by E. M. Sadler
With the hopefulness that tomorrow would show more signs of wakefulness, Joan shoed me out of the door so that I could run home and shower.
When I returned two hours later, I was thankful to see that Polly was back on duty for the evening and that she had been assigned to Kelly's room once again.
By 3:00 am, I was once again restless when Polly came in to check on Kelly's IV and administer some medication. Since it was her lunchtime, she decided to stay for a chat, and since I was beginning to look like a caged bear separated from their young, I was willing to take a pity conversation to keep my sanity.
Chapter 64 – Kelly
I was watching myself sitting in a coffee shop decorated for Valentine's Day and I talking to Polly about the upcoming spring break.
She had just ordered a hot chocolate, and I had just ordered a decaf latte.
Oddly, I was pregnant, which meant that this must be a dream.
"Nate and I were talking last week at the PTA, about taking a cruise during spring break," Polly said.
"I thought you and Nate were just friends? Did you finally decide to give dating a chance?" I asked, but my voice sounded an awful lot like Dale's.
"Oh gosh no! Let me clarify, Nate and I are taking that Love Cruise Maggie works on with John as his unofficial assistant."
Laughing in that low voice of Dale's that always made me weak, pregnant me said, "What made you guys decide to do THAT?"
"Well, Tom and Sarah are taking the kids to Disney over spring break, so we figured it would be kind of cool to do something just for ourselves. We're going to book as soon our tax returns come in and try to get cabins right next to each other. I think Nate's only going because he tends to want to protect me like my brother Seth. But I'm not complaining. At least this way, we can keep an eye out for each other."
"Considering Trish's behavior on Friday, maybe this will be a way for him to stop pining for her."
"Oh, I think I took care of that earlier today. Nate's one of the hospital's attorneys and was chosen to take my statement for the settlement offer. It was like that episode of How I Met Your Mother when they talk about the glass bubble shattering."
"Nate was always too good for her anyway."
"Do you think Kelly would want to go shopping with me so that I can pick out a cruise wardrobe? I'm terrible at fashion and live in scrubs, so I'll need all of the help I can get," Polly said.
“Joanie, she should call Joanie!” I wanted to say, only every time I went to tell her, my mouth moved, and nothing came out.
To get their attention, I began waving my arms dramatically, but they couldn't see me.
Finally, I took a huge breath and scream, "YOU NEED TO CALL MY FRIEND JOANIE!"
And then the dream disappeared, and everything was black again.
Chapter 65 – Dale
In the middle of my conversation with Polly about her upcoming cruise with Nate, Kelly started to wave her hands around erratically.
Stopping our conversation, we both began stroking her forearm and talking to her softly.
" Kelly, baby! Can you hear me?"
"Kelly, it's Polly. Are you awake?"
Then Kelly's eyes shot open and she shouted, "YOU NEED TO CALL MY FRIEND JOANIE!" before falling back into a deep breathing sleep.
A little weirded out I looked towards Polly for reassurance.
"Oh, I bet she was listening in on our conversation! It happens a lot when patients are trying desperately to come out of their anesthesia fog. Don't let it bother you, Dale, this is a good sign," she said while patting me on the shoulder.
Nodding in agreement, Polly could tell that I was still tense, so she sat back down to continue our conversation.
"So, who is this Joanie? Is she fashionable?" Polly asked as if Kelly hadn't just spoken for the first time in nearly two days.
Taking a second to collect my thoughts, I began telling Polly about Kelly's childhood friend who was a personal shopper in London.
Chapter 66 – Kelly
Hmmmm, it's morning. I haven't slept this well in forever.
Reaching out, I could feel Dale's hand next to me and laced my fingers through his.
Turning on my side, I was immediately aware of the tenderness in my abdomen that had been bothering me for a while now. I needed to set up an appointment for that UTI.
Opening my eyes to greet my Dale, I instead found myself face to face with a hospital rail.
