The Life of Reba McEntire Blackstock

Part 21

Reba's P.O.V.

My eyes focus on the room around me. It's a sterile white and reeks of cleaning solution. I look down at my body and notice that I'm in a hospital gown and hooked up to multiple IVs. I sit up as quick as a flash of lightning, confused by all of my sights. From out of nowhere Narvel appears at my side. He looks torn between glee and worry. I demand, "Narvel. What's wrong? Why am I here?" He looks at me and reaches up to my face. He runs his thumb over my cheek and says, "Hey honey, how're you feeling?" He then reaches above my bed to a monitor and pushes a button on the side of the screen. With that, a nurse appears in the doorway. The nurse walks over to Narvel and asks, "Did you do something to wake her up, or did she just come to by herself?" He shrugs his shoulders and clears his throat, "Well, I was talking to her about the events of tonight and then told her goodnight. Come to think of it, I did kiss her right before I sat down in the chair to go to sleep myself." The nurse had a slowly appearing smile on her face and looked from to Narvel to myself. She then looked to Narvel and said, "I believe that we just witnessed a true love's kiss." Wait, so I was unconscious and Narvel woke me up by kissing me? I tired of trying to figure this out and it doesn't help that I have a pounding headache. "Will someone please tell me why I'm here and why I have a pounding headache?" The nurse looked at Narvel and asked, "You wanna tell her while I go and get the materials I need to run the final tests?" He nodded and the nurse left the room. Narvel grabbed my hand and asked me, "What was the last thing you remember from earlier?" I resituated myself on the bed so that I was comfortable then answered, "messing up on I'm A Survivor." I feel myself blush of embarrassment. Narvel giggles and says, "Baby, don't be embarrassed." He takes a seat on the bed with me and runs his hands through my hair. He continues on, "Ok, so you were singing I'm A Survivor and I think I can quote about how it went. Here it goes..." He clears his voice then starts singing, "A single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kids and never stops, with gentle hands and a heart of a fighter. I'm a-a woah, this room's getting dark!" I burst out laughing! Why would I ever do that? He continues on while I'm still laughing. "Honestly, I thought you were joking until I saw you start falling backwards. I sprinted as fast as I could to try to catch you, but I wasn't quick enough. You landed and hit your head a millisecond before I reached you. That will explain your headache." He stopped and grinned at me. He squeezed my hand before he continued on with his story. "I arrived to you like a baseball player arriving to home plate and checked to see if you were still breathing and you weren't." He had tears forming in his eyes now and his voice was cracking. "I yelled at someone to call 911 while I started CPR. The paramedics loaded you onto a stretcher while running tests and I had to talk to the audience. I was terribly nervous and even messed up while talking. I told them that you would be back to perform another show." I think Narvel was confused by the smile forming on my lips paired with the tears in my eyes. I am so thankful that I have Narvel. He conquered his biggest fear to let my fans know that I was ok. The nurse appeared in my room again and said she just had to run a few tests to get me ready for release. The nurse did ask for Narvel to leave the room and he obliged, kissing me on the forehead before leaving. He exited the room then the nurse slipped the blood pressure cuff over my hand. She told me as she took my blood pressure reading, "Ok, Mrs. Blackstock. All of your tests are running fine right now. I will say though that when the paramedics took your readings on the stage your heart rate was extremely high. Were you worried about anything when you were singing? Your husband said that you thought you had low blood sugar earlier today." I answered back as truthfully as I could. I wanted to tell my lie that I was comfortable with, but I knew that would do no good for my diagnosis. "I didn't have low blood sugar earlier. I was very nervous about going on stage in front of my fans who didn't know I have cancer. I didn't want to think that I was that anxious, so I even believed my lie until I had to sing I'm A Survivor. It was then my heart rate picked up again and I had an anxiety attack. I guess this one was worse than my last one." The nurse thanked me for my valuable information and invited Narvel back into my room. As he stood in the doorway, I thought about how he was the best husband I could ever ask for.