Stay With You (Anthony Rizzo)

51

Anthony

I'm not going to lie, last night sucked. I couldn't go to bed because Maliyah was up all night coughing and I didn't want her to feel bad for keeping me up and sleep on the couch. I was more worried that she was coughing that hard that often than anything else. But I guess at some point she moved over to the couch anyway so I could get some sleep and for that I am thankful. A little sad because I hate sleeping alone, but very thankful for a few hours of shut eye. Although I would rather her be feeling better than for her to have to leave I did need to get some sleep. I love that she's thoughtful like that, I really was lucky to have her for so many different reasons, and the thoughtfulness was a big one.

After sleeping in for a little I decide to get up and get the day started. I hadn't seen Maliyah in far too long and I was starting to miss her. So I roll out of bed and brush my teeth before heading to the living room. I see her passed out on the couch and let out a harsh sigh. I wish she would worry more about herself than being a problem to other people. If anything I should have taken the couch and she stayed in bed to rest up properly so she would feel better.

I walk over to the couch and bend down next to her. I go to run my fingers through her short curly hair but stop when I feel how hot she was. She was sweating so much that her hair was soaked because she was burning up. But from what I can she she was cold for she had every extra blanket wrapped around her as she was cuddled up in a ball.

"Hey baby, wake up" I say softly as a caress her cheek. She slowly opens her eyes but never fully as she looks around. Her eyes were red and glassy and full of pain. For the first time I can actually say that I didn't think she was looking too good.

"What's going on" she asks.

"You look really sick, I think you should go to the hospital" I admit.

"I can't" she whimpers.

"Why not" I wonder.

"I'm scared" she whispers and I get chills. That's what she used to tell me when she had cancer and just hearing that make my skin crawl.

"Well if there's something wrong we need to get it fixed. We don't want this to be something bigger than what it actually is and end up with you having to stay in the hospital. If it's a cold we need to get antibiotics or something" I insist and she nods.

I help her up and we get changed before heading over to the hospital. I take her to the emergency room and wait not so patiently for a room to open up. She sits there with her eyes closed like she does when she doesn't want to cry and I try to get my leg to stop nervously bouncing up and down. But it felt like forever she was stuck like that and I couldn't do anything to help. Finally they call her back and do the normal check up things. When the nurse listens to her breath his face drops and that makes my heart drop too.

"Mam, do you have any history with pneumonia" he asks.

"No. But I recently got over having leukemia and I have two donor lungs" she explains and he nods.

"Alright. I'm going to get you a chest x-ray to see what we're dealing with" he explains.

She disappears for about 10 minutes before coming back. They put her in a hospital gown before running a few tests. I can just see in her face how much pain she was in. She was scared because the last time she had chest pain she nearly died. I was just hoping, praying that they figure out what it is and it's not that her cancer is back.

I sit next to the bed and hold her hand in mine. I rub it with my thumb trying to calm her down a little. Her hand was freezing cold but she was still sweating like crazy.

"What if I have cancer again" she asks breaking the scary silence with a even scarier question.

"Then we'll fight. We already beat it once and we can do it again" I insist.

"I don't knew if I can" she admits. I see a tear drop and my heart just breaks. She fought so hard to overcome this and she's been doing so good, the idea of her having to go back to the children's hospital scared her. No one wants to go through that again but I couldn't lose her either.

"You can do it. There's so many things you have left to do in your life. It's not even close to being done" I argue.

"Promise me that you'll stay with me no matter what" she asks and I squeeze her hand.

"I promise to stay with you" I reply.

After a while the doctor comes back and takes a look at the chest x-rays and the notes he had. He does some test of his own before clearing his throat.

"I'm afraid that you attracted bronchial pneumonia which is a infection of the air sacks in the lung. That's the cause of your pain and coughing and everything else your experiencing" the doctor explains.

"And the blood tests" she asks.

"There's no sign of luekemia" he says and we both let out a sigh of relief.

"And what does all of this mean since I had leukemia" she wonders.

"It means that it's going to take a little more effort to fight it off. But you should be fine after we give you some antibiotics and you get some rest" he claims.

"Is she staying here" I wonder.

"For a few more hours to make sure her blood cells are reacting correctly and her new lungs aren't jeapordizing anything" the doctor explains and I nod.

They hook her up to a iv to get the drugs sent straight to where they needed and they give her some stuff for the pain too. I can tell she was relieved that it wasn't cancer again but she was still exhausted. She's been working so hard and maybe that made her miss some of these warming signs that something wasn't right. She wanted so bad to do good, and she is, but she also forgot to take care of herself along the way. After everything she's been through, it's made her stronger but also made her weaker. Her blood cells after being attaked by cancer made them weak and that's why the pneumonia that much easier to contract.

"Are you going to be okay" I finally ask her and she smiles for the first time today.

"I will be."