Childhood Dream

Chapter 4

As soon as I know it, I'm waking up in a hospital bed, somewhere different from the operating room. I look around and see Dr. Karev talking to a nurse, I try to speak but I feel my body pulling myself back to sleep. When I wake up a second time, I slowly open my eyes and feel I have something cold coming through my nose. I reach up to my nose and feel it's attached to some canister. I just figure that it's oxygen. Then Dr. Karev comes over to me and starts to speak, "Good to see your awake, you've been dozing in and out of sleep for at least an hour."

"What do you mean? What are the..." I sort of mumbled with my eyes half closed.

I'm interrupted mid sentence, "We have been monitoring you since you got out of surgery. Now you might be a little groggy or confused and that's completely normal."

"Where am I? Where's my mom?" I say as I start crying.

"You are at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital Abbie. Everything is all right. Just go back to sleep."

I closed my eyes once more and instantly fall asleep. A little while later I wake up but still have my eyes closed. I hear Dr. Karev and a nurse talking.

I open my eyes and finally feel awake for the first time. I look around and catch the nurse's eyes.

The nurse smiles at me and walks over with Dr. Karev following close behind. She looks up at the monitor I'm hooked up to and says, "Your vitals look good. Your recovering nicely."

Then she looks over towards Dr. Karev who starts off with, "The surgery went very well. Your side will be a little sore for couple days from the stitches but other than that you're good. How do you feel?"

"Um, a little sore and thirsty but besides that, fine."

Just as I finished I was handed a cup of water with a straw in it for me to drink. As I started to drink my water, Dr. Karev starts to walk away.

"Dr. Karev?" I start my sentence with, "Is it normal not remember much of the surgery?"

"Yes, that's completely normal. It's one of the side effects of the anesthesia," he replied with, "what's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember going into surgery and I remember asking to push that white stuff through my IV but after that I'm drawing a blank. And the next thing I remember is waking up a few minutes ago."

"Well, the reason you don't recall much is that the medicine sort of puts your brain to sleep which is why you don't remember it. You woke up a few times after surgery in recovery but immediately fell back asleep after a couple minutes."

"Well thanks."

"My pleasure. Any other questions?"

"Just one, what would be your advice on someone who is looking towards becoming a doctor/and or surgeon?"

"Oh, your interested in the medical field are you? Well I would say take as many science and math classes as you can in school and look for any and all internship opportunities at a hospital."

"Ok thank you. I really appreciate it."