That's What Love Is For

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"No Jamie?" Erin asked Sydney as she arrived at the family home for Sunday dinner.

"No, he's going to eat at the hospital later. I'm going to bring him a plate," Sydney replied. "They finally got Eddie into Columbia Presbyterian. They are going to try one more surgery to try to see if that helps, they got a positive result from some electrode test they did that shows she might have slightly more mobility on her left side than her right, may have some lower arm or wrist function and Jamie wanted to capitalize on that."

"Oh good," Linda smiled. "They do some wonderful things there. If I was in Eddie's shoes, that's where I'd go."

"Let's pray you never are in her shoes, Baby," Danny said thinking how close Linda had come to life in a wheelchair. He wasn't sure if he would be able to cope.

"How is she doing?" Henry asked the question on everyone's mind. "Francis never tells us much and I haven't been to see her since I'm getting over this cold. I plan to go this week"

'The last couple of days been very bad," Sydney replied. "She's very down but what's worse is she's been in a lot of pain. The doctor said it was called neuropathic pain, it comes from the nerve damage," Sydney explained. "She woke up from a nap the other day and was crying out. It took Jamie an hour to make her calm down. They are trying meds and things to help her now. Last night, she scared us both, she couldn't breathe and her face was flushed and clammy, her monitors were going crazy. Her blood pressure was 220/140, she almost had a stroke."

"Autonomic dysreflexia," Linda sighed. She knew the dangers of that condition and how often a person with a spine injury would suffer from it.

"Auto what now?" Sydney asked. "The doctors never explained to us."

"Autonomic dysreflexia," Linda supplied. "It's basically an over stimulation of the autonomic nervous system, that's the part that controls breathing, heartbeat, digestion. When you have a spinal injury as high as Eddie, the involuntary part of her nervous system can overreact to something that might just be irritating to you or me. A wrinkled sock, a sunburn, something as simple as bath water being too hot or too cold and the part of her system that is supposed to calm it down, can't do it effectively so she has these episode of dangerous high pressure, pounding headaches, chills. It is very, very dangerous. Likely she'll battle that the rest of her life, but you and Jamie can learn the causes and the signs, how to treat it..."

"They put her head all the way up and put some ice on her neck but it didn't work so they ended up giving her medicine," Sydney replied. "Jamie is taking all of this so hard."

Danny sighed, "Kid takes everything to heart. How are you doing with it Syd?"

"It's sad to see her like this, we're good friends," Sydney sighed helping bring plates to the table.

"Jamie and I both seem to be able to break through but anyone else she's shut off completely."

"I'll go over and visit her this week," Linda offered.

"I'll go too," Henry replied. "We'll get that young one smiling again. She is capable of a lot more than she knows. I'm sure with time and hard work she'll recover some of her abilities at least."

Sean said grace, making a special prayer for his uncle's partner and friend. As they ate Nikki asked, "What is Eddie going to do for money? She can't be a cop anymore."

"She was injured while a member of the NYPD so she's eligible for disability through us and I think she's eligible for SSDI as well" Frank replied. "I have Baker on the paperwork for both of those benefits so when she's ready to apply there's no hold ups. She will keep her insurance and after a few years she can go on Medicare to supplement it."