Harry pov
I was collecting the last of our clothes to pack when I heard a loud noise. We are going home today, but I don't know if it is the right thing to do. Kate keeps telling me she's okay but, she doesn't look okay. I turn around and suddenly my world stops spinning. On the blue, carpeted floor lays Kate, she looks like she's sleeping, her eyes closed and her mouth is a little open.
The clothes I'm holding fall to the floor and in two big steps I'm by my girl's side. For a second I start to panic, but I take a breath and go into doctor mode to keep my cool. I take Kate's wrist and try to find her pulse. Kate normally has a very high pulse rate, but now it's very slow. Next I put my hand on her head, her skin is covered with a thin layer of sweat and she feels like she is burning up. Kate's eyes flutter but stay closed.
"Kate, beautiful? Can you hear me," I ask while I lightly tap her cheek with my index finger.
She squeezes her eyes before they slowly open and I smile at my girl.
"Hi beautiful, welcome back!" Kate looks at me with a look of fear in her beautiful, green eyes, but she says nothing.
"Come on baby, let's get you on the bed," I tell Kate, while I put my arm under her arms and I help her to get off the floor. When Kate sits down on the white hotel sheets, I lower my eyes so I can look into hers.
"You've not been telling me everything, right?" Kate looks down, but a sharp pain makes her hiss.
"I knew you were holding things back, I had a feeling..." I'm angry at Kate and myself but, I know this isn't the time to talk about it.
"Tell me baby, what do you feel?" I take Kate's cold hands in mine to encourage her to tell me everything this time.
"My headache, it's so bad, my eyes, it hurts to look, especially to the sides and when the light is bright and my neck, it's so stiff." I notice how her speech is slower than normal. I sigh and secretly hope it isn't what I think it is.
I look around the room to situate my doctor's bag, thank god I brought it with me. When I see it at the door, I take it and while walking to the bed again I start to rummage around in it, looking for my little torch. When I find it, I switch it on and shine it into Kate's eyes, she immediately closes her eyes and complains that it hurts. Next, I take her head in my hands, one hand covering her ears at each side and I pull her head down towards her chest, but quickly stop when she screams out in pain. Lastly, I look at her arms to see she has a light red rash on it.
"How long have you had this," I ask while I walk to the other side of the bed where my black coat is laying with Kate's red one. I put mine on before I walk to Kate and help her inside hers.
"It's been going on since yesterday," she sighed. I knew she wasn't telling me everything, I knew it, but I thought it would be from the spinal needle a couple of days ago.
"Damn," I scold myself. "We're going to the hospital, here is your wheelchair," I say when I take it out of the corner of the room.
When Kate finally sits down in her wheelchair, she asks why we are going to the hospital but I'm not going to scare her without doing some tests first. We leave the room and I push her through the hallways of the hotel, soon, we are in the back seat of a taxi.
I push Kate through the revolving doors of the ER. It's crowded in here, sick people, nurses and doctors swarm around. I walk up to the desk and start to talk to the friendly receptionist who immediately calls an ER doctor and Dr. Moens once I told her who we are, what happened and what I think is going on.
While I'm filling in a bunch of forms, a female nurse whisks Kate to a room. When I enter the room five minutes later, Kate is already wearing a gown. She's attached to a heart monitor and the nurse is setting things up to take some blood. Between when she regained consciousness at the hotel and now, Kate has barely said five words. I immediately went into doctor mode but now I'm standing here at the door of this cold room and for the first time, I allow myself to feel. I feel powerless, I'm not in control of this situation and it scares the shit out of me. I look at Kate who has tears in her eyes and is looking around unsure, probably also very scared.
When the nurse has done the blood work, she says she'll be back later and the doctor is on his way too. I take a chair and pull it up next to Kate as I take her little cold hand in my big warm one.
"How are you holding up, beautiful," I ask my girl. Kate turns her head to me and smiles a little, but I know it's a fake smile.
