Friday was when it happened. Low white blood cells, he started a fever.
Today, Sunday, yes. That is the day today.
He has viral menengitis.
It could take 24 hours.
It could take a week.
I would say I am scared, only, I …. I don’t know what I feel.
I sleep here with him tonight. The kids scattered at friend’s houses.
I read to him.
I sang to him.
I held his hand.
Now I will sleep for him.
Better that than this reality.
“Can someone come take his vitals please?” I ask.
I ask again, 15 minutes later after no one shows up.
Art lies in his bed, oblivious to the stress he’s causing, eyes open, lids red, the whites of his eyes, looking like a weird colored map of water, rivers painted red instead of blue. Not seeing or hearing a thing. Fingers swollen. Hands swollen, wrists too. Left arm in a constant tremor.
Dr. Taj, his name tag said was young, gave little eye contact, and was straight forward.
“Does he have code order?” he asked. He turns to me, to make eye contact for the first time. “Can we intubate him and give him chest compressions if we need to?”
A code order? I stammer.
“Intubate him (pause) if he codes (shutter). The kids need to say good-bye. We need to keep him here for the kids.” (long sigh)
Holy shit…it’s like I’d practiced these words before.
What’s happening?
Art’s leaving.
He’s done.
An Xray and an EKG are order.
Art has been sequestered to a negative pressure room. A series of two rooms an outer/hallway room and then his inner hospital room. Viral meningitis (which they think he has) is contagious especially to other immune suppressed patients (people who have low white blood cell counts) A negative pressure room, keeps the germs inside and filters them out.
I follow the EKG guy in, take pictures, and read the printout over his shoulder. He hands me the print out to sign when he’s done. He thinks I knew what I was reading.
I think about the kids.
“Honey,” I whisper in his ear, after the EKGguy is gone, before the doctor returns “You can go if you need to but… please wait, please wait to say good-bye to the kids.”
The guilt floods in.
I should have had the friend over to video Art leaving life messages to the kids. I should have visited on Saturday with the kids, even if they were sick or no matter how much of a break I needed. I should have, I should have, I should have….
And I realize like I’ve been hit, NOTHING is perfect. Death doesn’t happen like it does on tv.
Illness doesn’t happen like it does on tv. I knew that.
Sitting here typing with one hand, as my other is a swollen, clenched sweaty fist, I feel it.
This is not perfect. My life with Art is not perfect. It is ending, undone, incomplete, not part of the plan.
We are unfinished.
our oldest says good-bye
I
feel
nothing.
The hardest part about this… No wait, the right now hardest part about this is watching them grieve. My heart is in shards, little sharp deadly pieces.
Finally SOMEONE used that word!
Death, even in a hospital is whispered, in euphemisms – passed, gone, left, not there. None of those words speaks the truth. My husband is going to die.
Soon.
And when he does, he will be DEAD. Period.
No euphemizing that!
There will be no one to check my spelling. No one to wait for my call, saying I’m on my way home.
Oh God, I don’t want to be one of those single mothers whose kids are out of control!
There is a Sarah McGloughlin song. Only lyrics I can remember are
Hold on
Hold on to yourself
This is gonna hurt like hell
She’s right. And I know I don’t know what I’m doing.
I stand at this place, knowing I must fall into the gorge. I’ll survive, it’s just right now, I don’t want to go.
I just want to vomit.