Finally Home

81. Tyler

Jenna and I dozed fitfully off and on. We'd asked Josh and Debby and now Brendon and Sarah, not to come to the hospital until after lunch.  We needed the time to tell Sam about her leg, and deal with the fallout of that.

Shift change was at seven am, so we stood back as the nurse leaving charted a few things, checked a few things and left to explain to the nurse coming on duty. The morning nurse came in and introduced herself. She double checked a few things and let us know Sam would be getting breakfast around eight. We thanked her, and waited for Sam to wake up.

About a half an hour later, she started to stir. She yawned and stretched and opened her eyes.

"Hey there, sleepyhead," I said to her.

"Morning," she yawned.

"How're you feeling, sweetie?" Jenna asked.

"Okay. Hungry actually."

"I bet," I said.

"Sam," Jenna said, getting up on the bed and taking Sam's right hand. I took her left and also sat up on the bed. "Honey, we have to talk to you."

"About what?" She asked.

"About the surgery," I said.

"Did they get the infection? Is my leg going to be okay? When can I go back to basketball?"

Tears rushed to my eyes and I couldn't stop them.

"Sam, honey," Jenna said, taking my hand with her free one. "Oh, Sam. They had to take your leg.  There was just too much damage. Too much muscle had started dying. If they hadn't, you'd have been here in a few weeks probably in a lot more pain."

"You're lying!" Sam shouted at Jenna. "You told me they didn't want to take it!"

"They didn't want to, sweetheart. They had to." 

Sam sat up and pulled at the blanket and so Jenna moved.  Samantha pulled back the covers and stared at the bandaged stump propped on a pillow.

She screamed. It was blood curdling.

I pulled her into a hug as she began to sob. A few nurses came running into the room but stopped when they saw we had Sam.

"We just told her about her leg," I said. The nurses nodded and filed out.

Sam cried and cried. She was wailing and it was breaking my heart.  Jenna was holding her too, and crying. The three of us probably could have launched a ship with the amount of tears we shed.

Eventually, Samantha was cried out, and had fallen asleep again.

"I knew she'd be devastated," I said. "And I can't make this better for her."

"We'll do our best," Jenna said. "We'll help her through everything."

Sam's breakfast came and the nurse wanted to check her sugar and give her her insulin. I woke Sam up and she glared at me.

"Your breakfast is here and the nurse wants to check your blood sugar and give you insulin," I said quietly to her.

"No," Sam said simply.

"Sam," I said. "You have to eat. And you know you need insulin first."

"No."

"Sam, honey," Jenna said. "Come on, darling."

"I don't want to eat. I don't want insulin. I don't want to live anymore," she began crying again. I pulled her into my arms again.

"You don't mean that, sweetheart," I said. "You're upset. Of course you're upset. This is huge. But we're here and we're going to help you through this."