Madison flinches, but she doesn’t look the least bit surprised that I’d say something like that.
“Buddy, I didn’t mean—” The explanation dies on my lips because she interrupts me.
“I think you’re brave, regardless. In fact, I might need a little help to give you your medicine. Think you can handle that?”
“Yeah!” Ty is enthusiastic about the idea. She’s good with him, and I feel a pang of guilt about how things transpired. I would do anything for my son, but a less abrasive approach might have been better.
She pulls out a canister of cream from her bag. “This is magic lotion. You put it on your body and you can’t feel anything. Want to try?”
Ty swipes his finger across the top, loading it with the ointment. He rubs it on his arm and waits a couple of seconds before looking up at her in amazement. “It worked!”
“I told you it would! Now, how about putting some right here?” She points to a spot on the inside of his elbow and Ty spreads it across his skin.
“Perfect.” She grins. “Now, I’m going to put something called an IV in your arm. It’s a special tube that lets me give you medicine so your body can heal.”
Madison takes a needle out and preps it. “Okay, Ty, take a deep breath for me.”
Ty sucks in. “Great. Now let it out slowly.” He follows her instructions, pursing his lips to release the air in a measured exhale just as she presses the tip of the needle into his arm.
“That’s it. You’re doing great, Ty.”
I watch, but Madison is so quick with her work that I barely make out what she’s doing. Soon, she’s got the entire thing placed and Ty hardly even notices.
“Joe, can you get me something tall I can hang this on?”
He nods, and rushes off, returning with the coat rack from the entryway. “Will this work?”
“That’s perfect.” She takes it from him, winding the tubing up and draping it over a hook. Withdrawing a bag of some kind of liquid from her supplies, she attaches it to the IV. Soon, it’s pumping into him.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“It’s an antibiotic and pain killer combo. It’ll help kill any infection he might have before it gets too far and help manage his pain the next few days. And this is more sedative…” She hooks another one up. “It’ll help with the pain when I take the drain out and hopefully keep him quiet for a few days.”
“How are you doing, Ty?” she asks, flashing him a smile.
“Good.”
“Good,” she says, moving down to the drain in his stomach. “Now comes the tricky part. I had this in your stomach to help relieve some of the pressure, but now we can take it out.”
“Is it going to hurt?” Ty asks, frowning in fear.
“It might a little, but we’re going to do it really fast. And your dad is going to hold your hand the whole time and you can squeeze as hard as you want.”
Ty cracks a small smile. “What if I squeeze so hard I break his fingers?”
“Even better.” Madison winks at Ty and then glances up at me. “Come right over here.” She gestures to a spot up by Ty’s head and I carefully sit.
“Alright, little man, let’s see what you’ve got.” I offer him my hand and he eagerly takes it.
“Okay, I need you to take a big, deep breath in. You don’t know how to count to ten, do you?”
“Of course I do. I can count to a hundred,” Ty snaps back, giving Madison exactly the reaction she was looking for.
She laughs. “Great. How about backwards?”
Ty looks at me, not as confident in his response this time. I shrug. “I bet you can. Why don’t we do it together?”
“Okay,” he agrees.
