9. Mazikeen #2
I told her which apartment, then she rushed me off the phone. I still sent her the email to have the formal paper trail since I had time. Just as I pressed the send button, my office door opened.
My man looked good as fuck. He was dressed in his business casual attire. My eyes didn’t leave him as he smoothly walked my way. When he was close, I turned my desk chair to face him.
He leaned down, put a hand on each armrest, then kissed my lips passionately. I loved his kisses. “Are you ready, beautiful?”
My heart was ready. My kidney was for damn sure ready. The only thing that wasn’t was my fear. I had to get over the fear, or it would eat me alive. “Yes, I’m ready.”
Pre-Ops and Last Nerves . . .
Hospitals were so impersonal. There were just people, white walls, cold air, sanitation, and processes.
I lay there in bed with a blanket over my lap.
Staff moved around me with urgency as they checked my identification bands, started fluids, and made sure everything was as it should be.
I was sure they did this a thousand times.
If I had to tell one more person my credentials, I might scream.
I was Mazikeen Joy Phillips, a thirty-four-year-old woman whose blood type was AB.
I had end-stage kidney failure caused by lupus nephritis, and soon, I would be the owner of a new kidney.
I repeated that information in my mind repeatedly while people buzzed around the room.
“How did you forget her ChapStick? Now she’s gonna get out of surgery with ashy ass lips,” Lula fussed. She was so worrisome about the littlest things.
I had a room full of people which I wasn’t sure if that was alright. My baby sat on the side of my bed with his hand on my thigh while Lula stood at the foot of my bed. She was mad when she looked in my weekender and couldn’t find my ChapStick.
“I took it out a few weeks ago because I couldn’t find the one in my purse. It’s not my baby’s fault,” I told her.
She shook her head. “Well, sis, your ass is going to have ashy as fuck lips. It’s alright, though. I’m sure Falcon there will still be willing to kiss them.”
“Lu, come over here and sit your ass down,” Rome demanded. “Your ass is being sickening.”
It was amazing to see my best friend listen to a man. She was the feistiest person I knew and loved to say that a man would never tell her what to do. Rome must have been a god or something because all he had to do was speak once, and her ass got it together.
She glared at me, then Falcon, then Rome. Her hand went to the collar of her shirt where her diva sunglasses were. I chuckled when she snatched them off and put them on. “Fine. See if I try to take care of your ass anymore in here. Get ya little fiancé to do it.”
Her nose turned up before she moved to the couch on the wall and sat next to Rome. He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her into him to put his lips near her ear. Not sure what he said, but she smiled.
For the last hour, she and Falcon bickered over everything from socks, the blanket, a charger, and the damn ChapStick.
They went as far as to ask the nurse if I could wear my bonnet in the surgery room.
I knew that all the bickering was their way to combat their fear.
They would never admit that they had any.
“Whew, y’all remind me of me and Franklin when we were young in our relationship. My mouth was crazy, and he was the crazy killer,” Mama Lauren said. We all chuckled because Rome was the crazy killer when it came to Lula’s mouth.
Two nurses walked in. “Hi, I’m Jackie, and this is Carmen. We are going to be your nurses now and post-op,” Jackie said.
“Right now, we are going to check your vitals to make sure you’re ready to go. The surgeon will be in soon, then we will take you back shortly after that,” Carmen informed us.
Mama Lauren popped up out of her seat. “Alright, let’s go ahead and pray before the doctor comes in. Ladies, would you like to touch and agree?” she asked the two nurses.
They both agreed. Everyone circled my bed. When Mama Lauren started humming “Come On In The Room,” I knew she was about to go in with this prayer. When she started to pray, the unexpected happened. Nurse Jackie started to lowly sing the song.
“Father God, who sits up high and looks down low. We come before you in the mighty name of your son, Jesus. God, I need you to come in this room right now as we come to you without fear or worry. We stand on faith and your word.
“God, you knew my baby girl Mazikeen when you formed her in her mother’s womb.
Regardless of this lupus, she was made in your image, fearfully and wonderfully made.
You’ve bottled up every tear that she’s cried.
You’ve carried her through the pain, the disappointing lab results, the dialysis treatment, and everything else that threatened to take her out.
When it felt like her body would fail her, you never left her.
We know that you will not leave her now.
“God, I ask that you go ahead in that operating room before baby girl. Touch every monitor, every surgical instrument and bless it. Stand in that room and guide the hands and minds of the surgeon. Steady every instrument that he picks up. I bind confusion, distraction, mistakes, and complications.”
“God, bless the organ that will enter Mazikeen’s body. Bless the family of the person that it came from. Give them peace in this time of their grief.
“Mazikeen’s body will accept this kidney as her own because it is hers. You assigned it to her, God. We rebuke infection, blood clots, rejection, and every attack that the devil can find. Devil you have no authority in this place.
“You said that no weapon formed against us will prosper. You never said that it wouldn’t form, but you promised that it wouldn’t win. We stand on your promise. You hear me, God. You are Jehovah Jireh and I know you will provide everything needed.”
“Father, cover my baby boy, Falcon’s, heart and spirit.
When he feels helpless because he can’t control what is happening, wrap your loving arms around him.
Let him know that you are in control and you got this.
Let him know that you are God and you are with all of us.
Hold tight to Lula Ann and quiet her mind, God.
It’s loud, and only you can give her silence and peace.
“Mazikeen, you are a chosen one that is protected and covered. The same God that had you when those kidneys were failing is the same God that has you now. When you wake up, you will be a walking testimony.