Meet Again

Spring 2020

It was the first week of May, 9 weeks after Nicky's brain surgery, and Rory found herself sitting in the hospital one morning with Nicky who was having a chemo treatment. While he was getting his infusion, Dr Browne came in to check on him. The hope was that she'd decide that he was recovered enough from his surgery to be able to go back to school. Rory was fine with him staying home longer, but he really wanted to go back even if there were only a few weeks until summer vacation.

"Nicky, can you tilt your head forward so I can see your scar?" Dr Browne asked. Nicky had a long surgical scar along the back of his head that extended halfway down the back of his neck.

Nicky looked down at his feet.

"His incision is healing nicely" Dr Browne said. "Eventually his hair will grow longer and cover most of the scar. It'll likely only be visible on his neck, but I don't think it'll be too prominent"

Rory nodded.

"Am I allowed to go to school now?" Nicky asked.

"There are no neurological deficits and while I noticed that he does still have some weakness on his left side, it's improving. As far as recovering from his surgery goes, I'm giving the all clear to resume normal activity, but should also check with Dr Johnson to be safe"

"Thank you" Rory said.

"Of course. Good luck" Dr Browne said before leaving the room.

"Mommy, are they gonna take the needle out today?" Nicky asked. He had a port in his chest to get the chemo. At the beginning of a chemo cycle a nurse would use a needle to access it. That needle was attached to a small tube that would stay there until the end of the cycle. They would give him the chemo through it but also draw blood and give other medications. Since this was the first treatment in the cycle they'd only accessed the port a few minutes earlier.

"They just put it there today" Rory said. "They're gonna cover it with the clear tape and it's gonna stay there for a little while"

"Are they gonna take out the one in my nose?"

"Bubba, they can't take that one out unless you eat" Rory said. She knew that Nicky didn't like the NG tube, but it was unfortunate needed since he was eating less than one meal a day.

"I don't want to" Nicky said. It wasn't just that he didn't want to. The chemo made him nauseous, and sick. When he first started the treatments he'd throw up anything he ate. After that he stopped wanting to eat anything.

"I know, but that means that you need the feeding tube. Right?"

Nicky nodded.

By the end of the 3 hour treatment Nicky was exhausted. As soon as they got home, Rory gave Nicky his anti nausea medicine and his pain meds before he got into bed. Logan was at work, Grace was at school, and Sammy was with Honor, so once Nicky was situated Rory went downstairs to get some housework done. 

Around 1pm, Rory went to check on Nicky to find that he wasn't in his room. She went to check if he was in the playroom, but on her way there she saw him in her bedroom. She went into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed next to where Nicky was asleep. She gently stroked his cheek with the back of her finger. "Hey" she said softly.

"Mmm" Nicky groaned and rolled over to face away from her.

"Do you wanna come eat some lunch?" Rory asked. She knew that he wouldn't want to and she hated that she had to wake him up to ask a question she knew the answer to, but the goal was to get rid of the feeding tube and in order to do that Nicky had to be eating enough solid food to not need it anymore.