Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:11:59 -0700
From: Pete McDonald <bajabudfan@hotmail.com>
Subject: TIME TO SEE-16-

TIME-TO-SEE-16

The boys were suddenly infused with new energy that must have emanated from
some invisible, cosmic, underground power source.

What had been one boy nicely on the mend and a second boy still in serious
(if clearly positive) post-op condition, quickly became TWO boys only
interested in talking incessantly about what they could do when they got
out, talking about how to play Ghost Centurion Predator on Level III,
running back and fourth on the floor in bare feet, jabbering about playing
cards together and having something to eat while they both sat in the same
bed- none of it quiet, much to the consternation of their nurse.

Now we had problems of an entirely different variety. Oh my God!... Was
THIS previews of coming attractions?

Jilder decided to run back and forth from his bed to Nicky's bring his used
magazines and the PSP-3000 cartridges...

"Jilder, please put on your slippers.  We don't need you catching a cold on
top of healing from your operation," the nurse admonished to absolutely no
avail.

"Yes, mama..." Jilder yelled over his shoulder on the run, still barefoot!

"Jilder!!" the nurse repeated, this time with some exasperation.

"Okay. Okay..." he yelled, and stopped in mid-transit on one of his trips
to Nicky's bed, running back to his own and getting down on his hands and
knees on the floor under his own bed looking for his slippers... "Ow. Ow.
Owwwee...ohhhh!" Jilder yelled, clearly having twisted his ribcage in a way
that upset the newly inserted retainer bar.... "Ow, ow, ow..." he yelped
falling onto his bed.

The nurse saw the whole thing and went running to him shouting, "Jilder!  I
TOLD you to stop the running around... Now what if you've disturbed the
retainer in your chest or your incision???" she admonished.

"Young man you are NOT going to visit Nicky any more for an hour.  You've
GOT to stay in this bed and rest. Dr. Gilmer will fire me if I've let you
hurt yourself. No, No, No,... Don't even THINK about crawling around on
that floor again! What do you think this is?  A gymnasium???? Jilder,
you're in the HOSPITAL... ACT SICK!!!" the nurse yelled.

"Owwwwwww." Jilder continued to howl and shake up the whole ward while he
rolled himself around on his bed. "Owww.  My chest hurts!" Jilder hollered.

"Well I GUESS SO!" what were you thinking, Jilder???  You were NOT
thinking... On second thought, NO MORE VISITING NICKY UNLESS YOU HAVE MY
PERMISSION BEFORE YOU DO! Do you understand that, young man?" She barked,
expanding her orders.  She was now the combat sergeant with orders to
attack anybody who might cross her.

"I sure hope you haven't injured yourself seriously... Oh, my God, Jilder,"
she exclaimed as she paced around and shook her head from side to side in
considerable worry.

Nicky had been watching the whole thing from afar.  Then he yelled down the
ward to Jilder, "Stay there, Jilder.  You shouldn't hurt yourself."

The nurse turned in Nicky's direction and screamed back to him, "PLEASE,
NICKY!! WE NEED QUIET IN HERE!!!"-- loud enough to vibrate the windows...

Nicky was easily intimidated when chastised. He lay back in his bed and
pulled the sheets up under his chin, hoping to become less visible.

Jilder was now in no condition to cause trouble to anyone.  He was on
hurting status, which the nurse hoped with profound concern was more
painful than injurious.

After a while the pandemonium abated and there was only peace and quiet
once again in the ward.  Jilder was still lying motionless in his bed, but
looking less pained and becoming considerably less cause for worry to the
nurse.

After a time, the nurse came back to Jilder's bed and said quietly if with
firmness, "Are you feeling okay? Any pain in your chest now?" she asked.

"No." Jilder answered in a meek little voice, accepting responsibility for
the considerable negative consequence of his thoughtless frivolity.
Reality is a sharp and effective teacher.

"Good," the nurse answered.  "Stay still for a while, and later you tell
Dr. Gilmer what happened when he comes in; then he can decide whether he
needs to x-ray you or what," the nurse told Jilder.

"Arrrg!" the nurse muttered to herself as she left Jilder's bed.

Nicky was being super quiet.  He wouldn't peep or even stir for over an
hour, not until Dr. Gilmer came by to examine him.

All was quiet on the western front-- at least for now.

