will be over in five minutes. Helga needs to rest and take her medicine." The nurse left, and Rob looked straight in to my eyes.
"Helga, I have to feel like this is partially my fault."
"Rob don't say that. It's not your fault at all. I was the one who was speeding and swerved into another lane without looking. How could this be your fault?"
"Helga; if I wouldn't have been such a jerk, none of this would've happened to you. We would still be happy, living in the countryside; together as a."
I didn't know what to say.
He knew what I was thinking.
"Helga, all I need you to say, is yes. I promise you no funny business will go on. I just really want to take care of you."
"Alright sir, it's time for you to leave."
He let go of me, looked me straight into the eyes and whispered, "I'm sorry."
He grabbed Caressa, and proceeded to walk out, before saying, "I forgot something. Let me just go grab it."
He leaned over me, pretending to grab something, when he lightly planted a kiss on my lips. It felt amazing, and sincere.
I spent the next two months recovering from the surgery. I underwent many tests, and had physical and mental therapy. All was looking well the day Rob came and picked me up.
He opened the passengers seat of the car, and gestured his hand for me to come and sit. I looked in the back of the car, to find Caressa fumbling around with a book.
When I entered my apartment for the first time in months, I felt like I was home at last. Nothing had changed, but some of Robs stuff was visible. He kept the apartment clean and tidy.
"Welcome home Helga." From the time I saw him in my hospital bed, to the time when I arrived in my apartment, Rob and I fell inlove...again.
He gave me a kiss, and rubbed the back of my head with his hand and said to me, "You know what makes you even more beautiful?"
"What is that may I ask?", I sighed with a flirty look on my face.
"Your scar."
"What do you mean?"
"Your scar. It's like a battle scar. It shows how brave you are, and how much you've been through. It makes me love you even more."
3 weeks later I returned back to school. It was hard to get back into the groove again, but I was glad to be doing something other than sitting around all day.
I walked through the doors of the last period of my class. The one class I had to deal with problems in.
I saw Arnold, and when he saw me his face lit up. He ran down to me and embraced my still body, showing no emotions until he said the words that angered me.
"Helga! I'm so glad to see your finally back."
I pushed Arnold off, and walked away from him. He pulled my arm hard, which caused my hat to fall off. Because the surgery was located on my head, they had to shave off my long golden locks.
He looked stunned, but tried to cover it up with a joke, that hurt me more than he could have known.
"Woah, when did you get this new style?"
That did it.
"I got a few months ago asshole. Thanks for asking."
"Calm down Helga. It's not my fault I didn't know. You've been gone for months."
"I bet you don't even know why! Bet you didn't even try and figure it out!"
"What happened then, huh? What happened that was so bad in your life?"
"Oh, you wanna know? You wanna know why I was gone so long?" My eyes were so filled with rage.
"Yes, I would like to know what happened that was horrible."
"Well for starters, I got into a car accident."
"You seem fine to me."
"Oh, I seem fine to you? Well hows this for fine?!" I turned around and pointed to my scar. "Does this look like I'm fine?"
I whisked back to my original position, and looked straight at Arnold.
"What happened?" He asked quietly.
"Well, when I got into this car accident, which by the way was the last day I saw you, I got hit in the head. The force was so huge, that it did serious damage to my brain. A few hours after that happened, I was in the most pain ever, and they realized I had bleeding in my brain. I then underwent a serious surgery. I had to have intense physical and mental therapy, and I'm now living with my ex-husband so he can take care of me. So that's what happened Arnold. Thanks for taking your time to find out why I've been gone for so long. Thanks for caring about me so deeply. You know who visited me everyday? Rob. My EX-husband stills cares about me. You couldn't even take two seconds out of your day to give a shit about me. I'm done with you Arnold. I never want to see your fucking face again."