The Girl Opposite The Boy

Thursday

I wake up to the tightening of the blood pressure cuff around my arm, "sorry to wake you sweetie, you can go back to sleep if you want, I'll bring brekkie around in about half an hour" Emma says, looking at me kindly. I just nod to her and realise that it's morning. I look around the room to see Hailee and Calum awake, doing their own things and Elly still sleeping peacefully. Winnie comes into the room and starts taking Elly's vitals and messing with her IV, being careful not to wake her up. Hailee and I are soon served our breakfast of two pieces of toast, some jam, and some vegemite, a bowl of cereal and a banana while Cal is taken from the room again.

It's now 9:30 and Elly is still sleeping. The nurses have been coming in every so often to check our vitals and everything, but I haven't actually seen anyone else really. That is, until Winnie enters the room with an old looking man in surgical attire. She gently places a hand on Elly's shoulder and carefully wakes her up. Elly groans quietly as she is woken and takes some deep breaths to wake herself up. "Good morning my lovely" Winnie says enthusiastically as Elly's eyes flutter open, "morning Whin" Elly mumbles, using her arm without the IV in it to prop herself up. "Hi Elly, I'm Dr Latham, I'll be inserting your PICC-line today" the man says. Elly nods, "do we have a time frame?" she asks, "we're aiming for 11ish" the doctor answers, "so I don't get out of physio?" Elly jokes, "sorry honey, Mike will be here in about half an hour, he'll go easy on you though, he knows we can't have you going into a hypo" Winnie replies as Elly nods. "we're gonna do handover in 15" Winnie says to everyone, walking out of the room with the doctor.

Elly goes back to sleep rather quickly. The nurses soon come back, with their handover nurses and we complete the handover, Elly still sleeping, leaving Winnie to just talk to the other nurse as they let their patient sleep. Hailee and I have a nurse named Amy today and she seems really sweet. After a while, Elly wakes up, "happy Thursday!" she announces cheerfully, stretching to wake herself up. "Happy Thursday" Cal replies, chuckling, "and how are you this fine morning Calum?" she asks happily, "good" he laughs. "And how are you today Elly?" I ask, "I'm good thanks, can't wait to get this operation out of the way so I can get this cannula out" she replies. I cock my head in confusion, "the vein that it's in is weak, it's getting uncomfortable" she explains, gesturing to the IV in her hand. I nod, signalling to her that I understand before Cal's nurse and Amy, pushing an empty wheelchair, walk into the room. 

"Alright my lovelies, time for school!" Amy says enthusiastically, swinging her hands together in a clap. She then walks over to me, "hey Zach, can I help you sit?" she asks sweetly. I nod and let her help transfer me from my bed to the wheelchair. I am then pushed over to Hailee as she hops out of her bed. Calum's nurse helps him out of bed and comes over to join us. Then, the five of us make our way out of the room and follow the nurses out of the ward. Amy then pushes the call button for the elevator and we stand and wait, "so what year are we all in, hey?" Amy asks, "11" I answer, "ooh, in senior hey" she says and I just nod at her. "8" Hailee answers, "you finding it better than year 7?" she asks, "oh, so much better" she laughs as Amy nods. She then looks to Cal, "uh, I'm in year 10" he answers, "are you enjoying it?" she asks, "nope" he laughs, "are you picking electives yet?" Amy asks, continuing the conversation as we step into the lift, "no, not yet" he answers, "well, hopefully you will start enjoying it more when you get to choose your subjects" Amy replies happily. Cal just nods as we are taken to the school. Our nurses then leave to go back up to the ward.

Eventually, the nurses come back down to get us and we are taken back to the ward. I am pushed back to my bed and Amy helps me to get back into my bed. I look across the room to Elly's bed and find it empty, "is she still in surgery?" I ask Amy, "yeah, Laura has just gone down to collect her from recovery, she should be here in the next 10 minutes" Amy answers and I nod to her. About 10 minutes later, I see a nurse enter the room, pushing a tired looking Elly in a wheelchair. The nurse then helps Elly into bed before taking her IV bag off the pole on the wheelchair and moving it to a stand alone pole. Elly's tube on her oxygen cannula is then changed from the tank on the wheelchair to the wall behind her bed. "I'll come back in 5 with some food for you honey" the nurse says once she has gotten Elly all set up, "thanks Laura" Elly says weakly before her nurse leaves. "How'd it go?" I ask her. She just holds her hand up excitedly showing me that there is no longer a cannula in it, "that's great!" I say, before noticing that the line has just been moved to above the crease in her elbow, "you still have a line though" I say. "yeah, it's so they can give me IVAB to get rid of my chest infection, this line is stronger though, it should last me the 2 weeks instead of needing it changed every couple of days" she explains, 'so that's why she's here' I think to myself, "is it more comfortable than your other one?" I ask, "oh yeah, this one isn't aching or itchy!" she replies happily.