A Surfer Girl's Worst Nightmare

Chapter 11: Feelings

The entire team of nurses and Uncle John were trying as hard as they could to stop the bleeding from my torn stitches and I still hadn't been able to say anything because I was in too much pain. It wasn't until after I felt someone rub the cream on me, the one they had been using to numb my back and dull the pain, that I felt it. And I mean really  felt it. I was a little bit afraid to say anything to anyone because I didn't want to be wrong and think that I was imagining it. So, without warning, I gently moved my leg and when I felt it rub against the sheets of the bed I almost cried with happiness. I could feel it! My leg is going to be okay! But what about the other one? What if only one is okay and the other isn't? Before I freaked myself out too much I moved the other one and felt the same thing I did from the other one. I was okay. I was going to be fine and everything was going to work out great, I could just tell.

I ran another test run and moved my left leg again but this time I misjudged myself and my leg ended up moving a little bit further and faster than I thought it would. This got everyones attention and we all froze. Keoki all but pushed the nurses out of his way before kneeling by my head and, with teary eyes, looked me straight in the soul and said, "How?" 

"I don't know" I said, choked up myself. "I just felt it out of nowhere after my stitches ripped out."

"I know how." Uncle John said from somewhere above me. Keoki looked above my head and waited for him to explain. "Well, miss Lani girl," he began while walking around the bed to where I could see him. Nurses were still working on closing and cleaning up my open wound. "When you ripped your stitches out, you seem to have moved something near your lower back by the bottom of your spinal chord and the movement caused more of the poison to come out of your back that we couldn't see before. I have no idea where in your back it was, but you definitely got it out. Especially if you have feeling in your legs now. And if they're tingly right now, which I assume they are?" At this I nodded my head, "Then that just means your legs should be even better than I thought they would be. The areas we removed most of the poison from was all where it was sitting on top of a bundle of nerves that control the feeling in your legs. And although we removed it all, you just made the chances even better for yourself. So, even though you caused yourself a great deal of pain, I'd definitely say it was for the better." With that he smoothed back some of the hair that had moved into my face, bent down and kissed my temple before he said, "Way to go little girl." Then he started back on replacing the stitches I'd destroyed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I've been in the hospital a little over a month and a half and I'm starting to get achy. There isn't much pain left, just aches deep in my bones and muscles from them not being used. It was a pretty horrible feeling but it was definitely better than the phantom pain I'd experienced shortly after regaining feeling in my left leg. That was the leg that I was practically missing half of. 

*FLASHBACK* 

10:00 PM

"Hey Keoki?" I called him from my bed where I was watching tv. He raised his head slightly without looking away from the book he was currently reading and said a quiet, "Hmm?" 

"Could you pass me the remote? I'm tired of watching this." He chuckled before reaching over to the small table that was by my bed and grabbed the remote. He held it out to me and I had to reach a little farther than either one of us anticipated since he was too lazy to get up and give it to me. When I reached my arm out, most of my body went with it and without realizing it, I let out a shriek from the pain I suddenly felt in my leg. It felt like someone had given me a charlie horse on the top part of my outer thigh and just kept wailing on it. Keoki jumped up as quickly as possible, dropping both the remote and his book in the process and rushed over to me. His hands fluttered around me and his eyes were panicked because he had no idea what was going on.