She's Coming Home

Silent treatment

They brought me back to my room and everyone lifted me and got me settled back in bed and April started switching all the machines over again.
Janet- how was your trip?
Gabby- awesome except not breathe
Janet- yes well breathing is pretty important, what happened?
Gabby- April
April- her head fell forward again and it compromised her airway. She needs something to stop her head from falling forwards because if we weren't in the ED it would not have gone well. Speaking of which, Gabby I'm going to suction you again and put you back on the stronger vent with O2.
Gabby- fine
She disconnects the vent and suctions my trach more before putting me on the original vent and suction my mouth again.
Janet- ok, I'll look into better head support options.
Kate and Liam came and took my wrist braces off which felt amazing.
Kate- we'll see you tomorrow Gabby
Gabby- bye
The 3 of them left and it was just me and April.
April- ok now that there's a chance you'll tell me the truth, how are you doing.
Gabby- little sore tired
April- and your breathing?
Gabby- ok now
I hesitated then decided to tell her
Gabby- scared me
April- when you couldn't breathe?
Gabby- yes
April- honestly you scared me a bit too, it was my idea to put you on that vent when maybe you weren't ready and I forgot to bring a suction machine. I'm sorry Gabby
Gabby- not your fault. Stupid brain injury.
April- we agree on that one! Get some sleep, you had a rough few hours.
Gabby- ok
Gabby- wait forgot video
April- oh ya, do you want me to send it to someone?
Gabby- Tonio
April- ok, I'll send it to him. You sleep.
Gabby- ok
I fall asleep a few minutes later

Antonio POV
I was playing with Shay when my phone buzzed. I looked and saw a text from April. I open it and saw the video of Gabby up in the wheelchair smiling and moving around. I watched it then told Shay.
Antonio(signs)- I have a video of mama come see
She came over and sat in my lap and I played the video for her.
Shay(signs)- mama happy
Antonio- yes mama happy. We'll go see her soon.
I got Shay ready and we headed to the hospital to see Gabby.

Antonio- hey April.
April- hi, she just feel asleep about half an hour ago.
Antonio- alright, we'll just hang out, Shay's been wanting her mama snuggles so she'll just lay with her.
April- alright. I can't leave you to your family time today unfortunately, I need to monitor her breathing. She's back on the regular vent but she was on a portable home vent earlier which is more work for her, she did really well then had some issues and her SATs weren't wanting to come back up so I'm still monitoring her.
Antonio- what happened?
April- her head fell which made it harder and then she needed suction and she was just struggling after that. Probably just tired, she did a lot today.
Antonio- ok, hopefully she'll sleep for a while.
I told Shay to be gentle because mama was sleeping and put her in bed with Gabby. She snuggled in to Gabby's side. Gabby started to wake up a bit.
Antonio- hey go back to sleep, Shay just wants to snuggle.
April- they're so cute, they'll probably sleep for a while.
Antonio- ya, which is good but I need to talk to her about Casey and Shay.
April- no you don't, she's got it
Antonio- what?
April- I've been helping her write him a letter.
She showed me some papers
April- and I'm not letting you read it. I think she's going to ask him to see her soon.
Antonio- ok, I'll glad she's figuring it out.

Me and April talked for a while while the girls slept, after half an hour Shay got bored and started wiggling around so I picked her up.
Antonio(signs and speaks)- come here, mama's still sleeping
Shay(signs)- want play mama
Antonio(signs and speaks)- mama sleeping, do you want to say hi to April?
She climbed off my lap and went over to get April to pick her up. I followed her and put her processors on.
April- hi sweet girl!
The longer April talked to her the more she started babbling.
Gabby- hi baby girl
April- hey sorry did we wake you up?
Gabby- it's ok. I love hear her voice
Antonio(signs and speaks)- Shay look, mama awake
Shay(signs and speaks)- mama!
Gabby- I want Shay
April- wait, first suction
Gabby- ugh again
She rolled her eyes
Antonio- Gabby!
I actually love that she gets to show her sass again
April- yes again
Gabby- why
April- because you're doing well and don't want pneumonia. It only takes a few seconds.
Gabby- fine
April suctions her mouth and her trach them puts Shay on her bed.
Gabby- I want up again
April- Gabby you were up for 2 hours today, you were only supposed to be up for half an hour and we need figure better head support first.
Gabby- but I like chair I can move
April- breathing is more important than moving
Gabby- but
Antonio- Gabby tomorrow
She closed her eyes and refused to respond to anyone but Shay. Great, silent treatment.
Antonio- April are you ok with Shay for a few minutes while I call someone?
April- of course

I went into the hall and called Stella
S- hello
A- hey Stella, it's Antonio
S- hey, everything ok
A- have you had any luck finding someone for Gabby to talk to?
S- what's going on, Brett said she had a great day?
A- she mostly did and now she wants to forget about the bad part of the day and push herself?
S- what happened?
A- she got to try the wheelchair and loved it but she can't always keep her head up. The first time it was fine, the second time she couldn't breathe properly and was choking and April had to bag her and now she's back on the stronger vent with O2 and she wants to get back in the wheelchair. And now she's giving everyone the silent treatment because we won't put her back in the chair
S- sounds like Gabby. I think I might have found someone in Seattle, I need a day or 2 to figure out how to contact them.
A- ok thanks Stella. I think she's going to ask the house the come see her soon
S- no problem and that would be great, want to encourage her on that one!
A- I don't think she'll listen to me right now
S- well, good luck, she'll come around. Talk to you soon
A- bye
Call ended
I went back into Gabby's room and took Shay home for the night.
Antonio- see you tomorrow sis
She ignored me. We headed out.

1 am- Nat POV
I'm working overnight mostly in the ED, it's been a pretty slow night, then I get paged to the ICU. Gabby. I try not to immediately think it's her but that's probably the only reason I'd be paged to the ICU. I get up to the ICU and all the commotion is in Gabby's room. April's shift finished a few hour ago so there's not really anyone who knows her here. I run into her room and find her seizing and her SATs all over the place.

Author's note
Bit of a cliffhanger today, I'll update soon though!