I tried to call out to Dale, but my throat was abnormally sore, so I squeezed his hand to try and get his attention. Unable to move my body with ease, I looked down and saw that Dale was lying on a cot next to my bed fast asleep.
Thankfully, only a few minutes passed before I saw Polly pulling open the curtain separating my room from the door.
"Welcome back, Kelly!" Polly chirped. "How are you feeling?"
Attempting to use my voice, but finding that it was just a rasp, I chose to use my free hand instead to give the "eh" sign.
Looking towards Dale, and then back at Polly with a questioning gaze. Polly said, "He's been awake for over two days and finally passed out around 3:00 am this morning."
What day is it?
As if sensing my thoughts telepathically, Polly replied, "It's Monday morning around 5:00 am."
I'm late picking up the girls. My overwhelming sense of panic allowed me to squeak out, "my girls?"
"I think Dale said that Geoff had the girls till Tuesday and then your mom was taking over. Don't worry. You've had a whole team of people looking out for you." Then Polly gave me a reassuring pat on my arm. "Now, I'm going to try to roll you back so that you're lying flat; otherwise you're going to freak out the IV machine into thinking it's disconnected."
Giving her my thumbs up, I also made a point to gesture towards Dale and give the universal sign for "shhh."
To which Polly agreed, but only after at least two minutes of indecision.
After Polly had helped right my position, she began running my vitals in silence looking at me periodically to give a small instruction or a smile. At some point, while she was taking my temperature, I found myself unable to keep my eyes open and drifted back to sleep.
The next time I woke, I was no longer holding Dale's hand, but I could see him talking to someone by the curtain.
What time was it?
Glancing at the clock above the room’s dry erase board, I saw that it was just past 10:00 am. I had been asleep for another five hours.
"Damn it, Polly! Why didn't you wake me?" I heard Dale say in the background sounding desperate.
Feeling the need to defend Polly, I croaked, "Because I didn't want her to!"
Shocked by the noise coming from my direction, Dale abandoned Polly and rushed to my side.
Touching my face with his palms, Dale did a once-over to make sure that I wasn't a mirage before kissing me lightly on the lips. When he pulled away, his eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
"Hey!" he said tenderly.
"Hey!" I whispered.
Why was he so close to my mouth right now? My breath must have smelled like rotten milk.
"Kelly, I hate to bother you guys right now, but the doctor is doing rounds, and I thought you might want to hear from him what's happened since Friday night," Polly said sympathetically.
Nodding in agreement, I looked towards Dale and saw him clenching his jaw as new tears began to form in his eyes.
That’s when I knew that something was terribly wrong.
Twenty minutes later, once everyone but Dale had left the room, I crumpled.
I had lost a baby. I had lost ANOTHER baby!
When I was married to Geoff, I had a total of four miscarriages. One of those while pregnant with Mandy and her twin. It was one of the reasons why I went ahead with the tubal ligation. That and Nichole felt like my support system at home wasn't strong enough to handle more than two children on my own, and I had agreed.
Allowing myself to cry on Dale's shoulder, I was vaguely aware of how much ti
me we had before I was transferred out of ICU. I was going to use all of that time to mourn my little girl.
How did I know it was a little girl? Because every time I had had a miscarriage in the past, I had the same dream.
I remembered that dream from my medically induced sleep.
"That explains the dream," I whispered to Dale. My voice was getting stronger, but it still felt stiff.
"What do you mean?" he asked while holding me tightly.
"Every time I lost a baby with Geoff, I had a dream where my grandfather greeted the child in a meadow near Sadler's Ridge, and as they walk through the picket fence, they would wave goodbye to me and smile. That's how I'd know they were with each other," I said between sobs. "I remember dreaming after my collapse, of a little girl who looked like you, with my hair and nose. She was so beautiful. So, so beautiful, and my grandfather took her through that picket fence."
