Why Me?

chapter 9

(No One's POV)

Meredith was put under anesthesia when she got to the operating room and Dr. Romano, the scrub nurses, the anesthesiologist, and a resident got to work.

Dr. Romano allowed the resident to make a small incision in the belly button area and insert a thin surgical camera to provide images of the stomach and organs around it.

Dr. Romano then made 3 small incisions in the left upper abdomen and grasped the stomach with a surgical instrument and pulled it up toward the abdominal wall. He held it in place with 2 sutures the create the area the feeding tube will be inserted.

The anesthesiologist inflated her stomach with air through a nasogastric tube and then Dr. Romano inserted a hollow needle through the skin and into the stomach where the feeding tube would be place. He used a guide wire to insert the needle into the stomach and then removed the needle. He placed the feeding tube over the guide wire and a small balloon on the tube filled with water to keep it in place against the stomach wall.

Once the feeding tube was in the correct position, the resident removed the guide wire and used sutures to help keep the stomach in place against the abdominal wall.

After the surgery was finished, her skin was cleaned, a dressing was placed over the site where the tube exits in and Meredith was taken to recovery.

After an hour, a groggy Meredith was taken back to her room where Derek was waiting for her while reading a book.

A nurse checked her I.V and feeding tube and then left leaving Derek and Meredith alone in the hospital room. Meredith started to stir and Derek stood up and walked to her bedside. 

"Hey Mer. Welcome back.", Derek said quietly. "Hey.", Meredith whispered. "Your doctors said your surgery went well. That's good. Another step closer to regular life.", Derek smiled. "Yea, regular life.", Meredith said.

Even though Meredith was tired, she was still thinking about how she wished everything would just stop. She was not just tired physically, but also mentally. Everything changed so drastically in a month when she just thought that life was going well. 

Derek noticed Meredith was still tired so he told her to go back to sleep. About an hour after, the orthopedic doctor came and put the cast on Meredith. Meredith was still kinda out of it so Derek chose purple for the color of the cast.

The next time she woke up, Meredith was finally energized enough to stay awake for more than 10 minutes.

"Oh, my cast is purple.", Meredith said with a fake smile. "Yea. I didn't know what color you wanted and you weren't really alert so I just chose that color. Do you like it?", Derek asked. "Yea, I like it." "Okay, good. I'm a little hungry so I'm going to go the cafeteria. I'll be back shortly." "Okay."

After Derek left to go to the cafeteria, Cristina stopped by. "Hey Mer! How are you feeling?", Cristina asked. "Fine.", Meredith replied. "Mer..." "Really, I'm fine. I have the g.j tube now I should start gaining some weight and I hope to be out of the hospital in a few weeks." "Oh that's great! Maybe when you're out of the hospital, we could go for a walk or a ferry boat ride. Safely of course." "I would like that."

Meredith and Cristina talked about life and work for a few until Derek came back. "Well your McDreamy is here. I should get going. I have a surgery soon. See you later Mer. Derek.", Cristina said before leaving.

"I see your twisted sister was here. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?", Derek asked. "I'm fine. I don't need help every second Derek.", Meredith said slightly annoyed. "Well I'm sorry for trying to help you. Do you not want my help at all?" "That's not what I said and you know that. I'm sorry if it came out rude. I'm just really tired." "Do you think that I'm not tired either? I know you're sick but I have to do everything. I have to help change you and help clean you all the time. Don't you think that I would be rude sometimes because of how tired I am? Maybe, but I'm not because I won't treat you that way. I mean, I need a break from all of this. Maybe you should think about others sometimes before you say something rude." After Derek said that, he immediately regretted it.