*****

Hugo and Kevin had been gone almost two hours. They started to move Hugo's
clothes and personal goods from his apartment into the master bedroom suite
on the first floor of the townhouse.  They had both intended to be back in
the ward to talk with Dr. Gilmer when he visited, but it looked like they
may not make it.

Dr. Gilmer was making his rounds late in the afternoon.  He went to Nicky's
bed first and began reading Nick's chart. "Humm?" The doctor muttered not
attempting to communicate with anyone in particular.  "And how are you
feeling today, young man?" Dr. Gilmer asked.

"Fine," was all that Nicky volunteered.

Looking up, Dr. Gilmer pressed further: "That all? Just 'fine'?"

"Yeah!  I'm hurtin under my right arm pretty bad sometime, but mostly it's
not too bad," Nicky elaborated.

"Well, that right side took a lot of extra work last night, Nicky.  We had
to do some pretty intense pushing to get the retainer to slip inside.
You're feeling the consequence of all that effort," Dr. Gilmer explained.

"But don't worry," he went on, "Nicky, it will heal nicely.  Actually, the
fact that you are not in extreme pain at this moment, so soon after the
surgery, tells me that you're going to have an uncomplicated recovery, if
you'll just take it easy."

"That means that after you go home you cannot forget and allow yourself to
do something that would dislodge your retainer," the doctor told Nicky
directly.  "You MUST have plenty of rest and that means bed-rest, Nicky.
The thought of bed-rest may not be pleasant to you, but I guarantee you
foul up this surgery site and we've got a major mess on our hands, and it
won't feel good at all, Nicky" Dr. Gilmer stressed.

"Okay, Sir," Nicky replied.

It didn't sound like Nicky would be a troublesome patient during his
convalescence.

Dr. Gilmer knew that he had to address a very sensitive issue with Nicky,
but he wasn't sure just how to begin.  So he simply asked: "Nicky, I wonder
whether you've thought about where you will go during your recovery-- humm?
for at least a month."

He paused and waited for Nicky to reply, but when Nicky just looked down
and said nothing, Dr. Gilmer continued: "I understand that your dad is
probably not well enough to help you.  Maybe you've given some thought to
were you can go.  An aunt? Grandparents? Or the hospital could call Child
and Family Services; so they can help you."

Finally Nicky looked at Dr. Gilmer.  He began slowly: "Yes, sir.  I have
thought about it...uh... and Hugo and Kevin... Jilder's... uh?...Jilder's
brother and uncle asked me if I'd come home with them.  They want me to
live with them, at least while I'm recovering. I'd like to do that...if you
think it would be OK. What do you think?" Nicky was looking directly into
Dr. Gilmer's eyes.

"I think that would be a very good choice, Nicky," the doctor answered.
Everything about those men tells me that they could and do want to care for
you, if you want to go with them.  It's up to you, Nicky.  I think you'd be
making an excellent decision to help yourself at this point.  Have you told
them anything yet?" the doctor asked Nicky.

"Yes, sir.  I told them I want to go home with them, and they said I can
come to live with them as soon as you let me out of the hospital," Nicky
said, his face lighting up as he confided his decision to Dr. Gilmer.

"That's wonderful, Nicky." Dr. Gilmer replied.

The doctor went on: "I had originally told them that Jilder would probably
be ready to go home next weekend, if no complications developed. There's a
very good chance that you'll be ready to go home at the same time, even
though you might need a little more rest than Jilder would need.  He has a
couple of extra days recovery on you, as you probably know.  I think that
might work out though, if you continue to improve nicely," Dr. Gilmer said.

"Oh, sure, Dr. Gilmer. I'll do everything I can to do good and not hurt
myself like Jilder did today," Nicky said, and then immediately realized he
had revealed something maybe he shouldn't have.

"Hummm?" Dr. Gilmer said, and then he asked Nicky: "What? Did Jilder hurt
himself today, Nicky?"

"Uh... Maybe I shouldn't be telling you, but yeah he was getting his
slippers under his bed and he hurt himself.  He was yelling.  The nurse got
mad at him and me and made him stay in the bed and told him he can't come
down to visit me again without her permission. (He was visiting me a lot
today)," Nicky told their doctor.

