Chapter 5
The moment the door had opened and the
girls walked in I said I silent thank you to God in my mind.
Kristin, who'd actually worked for a
couple of years as an emergency room nurse was the first to speak. She held my
head in her hands and looked me in the eyes.
"Grace," she said in an
attempt to draw my attention momentarily away from the pain, "we need to
know what's wrong? Where exactly does it hurt."
All I could do was gasp and say,
"Blood... lots of blood."
Kristin looked surprised. "What?
Where?" she asked examining my body looking slightly confused but
eventually realizing what I had meant. She motioned for Leighanne to help lift
me gently and when they did I heard a small gasp.
"Oh God."
"Okay sweetie, it's okay." I
heard Kristin's voice coming through, gentle and calm as she held on to me
tightly. She was giving instructions now to Leighanne, telling her to grab a
towel and lay it on the floor. Together they eased me gently to the floor and
onto the towel. She covered me with another towel and told Leighanne to sit
there with me for a minute, that she needed to talk to the guys.
At almost that exact moment there was
a knock on the bathroom door and I could hear Nick and Brian asking if
everything was okay or if we needed any help. The girls looked at one another
and then down at me sprawled there on the hard tile floor.
"She should have some sort of
privacy," Leighanne whispered to Kristin as I groaned somewhere on the
floor beneath then.
"You're right, she definitely
should." Kristin returned looking towards the door and then back at me.
"Hold on, I'll be back in just a second." And with that she slipped
out the door.
~~~~~~
Sitting there in my hospital bed,
thinking back on that moment... I hadn't believed life could get any worse than
it had been right then. I remembered laying there on the bathroom floor in all
my glory, terrified that I was going to die and yet somehow more worried that
if I didn't die soon... well I couldn't stand the thought of more pain. I
remembered how my sister-in-law had held my hand and comforted me as waited far
too long for Kristin to return. I lay there griping her hand as tightly as I
could trying to breathe through the pain and I watched the door...
Tonight I found myself watching
another door, the door of my hospital room at the University of Kentucky Markey
Cancer Center hoping and praying that someone else would come in and end my
pain.
How had I gotten here? Why me? Why us?
Will he come? Please God let him come.
***
