To Love A Broken Heart

Chapter 13

Maia POV

As the door opens my pulse quicken and I feel my hands start to get clammy with sweat. I watched him closely walk past us sitting down on the chair meant for him. He rolls the chair and himself over to me. "Hello hello. How are you doing Maia"? He asks.

I look from him to my dad my nerves showing. "I'm-I'm okay".

"Just okay"?

I nod my head looking down at my hands avoiding eye contact. "Just... okay".

"Okay".

He rolls the chair away from me and to the computer. Somethings wrong. I can tell. He's never been like this before. He's always jumping right into it. He taps on the keyboard logging himself into the system. "Your numbers are good. Protein, good. Albumin, good. Everything looks good".

"But...". I trail on feeling the but coming.

"But there is something I don't like". He clicks on the screen opening the images from the echo. "During your echo we noticed that your abnormal heart rhythm was worse than last time. So I ordered a heart monitor for you. Once I leave a nurse will come in and get you all set up with that. I just want to check it out. There's no cause for alarm right now".

I nod my head. Of course he wants to do one of those. Just my luck. I'll have to wear something baggy tomorrow just to be sure no one sees it. "How long"?

"Will you wear the monitor? Two days. Just to make sure it's not just a today issue and get a better reading on what your rhythm is like on a normal day". He clicks around on the screen looking at different charts and images. He turns to me. "What would you say your energy level is like? Does walking to class take you out of energy? Are you okay running? Are stairs easy or hard for you"?

"My energy level? I'd probably give it a five on a scale of one to ten. I haven't really done much exercise wise besides the short sprint of running I did on Monday, and I do park in the back of the parking lot. Walking to class is... fine. I get bumped into a lot, but i'm short so I'm used to it. Stairs are fine as long as I don't do to many". I look from him to my dad.

My dad has a neutral expression on his face like always. Showing no emotion and trying to be the strong one out of the two of us. "Okay. That's to be expected. What about any chest pains? For example, can you feel when your heart's not beating correctly"?

I look down, taking my eyes away from my dad. I don't want to see how he'll react to this. "Sometimes I can feel something. Sometimes it feels like a pain, but other times it just doesn't feel like something's right, but I can't put my finger on it".

He nodded his head and thought for a moment. "Does it feel like a pounding in your chest"?

I nodded my head. "Yeah".

"Yeah"? He stood up and removed his stethoscope from around his neck. "Okay. I'm going to take a listen. You can get that monitor on and we'll get you on your way. I'll give you a call once we get the results from the monitor and then we'll decide where we go from there".

I laid down on the bed, the paper crinkling beneath me as I moved. He placed the stethoscope on my chest moving it around as he listened at different spots. When he finished listening, he placed the stethoscope back around his neck and placed his hands on my abdomen pushing down a bit, feeling my liver. "Sounds better than it did in there, but not at its best".

My lips curled down in a frown. "Don't worry Maia. I'm sure it's just fine. It's just a routine. You'll hear from me soon".

He shook my dad's hand before leaving, letting the door close behind him. I looked down at the white tile floor avoiding eye contact with my dad. "You could have told me you know. I'm your biggest supporter. I wouldn't get mad at you for having a pounding in your chest".