*ok here is the next bit!*
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The next morning, I woke up. Well, as much as one can wake up when they can't move at all. I lay there, feeling the sun's morning rays on my face, enjoying the quiet calm of the morning hours. I tried not to think about what was happening, if I dwelled on it too much, I was sure I would have some sort of breakdown. Noise broke the stillness. I heard my mum and Damian stir from their sleep, and yawn tiredly. I hope they had been able to sleep, that the worry and uncertainty hadn't been eating away at them over the night like it had been doing to me all morning long. I heard them get up from their beds, heard a chair being scraped across the floor.
'Good morning, Kathy. Hope you can hear me, and that you are better than you were yesterday.' His voice was a bit strained as he spoke, trying a bit too hard to sound put together. How I wish I could see those sparkling blue eyes of his again, that mischevious grin, that black, curly hair. At least I could see him in my mind's eye. Mentally, I worried that he wouldn't want to stay. I knew I was being absurd, but I couldn't stop myself from mulling over all the possible scenarios in my head. Who would really want a bedridden, helpless girlfriend?? Stop it, I told myself. He gave you that ring didn't he? He told you he loves you. Damian started half-singing, half-whispering the very first song he ever sang for me. The one about the street corner, and wanting a girl. But this time, he changed the words now that he does have a girl for his own. If I could move, I would have smiled and laughed, just like I did the first time I had heard the song. In the middle of my reminiscing, I heard everyone walking into the room, voices loud, then hushed into a faint whisper as they came near me. More chairs scraping across the laminate floor. The smell of fresh summer lilys filled the room. Then, Janet whispered to her son.
'Is she any better?? Any change at all?' There was a faint note of hope in her voice.
'No. She's the same as she was yesterday.' responded Damian, in a matter-of-fact tone.
'I know this is hurting you to have to go through this. But life comes with its ups and downs. Imagine how much she is hurting, I bet its even more than you are hurting for her. We can all see it, Damian. You're suffering right along with her, as if you were the one in that hospital bed. If nothing else, prayers and love will help her through.'
'I'd change places with her in an instant, if I could! I hate seeing her hurt, it makes my heart ache for her. So far, I've been able to protect her from the bad things, but now I can't anymore and I feel like I should be able to....' Damian said, raw emotion showing in each word.
'I know you would, we all would, if we were given the option....' said his mum.
They dropped the conversation, silenced by loud, ringing footsteps. I assumed it was the doctor again, with hopefully better news this time so I wouldn't have to be the cause of Damian's pain anymore.
'We have gotten the test results from the past few days, and we have come up with a diagnosis. Ms.Hanrahan is in a deep epileptic coma. She has no prior history of epilepsy. But we have found out why this has happened so suddenly without any symptoms. Nerves in her brain are not connected properly, and so it was just a matter of time before this happened. I presume that seizures were the cause of her slipping into a coma. If that was in fact, the cause, she would have had about 10-20 seizures two days ago in her sleep. After someone has just one seizure, they usually sleep afterwards, as it makes them exhausted and tired. They sleep for a few hours, and may wake up disoriented and confused. That is completely normal. If many seizures have occured, then the patient may become comatose, as has occured in her case.'
'When will she wake up, then?' asked Damian.
'Well, lad, here is the not so good news. We can't risk bringing her out of her coma until she has stabilized and the frequency of the seizures is greatly decreased. That could be anywhere from a few days to a few weeks from now. It's hard to tell, it really is on a patient-by-patient basis with these types of things.'
'Wait, she's still having seizures?? I didn't notice any last night....'
Last night?? Lord above, what had he done, kept watch over me from his bed all night long?
'That is because she has tonic seizures. Tonic seizures are when the muscles in the body tighten up, and the person has no control when their muscles go spastic and shake. To you, her seizing up most likely looked like she was just tossing and turning in her sleep, since tonic ones aren't always full-blown muscle spasms. For now, all I can do is give her some anti-seizure medicines and see if any of them help reduce the severity and frequency of her seizures. If she does start seizing, ring the call button and I or another doctor will be here as fast as we can. Now, I have other patients to see to as well. I will be back later to check on Kathleen.'
