Matters of the Heart

Chapter 35

"Abbey Abbey"

Abbey suddenly came too from a deep sleep.

"Jess honey what's wrong?"

"Abbey it hurts. It really hurts."

As Abbey stood up she tapped her phone to check the time. It was 2:30 AM. Poor Jesse had only made it 2 and a half hours before the excruciating pain overcame him again.

"Baby?"

"I'm here sweetie, hold on"

Abbey found the light switch over Jesse's bed turning on the dimmer. Turning on the lights revealed that Jesse hadn't moved an inch in his sleep which was good news but his face showed the signs of him being in as much pain as he sounded. His eyes were squeezed shut. Abbey grabbed his hand.

"How bad Jess? Scale from 1 to 10. And be honest with me. No sugarcoating it. That won't do you any good"

"Nine."
"No."

"No what? Not a nine?"

"Is there a nine and a half?"

If Abbey wasn't so worried or absolutely heart broken in seeing him in that much pain, she would have been amused.

"That bad huh sweetheart?"

"Yeah."

"Ok we've got you set up with a different set of cocktails. So that should help control your pain. And youre in control of your pain"

Abbey moved to the left side of his bed and moved the pain pump remote to directly under his left hand.

"Ok the remote is right under your left hand. The button is right next to your forefinger. Just click - yep there it is you got it - click it again - you can click it again honey. Hit it as many times as you need it will only dispense enough for your dose. It won't od you. Don't be afraid to take advantage of the meds. We need to get you ahead of the pain so it's not so bad for you. "

Jesse's movements were extremely slow mixed with tons of frustration. But he did it. And he released all grip on the remote after he accomplished the task.

"What part is hurting honey?"

"Everything hurts babe. So bad"

"Ok is there a part that's hurting you more than the others?"

"My whole chest and my stomach"

"Ok well that's normal with open heart surgery"

"My stomach hurts Abs"

She stood leaning over the head of his bed, gently caressing his hair back

"Yeah I'm sure it does honey. You had 3 organs removed on top of the AAA repair and the scheduled heart valve replacement"

"Oh yeah"

"Does anything else hurt sweetie?"

"Under my arms"

Abbey was concerned at that remark trying to understand why that part of his body was in that amount of pain. 

"Ok sweetheart. I'm going to try to not touch you but I need to pull down these blankets and your gown so I can look at your chest and make sure everything's ok, alright?"

"Yeah"

Abbey gingerly pulled down the blankets resting them around his hips and gently pulled down his gown so she could examine where his pain was coming from. And there was the culprit. From just under his armpits all the way down to his torso, his entire chest and abdomen were varying shades of dark red, black, blue, and purple. Seeing that broke Abbeys heart. No wonder he is in so much pain. With the open heart surgery he had to undergo and to get access to his abdominal aortic area, his ribs had been stretched and shaped in wierd ways for nearly 15 hours. She knew the pain was going to happen but seeing it like that in that magnitude just made Abbey want to help Jesse that much more and commend her husband's strength and bravery. He woke up to some form of hell. All she wanted was to take care of him and take away his pain.