Chapter Four
Michael could feel reality intruding. His head was thumping.
Less than woodpeckers. Perhaps little gnomes with clogs on, stomping and dancing around.
They were having a party and he certainly did not feel very festive.
He raised a hand to his head, feeling the bandage and it all came flooding back. With a sigh, he lowered his hand.
“You missed your brothers visiting,” Kelly chirped. She wrapped a blood pressure cuff around his upper arm and proceeded to strangle it mercilessly. “The three of you are quite handsome.”
Michael opened his eyes to see her smile down at him.
“Ready for some pain meds?”
He nodded gratefully and the room spun.
“Dizzy?”
He gave a much shorter nod.
“The doctor said that could happen. Here, I will lift the head of the bed then you can sit up a little better,” she stepped on a pedal and the bed obeyed her command.
He downed the pills that she gave him. Thankfully, his throat was feeling improved, so it only felt like he was swallowing gravel rather than cut glass.
“Now, I am going to check with the nurses, but I think you have a scan coming up to see how the swelling of your brain is doing. The sooner the swelling goes down, the sooner we will know how your pain is going to be.” Michael had liked her before but now the little nurse was far too cheery. She really needed to tone it down.
What had she said about the pain? He tried to focus.
Ah, yes. One of the side effects of the surgery is that the doctors could not promise that the pain would go entirely away.
Even now, it was better than it had been for the last few months, so Michael supposed it was an improvement.
At least he had not seen any black things floating around lately.
He wondered where Ann was. He wondered what Noah and Max had thought about this ghastly turban on his head.
It felt huge. He poked at the bandage a moment then decided he did not want to accidently remove it and find out if his brains were leaking out.
He sat on his hands to prevent them from exploring on their own.
A few minutes later Kelly was back and took him and his bed to push around the corridors once more.
This time he closed his eyes and tried to breath evenly.
The dizziness hit him and of course, he could not manage to say a word about it.
It was like a bad carnival ride. The good news was that he didn’t disgrace himself by puking, or retching really, since his stomach was empty other than pills and water.
Michael endured scans of his head, a machine clicking and whirring around him.
Eventually he got a repeat ride back to the private room that was his for the duration of his stay.
He desperately hoped the dizziness would go away.
He was not going to be confined to a bed or chair for the rest of his life.
Vertigo was not going to become his constant friend, he vowed.
Dr. Hemmond came in smiling. He pulled up the chair and sat down.
“Good news, Mr. Ramesly. The lab results have come back for the tumors. Both were noncancerous. This means that you will not require any chemotherapy or radiation. We will have to schedule regular scans to make sure that no cells were forgotten and or that new ones decide to grow again but I feel confident that this will not be the case.”
Michael felt relieved. He had no desire to be a cancer patient or to go through surgery ever again.
“I have checked today is scans and the swelling is going down very well. How is your pain today when you woke up before medications?” Dr. Hemmond began counting and Michael nodded at six.
“Better than yesterday. Good, good,” Hemmond made a note on his sheet. “I think things are going very well. There is no sign of infection. Everything is going the best it possibly can.”
Part of Michael wanted to protest that. Losing the ability to effectively communicate was not the best that things could be. However, he was sure there could be worse alternatives. He could be dead.
“We will keep you here and see how the skull fuses. In the meanwhile, has the dizziness decreased?”
Michael indicated that it had not really changed using a grimace and a hand gesture.
“Let me know if it gets worse. Hopefully as the swelling decreases the dizziness will disappear as well,” Dr. Hemmond put his pen back in his lab coat pocket. “Do you have any questions?”
Michael shook his head no. It was not like he could articulate even if he had any. Mostly he just wanted to know when he could go home. Not to the downtown condo but to the beach house. That is where he wanted to be right now. Sitting on the deck and listening to the waves.
Dr. Hemmond took his leave and Michael stared at the ceiling. Besides sleep, he wondered what he was going to do in the hospital if no one was around. Michael had never really been bored before and it was not the most pleasant sensation.
More importantly, what was he going to do with the rest of his life?
