Six Ways From Sunday

Chapter 6

When CC took me home, I didn't feel like I should be alone, so I asked him to stay with me for a while. He agreed, so we started to watch some movies. I'd taken some Aleve when we got to the house, but my headache wasn't going away. Finally I looked up at CC.

"Something's wrong. The headache won't go away." I said. CC looked at me with an alarmed look on his face. "I think something's really wrong."

"Charli, what's wrong? You're slurring your words." CC grabbed my face and looked into my eyes. I stared blankly at him.

"I am? I hadn't noticed." I slurred at him. This time I did notice. CC called for an ambulance. I begged him not to in my slurred voice, but he insisted. As the paramedics loaded me up, I slurred at him not to tell Andy just yet.

I heard the paramedics calling ahead to the hospital. I managed to tell them that Dr. Williams was my doctor and that he'd just seen me this morning. Unfortunately, that's all I remember. I passed out a couple minutes later.

I woke up in the ER with Dr. Williams standing over me. He wasn't talking to me, he was talking to the nurses around him. I couldn't understand what he was saying. My ears felt like they were full of fluid. It sounded like Dr. Williams was talking to me while I was under water. The only reason I knew he wasn't talking to me was because he wasn't facing me.

I took a deep breath. "What's going on?" I croaked out. I was still slurring my words, and I sounded to myself like I was under water. I'm sure to Dr. Williams I sounded like I would have before I'd had the surgery ten months ago. Dr. Williams had never heard me before my surgery though – Dr. Anderson was the one who performed the operation. Dr. Williams had just taken over my case when I moved to L.A.

Dr. Williams looked directly at me. "I'm sorry Charli, I'm pretty sure that the implant needs to come out. I'm going to send you in for a CT scan to see what might be going on in your brain. The implant doesn't allow me to send you for an MRI. I'm pretty sure that the infection in your implant site is probably the cause of this."

I shook my head. "No, I've had headaches. Not like from the infection. The infection just made the site sore. These were like migraines." I had, I believed, finally stopped slurring my words. I wondered where CC was.

"My friend – is he here?" I asked. Dr. Williams looked down at me.

"You mean your brother?" He looked at me for a moment. I shook my head. "Oh, you mean the friend who called the ambulance. Yes, he's here."

"Can he come back here?" I figured he probably couldn't. After all, Dr. Williams was working on me. Dr. Williams shook his head and I nodded softly. I waited for a few minutes before the techs came to take me down to have the CT scan. For once the techs didn't have to start an IV, it was already started. I got about halfway through the CT scan before I passed out again.

When I woke up, I looked around for a moment. Everything was dead silent, even though I could see people walking around and I could see medical monitors around me that I knew had to be making noise. I realized quickly where I was and knew what had happened. Dr. Williams came into the cubicle I was in when the nurse told him I appeared to be awake.

"Hello, Charli." He said, making sure he was facing me and I was watching him. "I'm sorry, we had to remove your implant. The infection was worse than we thought. You'll be going upstairs in a few minutes for IV antibiotics for the next week."

Tears filled my eyes. This was the last thing I had wanted. "Will I be able to try again?" I asked him.

"Yes, in about six months, we'll be able to look into possibly placing the implant again. Perhaps on the right side this time." Dr. Williams gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry Charli, I know you didn't want to have the implant removed, but you'd never have healed if we hadn't. You might have even died. The infection had gotten into your bloodstream. It was affecting your brain function. But keep your spirits up. You'll need them to beat this infection. It's a pretty nasty one." He left the room, presumably to make the necessary arrangements for my transfer to a room upstairs. Honestly, at this point, I wasn't sure I wanted to live.

It was easy for him to say to keep my spirits up. He wasn't the one whose world had just been turned upside down. I curled up and cried myself to sleep in the recovery area. I didn't remember them taking me up to my room, I just woke up there. I looked around a bit and noticed CC sitting in the chair next to my bed. I tried to smile at him, but what I ended up doing was bursting into tears.

CC got up and put his arms around me. I could feel that he was talking to me, but I had no idea what he was saying. I looked up at him and motioned for him to be quiet. He gave me a weird look and I sighed. Knowing that my voice would be difficult to understand now, I grabbed the dry-erase board Dr. Williams had sent up with me. "You have to face me when you talk." I wrote and turned it so CC could see it.

"Why?" CC asked. Fortunately, he said it while facing me. I could tell he was confused.

Tears slid down my face making it hard for me to write on the board. I erased the previous message and wrote what I hadn't wanted to tell anyone, not even my little brother. I wrote the words I knew would change everything. They would change everything because what musician would want me after this? "Because I'm deaf."