Tuesday, July 21
Sabrina slowly woke up in her hospital bed. She opened her eyes but immediately squeezed them back closed. The brightness of the lights were too much. She slowly opened them back feeling groggy.
"Sabrina," she heard Amir's voice. Then she felt his hand on hers. She tried to move but her entire body felt unbearably heavy. "Can you hear me, baby?"
Then she heard the voice of an unknown woman, "It may take a couple of hours before she can move comfortably. We're going to take her off the ventilator and then give her some time to come to." The person explained.
Sabrina's eyes opened and closed slowly trying to gain focus. She felt like she'd been sleeping for days.
Amir stared tensely as the nurse removed Sabrina's breathing tube. It was one of the worst things he'd ever witnessed in his 24 years of life.
"You're going to have some soreness, sweetie," the nurse told her. "Doctor will be in shortly." She'd told them on the way out.
Amir approached Sabrina's bed again, she seemed to be more aware now. She looked at him silently as tears streamed down her face.
"Are you in any pain?" He talked, lowly, holding her hand.
She closed her eyes and slowly shook her head, no.
"Do you remember what happened?"
She shook, no again.
"Do you feel like you can talk?"
She moved her hand to her throat, and spoke, gruffly, "Yes." She reached her hand up and touched her bandaged head.
"I'm so sorry, baby." He said watching her, closely.
A knock on the door made Amir finally look away. It was the doctor. He came inside the room and walked over to Sabrina, "Good morning, Mrs. Lewis, I'm Dr. Brooks. How are you feeling?"
She groaned, "I don't know." Holding her hand to her neck. It was uncomfortable to speak.
"I'll have the nurse get you some water here in a second. Are you able to remember anything that happened to you?"
She shook her head, no.
"Okay, that's understandable. What's the last date you remember?"
"July... I'm not sure."
"Some memory loss is expected. Nothing to be alarmed about, it may come to you in a few days, maybe a few weeks." He stood down next to her bed, opposite Amir, "So, Sabrina, you suffered a traumatic brain injury. This caused some bleeding on the brain. We had to perform a procedure where released the fluid because it was putting pressure on your brain causing you to have seizures once you arrived."
He paused so she could take everything he was saying in. Once she saw she was still listening, he continued, "So far everything looks good. There are some side effects of such an injury but everyone is not the same, so I'm not gonna assume any of those things will happen to you, but we're gonna have you here for a few more days, and in that time I need you to tell us if you're experiencing anything like dizziness, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, or slurred speech. We won't say too much on headaches because that's something that will subside with time."
"Ok." She said flatly.
The nurse came in and he asked her to get Sabrina water while he put on some gloves. "Sabrina, I'm going to take a quick peek at your incision, make sure everything is healing properly." He came over and began unwrapping her head.
Amir tried to keep his expression positive as the man exposed her head. They'd shaved part of the back half. She had a small line incision with staples keeping it together. She looked at Amir with worry, and he gave her a small smile squeezing her hand in reassurance.
"Okay. Looks good." The doctor said as he discarded the old bandages. The nurse returned and set a cup of water on the tray. "The nurse will give it some fresh dressings." The doctor announced as he got ready to walk out of the room, "I'll check in with you again tomorrow."
Once he was gone, the nurse announced, "After I rewrap your head, I'm going to take some blood okay, Sabrina."
Amir asked, "Is that for the HCG?"
"Yes." She answered, "Sabrina do you remember when the first day of your last menstrual cycle was?"
Sabrina sipped some of her water and tried to think, "Umm." She looked at Amir because she couldn't remember.
He pulled out his phone and opened the tracker app, "May 25th or 26th"
The nurse's eyebrows dipped in confusion, "You said May?"
"Yeah. We took a home test at the end of June when she was late. Her doctor's office scheduled an appointment for a few weeks out so she'd be at least 5 to 6 weeks when she came in."
"I don't think they had the dates correct. She should be just about 8 weeks right now."
"8 weeks?" He repeated.
"Let me go talk to the doctor and see what we're doing." The nurse said as she hurried out.
"How is that possible?" She whispered.
"Did you take a Plan B the day after the game?"
"I think so, I can't remember."
"It's aight, don't stress it. All this means is you're a few more weeks in than we thought."
The original nurse returned with another nurse who pushed in an ultrasound machine.
Half an hour later, Sabrina was lying in bed staring at the screen, holding Amir's hand.
"Alright Mom and Dad, there's baby. You're currently measuring 8 weeks 1 day with a due date of March 3rd."
Sabrina's tears flowed never taking her eyes off the screen.
"Would you like to hear the heartbeat?" The second nurse asked and Sabrina gently nodded as the woman pushed a button and the sound played throughout the room.
Amir took out his phone and recorded a video of the ultrasound screen with the sound.
"I'll print you guys some pictures." She said pressing another button, and the ultrasound photos came out the side.
The first nurse turned the lights back on and unplugged the machine, helping the second woman roll it out of the room with her, "Congratulations." She said before closing the door.
Amir's phone vibrated in his hand and he looked at the screen, seeing it was Austin on FaceTime.
"Hey," he answered once it connected.
"Hey, Niko wants to talk to you."
"To me?" Amir asked in shock, but before Austin could answer, Niko grabbed the phone.
"Hi, Ahme."
"Hey Niko, what you doin' man?"
"I was playing the basketball game with uncle Tin, and you was on the game." the little boy explained, excitedly.
"Oh yeah? That's cool." Amir beamed.
"I miss you," Niko said, suddenly, causing Sabrina to smile weakly.
"I miss you too," Amir told him, before looking at Sabrina to see if he should put her in the camera. She nodded, so he asked, "Wanna say hi to mommy?" He turned the phone so Niko could see his mother.
"Hi Mommy. I miss you."
"I miss you so much handsome."
"Do you feel better? Grandma said I get to see you when you feel better."
"You will soon." Her voice cracked as her tears started again
"I love you."
"I love you more, papa."
"I love you, Ahme."
Amir turned the phone back to himself, in shock, "I love you too, Niko."
"Bye." Niko ended the call and Sabrina began to cry, uncontrollably.
Amir held her as carefully as he could, "I'm sorry, baby." Was all he could say as she continued to sob.
Life just wasn't playing fair.