'What are you putting in her arm?' asked my mum.
'Several different types of medicines to reduce her attacks.'
And with that, he walked away down the hall to attend to his other duties.
Now, we finally all knew what was wrong with me, but it didn't seem to help much, as I wouldn't be brought back to full consciousness for awhile yet. Everyone sat in silence, thinking over what they had just heard.
'Hey! We've still to work on our plan to keep her here! If the lawyers know she's sick, surely they will be more lenient to keep her here than to risk a flight back to America..` Pointed out Emmet.
`We can write draft letters to the lawyers now, and send them in e-mails later.` said Paul.
Everyone eagerly agreed,and so for the next hour, all I heard was pens writing furiously, and the occasional question from someone to Damian on how I looked. I felt his warm, protective hand holding my cold, weak, one, and I realized he hadn`t moved from my bedside since the morning. Eventually, they all took a break from writing, and scarfed down some pizza. The pizza set off comments about the last time that we had all shared the very same meal at Damian`s house. People started talking about how much craic that night had been, how nice it had been for them to meet me, and so on. Eventually, Damian reached his limit.
`Guys, enough talk of that night, please. You`re all talking about her like she`s not even alive anymore, saying stuff like``She WAS such a great person, she HAD such a nice personality..``She`s still here, still with us, and I don`t want to hear anything else!`
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned somber.
`We didn`t mean it that way Damo, honest. This is hard for us too.` said Paul.
Out of the blue, I felt my body seize up, my eyes rolled back into my skull, and I felt myself shake, I had lost total control of myself.
`She`s having another seizure!`yelled my mum as she pressed the call button.
The doctor ran into the room, and plunged a syringe into my arm. I felt myself slowly start to relax, my eyes went back to where they normally are, and I stopped shaking.
`Ànd that.. That right there is why we can`t let her regain consciousness. Believe it or not, keeping her comatose is actually better for her right now than letting her wake up.`
Yet again, he left.
My mum stroked the back of my hand softly, and I could feel her tears drip down onto my hand.
`My poor girl... My baby.... My Kathy-girl......` She mumbled the words.
I could hear Janet consoling my mum, telling her it was just a matter of time until I would wake up and get back to my life.
`I feel for your son, Janet. I think he is in more pain than I am over this, if that`s possible. he really loves her.. He really does...` said my mum empathetically.
`Aye, he`d go to the moon and bring it back if he thought it would help her. My son and your daughter have their whole lives ahead of them, `tis sad their relationship is being tested like this.`
Damian seemed to be paying them, or their conversation any attention at all. He was talking to me, so low that I almost couldn`t hear him.
`I swear, if I live to be a hundred, it`ll be with you. If I ever get married, I want it to be with you. It can`t end here, you musn`t go yet, we`ve the rest of our lives to enjoy. I`ve so much that I want us to do and see, so many new things for us to try. I`ll be lost without you, only half the person I should be, because you have the other half of my heart with you.`
I was so happy to hear that he still wanted me, fully there or not. I knew then that if we could make it through this, we could make it through anything that life could possibly throw at us. Again, much too soon, visiting hours were once again over. Janet came over to her son, who was still sitting in the same place he had been since he had woken up.
`Damian, are ye sure that ye don`t want to come home tonight... Kathy will still be here in the morning.`
`No, I want to be here when she wakes up, which I know she will!`
`Alright then. See you tomorrow, love.`
`Bye Mum.`
`Goodbye and goodnight Damian Joseph. Sleep well.`
His mum set off for home with the whole CT-Mc Ginty clan. Damian started to hum softly, the same song that had calmed me after my nightmare. As long as he was here, I was safe, loved, protected, and watched over. That night, his beautiful voice sang me to sleep.
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The whole epilepsy bit was part fiction, part of my own experiences. I do have epilepsy, not tonic seizures though. I have had a mild epileptic coma before, thank God it wasnt worse like the one in the story. Anyway, enough about me, you most likely didnt want to hear that blurb anyway. So... comments, likes, predictions, suggestions, etc. Thanks as always for reading and commenting!!