That's when I felt a tear from Dale land on my forehead as we embraced each other and rocked in silence, mourning the loss of our sweet angel.
Once we were transported to the transition wing of the ICU, it was 1:00 pm and by 2:00 pm family and friends began trickling in to check on my status.
Thankful to hear that the doctor hoped to release me by Tuesday afternoon, everyone was gracious enough to leave by 5:00 pm. That way Dale and I could have a night of rest before we went home.
According to Dale's mom, Pam, Sunday morning Maggie called her demanding that she pick up the kids. Unsympathetic to my hospitalization, Maggie had informed Pam after loading the kids into Dale's van, that if Dale wanted her to take the kids for more than the weekend, he needed to pay her child support.
As a result, the twins had been staying with Pam and Brian at the retirement village since yesterday morning. Though they would happily have kept the kids the rest of the week, their HOA had a regulation against children staying for more than two nights at a time.
Usually, we could see if Aunt Shawn would come to stay with the kids along with Mazie and Mandy, but the twins overheard the comment that their mother had made about deserving to spend part of her work vacation without kids in tow.
John had pretended that he didn't hear her, but later that night, Brian caught John rocking a crying Katie and reassuring her that, "At least Kelly and Daddy love us."
Knowing that our children were hurting, we couldn't stand to spend another night without them. Plus, they were good kids, and my only restriction was that I couldn't pick up any of the older children for two weeks. Thus, since Dale's vacation started the previous Friday afternoon, we would be okay.
Once everyone had left on Monday evening, Dale and I sat and discussed in detail the terms of the settlements and the information Brian had received this afternoon from his friend, Judge Caldwell. Deciding to take Nichole's advice regarding Dr. Johnston, we submitted two signed settlements to the attorney's office and one with a personal request for amendment. Because our request wasn't regarding the payout, Dale's father felt that it would be accepted without issue.
In response to our request, we received a visit from a very relieved Nate the following morning.
Off the record, he informed us that by making our request formally, it was the leverage the hospital needed to force Dr. Johnston into retirement. He had threatened Danville Memorial with an age-ism lawsuit when they initially suggested it on Saturday afternoon, before revising it to a suspension of privileges.
As much as I hated someone losing their job, I was reassured by Nate that both Trish and Dr. Johnston had received hefty severance packages to avoid countersuit and that I shouldn't allow it to stress me out. After all, I was still carrying twins.
Delightedly, the appointment with the Ultrasound technician before we went home went well, and we were later advised by the on-call OBGYN that both babies seemed to continue showing endurance and that I was an estimated 10-12 weeks along.
Based on their age, that meant that our babies were either conceived in the laundry room or the lean-to the Sunday that followed.
When the doctor left, our discussion turned to how to proceed with birth control going forward. Though Dale was not opposed to a future pregnancy, my increased risk of another ectopic pregnancy scared him after nearly losing me on Friday. So, he decided to go ahead with a vasectomy when I came back for my follow up appointment on Friday.
"Are you sure you want to have a vasectomy?" I asked tentatively.
Geoff had been completely opposed to taking one for the team.
"Baby, Friday night was the worst night of my life. If I can prevent you from having unnecessary surgery, I will." And the kiss that followed this admission confirmed every word he'd said.
Chapter 67 – Dale
We finally arrived home at 8:00 pm on Tuesday evening to find our children patiently waiting for us in the kitchen with a welcome home banner they had colored themselves.
Since Terry was currently away on business, Shawn would be staying with us until Friday to help with the kids during Kelly's first few days at home. She would have stayed longer, but Kelly and I decided to go ahead with our wedding the weekend after Christmas and knew that Shawn was bearing the brunt of the preparations.
That night, it was the first night I had slept with my wife since being chastised early Saturday morning from her hospital bed. Needing to feel her body next to mine, we stripped down to our underwear and fell asleep spooning each other.
Thursday was also the first night in five days that I could honestly say that I slept peacefully.