There were no more twelve to eighteen hour days at the office. No more presentations or meetings. It was kind of a relief but also concerning. Michael really didn’t know what was going to take up his time now. He would have to take up some sort of work or hobby.
Ann came in and she looked entirely worn out. She had never been so beautiful to him. She plopped into the chair beside the bed and watched him.
He watched her in return. He wanted to tell her what Dr. Hemmond had said.
He wanted to ask how Max and Noah had taken the sight of him.
If they made jokes about the turban bandage.
He really wanted to know if he could change into the sweats he had brought along instead of being in this silly hospital gown.
Michael wanted to urge her to get some sleep, but he knew she was stubborn.
For some reason, Ann had appointed herself his guardian and he was not about to complain even if he could.
Having an idea, he moved over on the bed then pointed to her and patted the space beside him.
“What?” she shook her head. Ann had nearly been dozing upright. He motioned for her to come, and she went to the bed. Gently he took her hand and a belt loop, urging her to sit then lay down beside him. “I am pretty sure I am not supposed to share the bed with you.”
He put a finger to her lips then wrapped an arm around her. Ann closed her eyes and snuggled up to him. “If they come in tell them I am just listening to your heartbeat to make sure you are alive.”
She was rewarded with a small puff of amusement from Michael.
They both knew he was not going to say anything.
He rubbed her back and in moments Ann was breathing deeply, lost in sleep.
He must have drifted off himself because the next thing he knew, Kelly was holding Evan and Elle had Ethan and they were making their way into the room quietly.
“I brought Ann a few things,” Elle set down a bag on the chair. She came over to the bed. “I don’t think Noah did justice in describing the diaper on your head.”
Against his better judgement, Michael smiled. Noah could not have chosen a better woman to alleviate his seriousness.
“You are rocking the head gear,” she hefted Ethan to a better position on her hip. “I like your nurse. She complimented my babies so that pretty much made her my friend.”
Kelly grinned. “They are cute. I think they are going to look as good as the other Mr. Rameslys when they get older. I bet they will be a duo of trouble when they hit the teenage years and discover girls.”
Elle groaned. “I am not ready for the toddler years that are already here. Do not talk about teenagers yet.”
“Happens before you know it,” Kelly tapped Evan under the chin.
Elle turned serious, “How are you?”
Michael shrugged using his free shoulder.
“Yeah, I feel that way some day’s too. I suppose you can get away with it since you have a hole in your head,” she motioned to Ann. “How long has she been asleep?”
Michael looked at the clock on the wall. He held up two fingers.
“A couple minutes? Twenty? Two hours?” Elle stopped as he nodded. “Noah said she was pretty wiped. Nice of you to share with her.”
Again, he shrugged.
“Not much of a conversationalist right now, are you?”
Michael gave her a look of caution. He was not ready for this conversation. However, Elle, being who she was, plunged ahead.
“I think there are two ways of looking at it,” said Elle.
“One, you got a crappy deal. It sucks. But you are alive. Or we can go with scenario two which is that I love the sound of my own voice, so you taking up less word time is great. Plus, I am a pro at twenty questions and now you and I are going to be playing a perpetual game.”
He raised an eyebrow, amused at her.
“Okay, so I am not great at twenty questions. It will make it even more fun, trust me. You will be trying to communicate that you want me to run to the store to get beer or something and I will be yelling ‘Price is Right’ or ‘it is a movie’.”
He chuckled. He conceded that she was probably right.
Elle sat down in the empty chair. “I have decided we are commandeering your beach house for Thanksgiving. Do not argue with me. There are enough of us with Piaget joining the family and the twins. You finally cannot say that you need to work so all of us can be there. I am going to make a big dinner and stuff you men so full of gravy and turkey, you will need to wear drawstring pants to watch the game. You still have that wide screen television there, right?”
He nodded. He had upgraded it to even larger and high definition. Michael had no idea why because he rarely ever watched television.
“Good. That is settled then.”
“How is the headache Mr. Ramesly?” Kelly asked.
Michael paused and considered it. He was pleasantly surprised to feel that the gnomes had retired their wooden clogs and were just dancing around in sock feet. This was very pleasing especially since he had not taken any medication in the last while. He held up four fingers.