Zenande Okhethiweyo 2

Chapter 3

"This must be a joke" Duduzile bitterly says as she rises to her feet.
"Miss Buthelezi I assure you Mr Zulu is in good hands" I say.
Rage shows on her face and Dr Naidoo turns to me,poor old man must be confused.
"It's Mrs Zulu to you" She says.
I look down to cover up my smile because she is testing me honestly. I look back up at her as serious as I can ever be.
"My bad Mrs Zulu. I will check on the patient and in the next coming hour I will have a better understanding of his situation and then we can propose the next step forward" i say as Dr Naidoo leads me to his room.
Nobody says a word except Dudu whom I hear insulting me and asking Siphephelo why he is quiet.

He is lying on the bed with nothing but a lot of pipes connected to machines and a bandage covering his head. His smile is not there,he doesn't even look alive. Dr Naidoo is looking expectantly at me,I can't afford to fumble I drag my feet closer to Zano,I touch his hand and it feels cold,his hands were always so warm.
"Dr Zulu are you alright?" The old man asks.
How nice it would be to say no and ask him to leave me alone so that I can talk to my husband. But I can't,I need to make sure he doesn't die on us.
"Yes you may continue" I say to him.
He briefs me on Zanothando's condition and he lets me run some test so that I can verify whatever I need to know.

I'm in my office going through the test results,Zano's scans show that he has a little bubble in his spinal cord,everything else is perfectly fine. The accident might have caused his spinal fluid to cause a clot that's why it is this big by now. Somebody knocks on my door.
"Come in" I say without looking up.
"Dr Naidoo I found something Mr Zulu needs to be operated-...." I keep quiet when I look up into Siphephelo's eyes.
He looks older,but who am I kidding it has been five years. He just stands there looking at me without a word.
"If you need my help or you want to ask me something Mr Zulu then please take a seat" I say after a while showing him the seat across me.
"Why are you back?" He asks sitting down.
"I saw your message on Instagram and Dr Naidoo contacted me with this special case" I say without emotion. Even though I'm falling apart inside.
"So you left your kids and boyfriend to come save him?" He asks with some emotion in his eyes.
"There is nothing I wouldn't do for him,I would even swap positions with him right now if I could" I say matter of factly.
He seems surprised and he doesn't even try to cover it up.
"But you left him when he needed you the most" he says.
"I can never leave him and me leaving was a good plan because of all the stress I would..." I stop myself and shake my head this is not the time.
He looks at me for a while like he is trying to see through me.
"So you can help him even though you have both moved on?" He asks.
"As much as I am a doctor,I would recommend you guys give Bab' Cele a call" I say changing the subject.
"So you are telling me that you can't do anything?" He asks.
"Mr Zulu you are a traditional man,you should be answering that. It is situations like these where western medicine cannot do it alone. I'm even irritated that you haven't thought of this" i say my irritation showing on my face.
"We tried. Your colleagues won't allow Bab' Cele near that room and we can't carry him to his hut can we?" He says.
Dr Naidoo budges in.
"Oh sorry I thought you were alone Dr Zulu" Dr Naidoo.
"We are done" Siphephelo says getting up and walks to the door.
"Siphephelo!" He turns to look at me.
"Bring him" I say.
Getting what I mean he smiles and nods his head.
I brief Dr Naidoo on what I have seen in the scans and I can tell that he feels embarassed,I mean he should.

It's now late luckily the entire family is still here.
"Good evening" I say to them as I flip through Zano's file.
I hear a lot of mumbling. But I hear a clear "Evening Makoti" from the king.
I freeze and look up at him,he is not angry or shocked all I see is relief in his eyes. Same as gogo and the other family members except Dudu who seems disgusted by my presence.
"I will put this is as simply as I can,Mr Zulu has a small bubble situated right on the lower part of his neck not only is this not normal but the bubble seems to be growing with each passing day making it even more dangerous for him. If I may ask has he ever complained about having any pains around his back area?" I ask.
How ironic because I'm sure the pain he felt was because of me. Emotionally I mean.
"Yes the last time I was with him he was even struggling to stand up properly" Siphephelo says.
I nod and jot it down.
"It started a month ago,he would just wince out of nowhere" Mamkhulu adds on.
I nod my head again and scribble every information down.
"So what happens now doctor? Isn't there anything you can do?" Muzi asks.
You can tell that he is still confused by this whole thing but one thing I see is that he respects my profession.
"Yes there is. We need to operate on him and remove the bubble" I say trying my best not to show any emotions whatsoever.
"Then please perform the surgery as soon as you can" gogo  says looking emotionally exhausted.
"I have to warn you that the surgery is risky there is a fifty percent chance that he will make it and a fifty percent chance that he won't. It is a very complex surgery" I say.
"Then why the hell do we pay you so much if you can't do your jobs?" Dudu bursts out.
Anger evident on her face.
"Who will be performing the surgery?" Siphephelo asks.
"Me with the assistance of Dr Naidoo Mr Zulu" I say with a small sigh.
Don't they see that is the reason why I was brought here.
"Then I trust that he will make it" he replies with a tight smile.
Looking around the room they all seem skeptic about this except Enhle and Siphephelo.

"I will talk to Dr Naidoo about scheduling the surgery and I will get back to you. For now I would suggest that you all get some rest,you are going to need it" I say trying to keep the misery out of my voice but failing.
"Mxm" Dudu says.
"Thank you makoti" Mamkhulu says nodding her head and brushing gogo's back.
Did she just realise what she called me? Looking at Dudu's expression,it wasn't my ears that heard wrong.
"If you need any further information please don't hesitate to call me or let me know" I say.
"That's a relief thank you Doctor,can we have your numbers?" Muzi asks.
I nod my head and take out my business card from my pocket and hand it to him. He looks at it and looks back at me then he nods. I turn my heel and go straight to my office so that I can fetch my bag and go home. This is going to be the hardest job I have ever done since I became a qualified surgeon.

Hey Fam! Please forgive me for being so clueless about medical terms and conditions,in my defence I'm only a Psychology major😩🤦.