The nurse had a venti-size order of patience. “That’s okay if you can’t go, but please try. Now change into everything, but you can keep your underwear on.” She closed the door behind her.
At least this bathroom had a chair. Lex unstrapped her leg brace and undressed, shivering in the chilled tile room. The bootie socks were warm, but the gown gaped in front (at least it didn’t gape in back). She also managed a trickle into the cup and left it on a shelf with a huge sign “Urine cups.”
Oh man, she was thirsty. She wanted a tall glass of ice water, chilled beads of condensation dripping down the sides, pooling at the base.
She whimpered.
Lex exited the bathroom, and the nurse who’d been leaning against the wall waiting for her, gave her a pat on the back. Lex twitched away, even though the nurse had meant her touch to be reassuring.
She led Lex to a small room with two recliners separated by a curtain, each in front of a TV set. Venus stood inside, talking to a dark-skinned Asian man who seemed to be demonstrating a strange contraption. He saw her and introduced himself as Alan.
“This is your CPM machine – Continuous Passive Motion machine. After surgery, you’ll put this on your bed and strap your leg into the cradle – ” he pointed to a metal cradle lined with soft faux lambskin – “and turn the machine on. It will bend and straighten your leg very slowly, and for only a few degrees at first. You’ll increase the degree during the next two weeks.”
“Alan told me how to set it up when I get you home.” Venus was far from flirty or chummy with Alan, but it had been years since Lex had seen her so relaxed around a male. He must be one of the few who had the courtesy not to ogle her gorgeous face and lust-inspiring figure.
The nurse sat her in the recliner and then covered her with warmed blankets. Warmed. A perfect temperature. The gown didn’t seem so skimpy anymore.
“Take this marker and write ‘yes’ on your surgery leg and ‘no’ on your good leg.”
Okay, now that was just scary. “You mean sometimes they open up the wrong leg?” Her voice had a screech at the end.
The nurse winced at the sound. “No, don’t panic. They don’t open you up. This will be arthroscopic, so he’ll only cut three small holes into your knee.”
“He can repair it with only three small holes?” Her voice still had that screechy thing going on.
“Oh, yes, it’s the best kind of surgery. Don’t worry.” She set a hand on Lex’s shoulder. Lex jumped.
Another nurse joined her. They started an IV on her and scrubbed down her bad leg with some neon orange soap that looked like it zapped every last germ.
The nurses left, and Venus sat in a chair next to her.
Suddenly, the magnitude of what Lex was about to go through smacked her across the head with the force of a two-by-four plank.
She’d be unconscious. And she might not wake up.
Her stomach started to ripple. Her hands trembled where they lay against the warm blankets. She licked her dry lips, swallowed against the ball of fuzz lodged in the base of her throat.
She had to go to the bathroom. The warm blankets added to her incontinence problem.
“Venus, flag down a nurse.”
“Why?” Venus tore her eyes from the TV.
“I need to know if it’s okay to go to the bathroom.”
“Sure,” the nurse chirped once Venus had explained everything.
“Just take your IV bag. There’s a hook next to the toilet.”
Venus had to carry the bag while Lex grabbed her crutches and hopped to the bathroom. Once she sat down, the IV line also got in her way.
Back in her recliner, she felt a little better, although her stomach still jiggled.
A nurse peeked in on the older woman sitting in the other recliner.
“You’ll be going into surgery in a few minutes, Mrs. Tyler.”
Lex couldn’t see her around the curtain, but she heard Mrs. Tyler’s quavering voice speaking to her husband. “Charles, look at me.”
“Mm-hm.”
“Turn off that TV. Look at me. This might be the last time I talk to you.”
“Now, don’t be scared, honey – ”
“Don’t be scared? How can you say that to me now?”
“It’s a simple procedure – ”
“I might never wake up.”
Lex’s chest squeezed tight.
“Charles, promise me you’ll give me a nice funeral.”
“Honey – ”
“And don’t invite your cousin. I can’t stand her. And promise me you’ll marry again. You need someone to take care of you.” Her voice ended on a sob.
“Honey, you’ll be fine.”
“I’ll miss you so much, Charles.” Sniff, sniff.
“I’ll miss you too – I mean, what are you talking about? You’ll be okay.”
“And don’t forget to water the gardenia plant.”
The nurse bustled in. “Mrs. Tyler, they’re ready for you.”
“Oh! Good-bye, Charles. Don’t ever forget me.”
A nurse wheeled the weeping woman out the door. As she passed Lex, she clutched her bad shoulder – marked with a “yes” – and her distraught husband trailed behind.
Lex and Venus stared at each other with wide eyes after she had left. Venus bit her lip. “You, um… want me to pray for you?”
“Yeah… yeah, I guess.”
“Dear God… Thanks for Lex. Thanks for her really skilled surgeon. And really good nurses. And really excellent surgery center. Please help her feel calm. And, uh… help her wake up afterward. Amen.”
“Gee, Venus, you pray so eloquently.”
“Hey, it’s a prayer.”
“True.”
A new patient strolled into the room, this time a college-aged, athletic redhead. “Hi.” She smiled at Lex and Venus.
Lex searched her joints for any swelling. “Are you sure you need surgery?” she asked the girl.
“Oh, sure.” She sat in the recliner and automatically held out her arm for the IV. She peeked at Lex around the curtain. “I re-tore my ACL a month ago, so the swelling’s gone down.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, this is my third ACL surgery.”
“Third? ”
“Uh huh. I keep snapping them like rubber bands. But Daddy’s an ex-football player, and he has great insurance. He coaches a college team now, but he’s loaded.”
Lex suddenly had visions of years of surgeries draining her pocketbook. “Venus, I need to go to the bathroom again.”
“What’s your problem?” Venus grabbed the IV bag.
“I have to go when I get scared.”
“Oh, great.”
Lex relieved herself – wow, she had a lot this time – and sat back down just in time for her anesthesiologist to arrive.
Dr. Frank looked like he’d sucked a lemon. He adjusted his glasses and glared at her over the rims. “Any allergies?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Any family history of heart disease, yadda, yadda, yadda?”
Did he just say, “Yadda, yadda, yadda”?
“Uh… no.”
He sighed and pursed his lips. “How’d you tear it?”
“Accident.”
He grunted. “Well, obviously. How?”
“Someone fell into me.”
“Hmph.” He scribbled in his chart. “Okay, that’s it. Oh, and I have to disclose that there’s a slight chance of complications, nothing is 100 percent guaranteed, yadda, yadda, yadda. Understand?”
He liked that “yadda” word. “I guess.”
“No questions?”
“Uh…”
“No.” Venus pinned him with a hard gaze. “Just make sure she wakes up again.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He left.
Lex’s legs quivered. Her mouth had become Death Valley. “Venus, I need to go again.”
Venus rolled her eyes but reached for the IV bag. She paused as she studied it. “Hey.”
“What?”
“It’s almost empty. It’s dripping awfully fast.”
Lex studied the drip-drip-drip. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Venus flagged down a nurse and pointed it out.
“Oh! Sorry about that. We forgot to slow it down after we got the antibiotics in you.” She changed the bag and slowed the drip.
“I didn’t flush all the antibiotics out of me, did I?”
“No, don’t worry, dear.” The nurse bustled away.
After another trip to the bathroom, Lex sat with Venus, not saying anything, just watching a rerun of Oprah on TV. Finally, the nurse peeked in. “We’re almost ready for you. A few minutes.”