"I'm scared, not only is my back and leg hurting like never before, but it feels like they're splitting my head into two pieces. I literally feel nauseous from the headache and I can't move my neck because when I do there is a sharp pain shooting through my whole body." Kate closes her eyes and tries to push back the tears.
"I know I probably sound like a 5 year old but I'm scared. This feels serious and what if I can't get through this. I'm not done with my life." Tears start to flow over Kate's cheeks. It feels like I have to swallow a brick. Again, I think about telling my thoughts on what's going on with her but in the end I decide against it.
"I'm not done here, Harry. I'm not done with you... We still need to do so many things together. We need to start a family and grow old together." Kate suddenly starts to sob and she pushes her head into my chest. My hands intuitively go around her, caressing her hair.
"Ssshhhh baby... don't say things like that, you and I will have a bright future. Everything will be okay." I coo but on the inside it's ripping me apart. I don't know if Kate's going to make it.
At that moment Maarten came bursting into the room.
"Oh I'm sorry guys but I've come to examine you, Kate." She wipes her cheeks with the back of her hand and nods. How can a person be in this kind of danger and still look so adorable? What if I will lose her? I push that thought away, I don't want to even consider that happening.
Maarten has examined Kate and now is entering some things into the computer. I walk up next to him and touch his shoulder. My friend sighs, "We have to wait for the test results but I agree with you. After doing the examination and looking at her laying there like that, losing consciousness every once in awhile, this isn't good Harry." I rub my face with my both hands and sigh.
"I'm going to do a spinal tap and we'll have all the results within an hour. Will you help me or shall I call a nurse?" I shake my head and turn to Kate who is looking at me and shoots me the little smile.
"I'll do it," I whisper.
Maarten takes everything he needs while I help Kate sit up and explain what's going to happen. I give her a pillow to hold and I position her head against me so that she'l be in the right position. With my arms around her I hold her steady, while Maarten does the procedure.
"It doesn't hurt, just some pressure." Kate answers when Maarten asks how she is. I'm so proud of her, she's always so strong and brave.
Maarten leaves the room to take the spinal fluids to the lab himself because we need the results as soon as possible.
After that, time crawls by. I sit next to Kate and hold her hand, caressing her forehead or kissing her cheek, but she slips in and out of consciousness the whole time.
After 45 minutes, Maarten comes back in and with the look on his face - I know it's bad.
"Kate, you had every sign when you came in and when I saw how turbid your spinal fluids were, I was already sure but now the tests have confirmed it. You've got bacterial meningitis."
Kate's eyes bulged out
"Me? Meningitis," she stuttered. "So I'm going to die?" She looked at me with glazed eyes.
"Your white blood cell count in your spinal fluid is extremely high, you should have five but you have eighteen thousand!"
I swallowed hard, this wasn't good at all.
"I will be honest, your life is in danger but we are preparing your first round of antibiotics now and tomorrow morning I'll remove the pain device because the infection is probably situated there. The bacteria probably entered your body through the catheter, while we took care of it. I'm sure once the device is removed and the antibiotics are working, you'll be okay. We will do everything to get you through this. Please be positive, Kate!"
Maarten put his hand on Kate's. She didn't react, her eyes were open but she didn't blink.
"Kate," I said sternly but nothing happened. I jumped up, knowing what was coming but before I could say anything, the heart monitor slowed down and stopped. The only sound that it made was one long beeeeeeeeep.
What is meningitis?
Meningitis is an infection of the membranes (meninges) surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis can be caused by a bacterial, fungal or viral infection.
Bacterial meningitis can be life threatening. The infection can cause the tissues around the brain to swell. This in turn interferes with blood flow and can result in paralysis or even stroke.
Symptoms:
-
High fever,
- headaches,
- and an inability to lower your chin to your chest due to stiffness in the neck.
The onset of symptoms is fast, within 24 hours. If allowed to progress, you can die from bacterial meningitis.
A.N.: Thank you for reading this chapter and my story.
I'm really grateful for each and every one of you.
Have a nice weekend!
All the love,
K. x