Over the next few days, Kelly's incisions healed beautifully, and when we met with Dr. Fitzgerald Friday morning before my scheduled vasectomy, Kelly was given the all- clear to resume all pre-surgery activities except for lifting more than 30 pounds. But this was a usual caution for both post-surgical and pregnancy patients.
To assist with driving after my procedure Dad was gracious enough to give up his afternoon game of golf to play chauffeur to his now neutered son, and by 3:00 pm Kelly and I were comfortably cocooned onto the family room couch while Joan and my mom helped the kids play nursemaid. Even though we felt fine, the cuteness of the kids playing goffer to our every request turned into a fun game that even Mandy was enjoying.
However, when I asked John to hand me the remote for our Apple TV that was sitting one inch away from my hand, he looked at me and said, "Now Daddy, don't be lazy!"
The following morning, which was Saturday the 22nd, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a visit from my best friend Kevin, his girls, and his mother, Laura Dalton.
"Hey, there numb-nuts! Hear you got yourself spayed," he said in his normal playful tone.
"I was neutered you asshole, not spayed. Plus, I have to protect the world from overpopulation, my friend. Didn't you hear, these here are super sperm?" I jested to Kevin once I saw that the kids were out of earshot.
But instead of eliciting his usual carefree laugh, I noticed how distracted he was.
"What brings you to Danville? I thought you weren't coming till Friday, and that the girls were with Myra for the holidays."
Double-checking that the girls had reached the kitchen for some promised Sadler family cookies, Kevin's façade broke, and the events of the past week suddenly begin to pour out of his mouth, making him appear wearier and wearier with every word spilled.
While working out of town in DC on Monday afternoon, Kevin received an unexpected call from his youngest daughter Rose. As soon as he picked up the phone, he was confronted with her desperate pleas to come to them at their new apartment in South Norwalk, CT.
Myra, his ex, had locked herself in her walk-in closet where she could be heard screaming, crying and threatening to kill herself if any of the girls opened the door.
After having his colleague call the local 911 dispatcher in Connecticut, and having his oldest daughter Lilly reach out to their cousin Shelly, he quickly caught the train from DC and arrived six hours later.
When he arrived at Norwalk Hospital around 8:00 pm that e
vening, he was ushered into a family conference room where he was given the news that Myra was no longer mentally sound or able to take care of the kids. It was then revealed by Lilly, who had been sworn to secrecy by Myra, that Myra had been diagnosed with Bi-polar Disorder as well as with PTSD induced Agoraphobia that was acerbated six months ago when she was raped at a party.
Not liking the new and depressed Myra, her new husband Jeremy had left her last month and filed for divorce. Thus, leaving Myra spiraling further into her depression.
Since that time, Lilly, who was only 17 years old, had been taking care of Myra and hiding as much of her condition as possible from, Kevin, the younger girls, and Myra's boss.
Due to Myra’s ability to telecommute, it wasn't discovered until earlier this week that Myra had recently started falsifying her timecard, which led to her being fired.
Barely hanging on by a thread before receiving this news, Myra immediately snapped and locked herself in her bedroom closet where she continued to dissolve into hysteria. Then, when Emmy and Rosie were unexpectedly released early Monday morning from their day camp due to a water line bursting at the recreation center, Lilly was unable to shield them from their mother's condition any longer, and all hell broke loose.
By Wednesday afternoon, Kevin had been granted temporary medical POA over Myra, who's closest family lived in England, and had been given full custody of the girls until Myra could prove that she was stable enough to resume parental custodianship.
Knowing that Myra had been suffering from Bi-Polar Disorder put Kevin's entire divorce into a new perspective.
The three of us had known each other since our sophomore year of college and had even been roommates till Lilly was born the summer after graduation. So, I was used to Myra's constant bubbly personality that would occasionally be shadowed by exhaustion. I just assumed it had been due to her school load or her workaholic ways catching up with her.