"Well, I hope he didn't tear out his retainer." Dr. Gilmer said. "I'll go
right down to him and see how he's doing. You see, Nicky, it's so easy to
hurt yourself when you start feeling good, but you still have to take it
easy.  You know that the bar must stay in your chest for maybe two or three
years, before we can take it out and you start breathing normally without
its assistance."

"Yes, sir," Nicky answered.

"Well, I'll be visiting everyday this week, and by Thursday or Friday, we
ought to be able to say when you can go home with Kevin and Hugo. We can
only hope that Jilder hasn't screwed himself and doesn't need more surgery
and an extension to his hospital stay."

The thought of additional surgery was a sobering consideration for
Nicky. He resolved right on the spot to avoid repeating Jilder's
foolishness. He wanted to heal in the worst kind of way, and he would help
everyone to help him by being super cooperative.

"Yes sir. I hope so too," Nicky commented.

"Well, you take good care of yourself, and I'll be seeing you everyday this
week.  Okay?" Dr. Gilmer said as he stood to move on.

"Yes, sir," Nicky said once again and the doctor patted him on the leg and
moved in Jilder's direction.

*****

Dr. Gilmer walked down to Jilder's bed. "Well, young man, you look a little
worn down today.  Are you doing okay?" Dr. Gilmer said not betraying
Nicky's confidence.

"Uh... not so good, doctor," Jilder told him truthfully.

"What seems to be the matter?" the doctor asked.

"I was crawling under the bed trying to get my slippers, and I twisted my
retainer and it hurt like REALLY, REALLY bad... I thought I was going to
die," Jilder confessed dramatically hoping that the drama might mitigate
his culpability.

"Humm?" Dr. Gilmer replied. "Well, Jilder, it's true that you could have
torn the retainer away from your ribcage; in which case we will have to go
back inside your chest and repair the damage.  I sure hope we don't have to
do that. You know, put you through the pain and slow your recovery." The
doctor told Jilder the truth, wanting to capitalize on the situation to
gain an extra measure of care from what appeared to be a reckless and
exuberant pre-teen.  They were like puppies, often too frisky for their own
good...

"okay...." Jilder said in a very tiny chastised little voice...

"I think we'd better get you into X-ray as soon as possible to see what
kind of damage we may have..." the doctor went on.

"I'll get the nurse to take you in as soon as possible; then if we do need
to operate, we can schedule you for first thing tomorrow morning,"
Dr. Gilmer told Jilder.

"okay..." Jilder replied, becoming more contrite by the minute and now
dreading the worst.

Privately Dr. Gilmer thought to himself, "Humm? Don't want to over-do this
thing.  But this kid could do some real damage to himself if we don't clip
his wings right now..."

"Alright, Jilder.  I'll talk with you later today, after you get your x-
ray."

And Dr. Gilmer left Jilder for the nurse's station.

There he said, "I doubt seriously that Jilder has hurt himself enough to
require corrective surgery--Oh, for sure it's a possibility, but I don't
think so... He'd be in continuous pain if he'd torn that bar away from his
chest wall... But we need to confirm my gestimation with an x-ray.  You
think you could find time to get that kid into x-ray, and then check out
some handcuffs that you can cuff him to his bed with when he's done?"
Dr. Gilmer said with a wink...

*****

Much to Jilder's great relief, the x-ray determined that he would not need
corrective surgery, and he began taking the greatest care with his
condition from that point on... A tiny measure of pain can often be an
effective inoculation for the prevention of an even greater pain down the
road.

*****

It was actually quite late when Hugo and Kevin came walking into the ward
to see the boys.  They were smiling, if a bit tired, and felt that they had
accomplished a great deal that day.  Hugo had enough of his things moved in
that he could really operate from the house fully with no inconvenience
this week before the boys move in.  And they expected to pick up the
remainder of Hugo's and Jilders belongings before Jilder even comes home
from the hospital.

As they passed the nurses' station, they nodded and smiled and the nurse
hastened over to stop them before they got to the boys' beds.  She told
them about the afternoon's rowdiness and the outcome, a pained and contrite
Jilder and a duly impressed Nicky, everyone all the wiser from their
profligate behavior...

(And the nurse never even mentioned the handcuff option.)

*****

When Hugo and Kevin got to Jilder's bed they said, "Heard you hurt yourself
this afternoon.  You're pretty lucky that you aren't hurt bad."

"Yeah," Jilder said not able to look them in the eye.

