Time Changes

Part Seventeen

Enquiring about her father’s whereabouts, walking to the ward, it all passed in a blur. Eventually she rounded a corner to see her mother sat in a corridor, her head in her hands. Her mother had always been protected by her strong father; she was almost the antithesis of the feminine movement, happy to be a homemaker, devoted to her family. And Alexis couldn’t imagine how she was feeling facing the fact that Oliver would not be around forever.

                “Mama?” she offered quietly.

Rosa stood when she saw Alexis approach and fell into her arms, hysterical."Oh Thank the Lord you’re here! How can I live without him Alexis? Who’ll look after me? Oh my God!" she dissolved into wails.

Alexis held her weeping mother, and looked around, medicine was her field, she’d sort this out. Realising her mother really did know nothing about what was going on, she deposited her back in her seat, then wandered off to find a member of staff, she’d worked in this hospital before, and she recognised some faces, two nurses were rather evasive, but eventually she found a doctor, no one she knew, but with a few moments, he realized she knew what he was talking about and dropped into technical talk.

He explained her father had had a huge heart attack, which left him with critically unstable angina. They’d had to operate immediately, and he’d had surgery earlier, four bypass grafts. Pretty much as serious as it got, but he was alive, sedated and still ventilated, but alive. In his opinion people recovered well from the procedure when it was done on a planned basis, but the emergency version was a little less predictable, every minute was critical.

“You’ll phone me if there’s any change, no matter how subtle?”

He nodded, “I’ll make sure you’re informed of everything that happens.”

She thanked him profusely, then returned to find her mother.

Rosa was teetering a fine line between grief and hysteria, and Alexis knew there were few people who could manage her in this state. Walking across the waiting room, she slid into the seat next to her.

                “Mama, come on!” You have to hold this together, Dad needs you to be strong!”

                “But he’s always been the strong one cara; I don’t even know how to change a light bulb. What if...”

Alexis silenced her, “let’s not have that talk. My father is as strong as an ox. He will get through this, and he will not want to hear that you lost the plot. Now come on, let me tell you what the doctor told me.”

She calmed her mother, explaining that is wasn’t as bleak as it could be. But she was inconsolable. She’d been like it since he’d collapsed according to Daniel. And whilst Alexis wasn’t surprised, she hated that once again she had the weight of the family on her shoulders. But that was how it was, her mother and her sister were both emotionally flaky, and any decision making over the next week would be down to her.

An hour later, the doctor came and found her, explained her father was back from recovery and was settled they could see him, he wasn’t awake, but at least they could see him. She wasn’t sure it was the right thing for her mother, but she couldn’t stop her, and her mother was desperate to see him, regardless of how that made her feel. A nurse led them down the corridor, into an ITU, obviously during her medical training Alexis had worked on several units like this, but nothing prepared her for seeing her father there.

He was white, not pale, almost ghostly, but peaceful, didn’t look in pain. She’d seen ill people look traumatised even whilst unconscious like him, but he was calm, serene almost.  Her mother rapidly became that same shade of white, clutching at her father’s lifeless hand. Lex spoke to the nurse, who filled her in on his condition, which was as good as could be expected. She had to prise her mother from her father, but when they finally left after half an hour Lex was a lot happier than when she’d arrived.