"I'm so glad you don't have to go through more surgery." Both Hugo and
Kevin were particularly considerate of the error in judgment Jilder had
made... After all, "To err is human..." they thought.

"Yes, Sir," Jilder replied, ready to follow the party line to the letter.
He sure didn't want more surgery; besides he was actually feeling much
better once again.

"So since you don't have to have any new surgery, did Dr. Gilmer say when
he thought you might be ready to go home?" Kevin asked Jilder.

"Yeah, he still says probably this weekend, maybe Saturday."

"That's terrific, Jilder.  Do you know when Nicky might be ready to go
home?" Kevin asked

"Not really.  I haven't talked to Nicky since my accident.  Maybe you can
go ask him," Jilder told the guys.

Kevin wrote out some words of explanation for Hugo, and Hugo took his pad
and headed down to Nicky's bed.

Nicky and Hugo wrote notes back and forth for quite a while.  By the time
Kevin showed up, Hugo understood that Nicky was expecting to be released on
Saturday with Jilder.  So when all was said and done, life was going to
progress on schedule... and probably with fewer glitches than would have
developed were Jilder running on full throttle.

*****

Kevin took Jilder, and they walked down to visit Nicky in bed.  Jilder wore
his slippers and walked slowly right beside Kevin.

They were barely within earshot of Nicky's bed when Jilder said to Nicky,
"Hey!, Nicky, I'm not hurt too bad.  I don't have to have surgery."

"Wow, that's great," Nicky answered loudly.

"Yep, he was pretty lucky," Kevin agreed, "Now if we can just keep both of
you guys from doing anything else that might hurt you, you'll be home this
time next week-- I hear Dr. Gilmer is thinking Saturday as a release date
for both of you, right?"

"Yeah!" They both volunteered in unison.

"Terrific." Kevin said, trying to encourage them both.

Jilder scooted up on Nicky's bed, and Nicky moved his legs a little to give
Jilder some room. They looked altogether like two puppies huddling together
for mutual warmth and protection.

Hugo wrote a quick message on his pad and showed it to Kevin: "Do you think
we ought to go to Coco's again tonight for some take-out for all of us?"

"Good idea," I jotted down and, turning to the boys I asked, "Either of you
feel like eating something pretty soon?"

"Yeah! I'm hungry." Jilder supplied quickly

"Me too..." Nicky added not to be left out.

"What can we have?" Jilder asked.

I said, "Well, if we go to Coco's, pretty much whatever you'd like. Let's
see, you like some chicken with potatoes and veggies?"

"Oh, yeah, but can I have a baked potato," Nicky said.

"Of course," I said and nodded... "Or you could have a chicken tostada
grande with sesame dressing? Or even another round of salmon if you're in
the mood," I said.

Nicky said, "Yeah! I'd rather have the salmon."

Jilder said, "No. I want a chicken tostada grande."

"Ok. What's to drink? "I asked. "Iced tea or lemonade?"

"Lemonade," I got the choral version.

"Okay. Okay," I answered, "We'll do our best..."

Then I told Hugo, "I'm ok with going to Coco's again for take-out-- me
buying-- can you get these guys to write down what they want?"

"Sure," Hugo replied & he supplied the pad and pen to both of the boys.

Minutes later Hugo & I were going through our familiar routine at Coco's
ordering... And Coco's had us out of there in a little over 10 minutes.  We
had this down now...

Back at the hospital I allowed the boys to sit together on one bed--
Nicky's -- and eat quietly.  I wheeled up just one of those special bed
tables that both boys used for their take-out containers.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't your regulation sit-down family dinner, but it was
a happy gathering for our family, and one we would repeat many more times
if life were kind to us-- which, as it turned out, was so...

*****

Cups and napkins gathered up and plastic containers stuffed back in the
bag, everyone began to look like they were ready for a quiet evening, maybe
even an early night for the boys who were indeed fading fast.  I thought,
"They'll both be asleep by eight tonight."

And with ourselves cleaned up after dinner, Hugo and I hugged the rascals,
admonished them to be cooperative and for God's sake don't hurt yourselves,
tucked each in his respective bed, and walked quietly down the long row of
beds in the seventh floor, Children's Ward.

How far we seem to have come since meeting for the first time in that
restaurant only a few months ago. It was like going from Paradise Lost to
Paradise Found.

Now, what was that next step?

*****