“I’m sorry. I know we’re short-staffed,” Arianna said.
“You’d be sorrier if you weren’t there for your mom. We’ll work it out,” Karen assured her.
“I’ll finish out today,” Arianna promised.
Mia came through her surgery fine and was maintaining a positive attitude when Arianna came to sit with her. Arianna not so much. She’d dealt with feeding tubes, but it was different seeing one in her own mother.
“It’ll be okay,” Mia said, patting her hand.
“What if it’s not?”Oh, great. Way to comfort your mother.
“Darling, you are jumping ahead to bridges we don’t have to cross for a long time.”
“I know. I just... Oh, Mom. You have to fight this and win.”
“I’m going to do my best.”
Dr. Yao stopped by to see how the patient was doing. “She’s a champ,” Arianna said.
“Yes, you are,” Dr. Yao said to Mia. “We should give you a medal for bravery.”
Arianna knew she wouldn’t be getting one. She got the doctor aside and raised the guilty concern that had been burning at the back of her mind. “I’m a nurse. I should have seen this.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” said the doctor. “Once this takes hold, it moves fast.”
“Mom never said anything.”
“She probably didn’t want to worry you.”
“She thought it was acid reflux.”
The doctor nodded. “People often misdiagnose themselves. Sadly, they either don’t want to bother their loved ones or they don’t want to go to their doctor and look foolish so they wait to do something. Try not to worry. We’re going to treat this as aggressively as we can.”
It was the best the doctor could promise. Arianna wished she could promise more.
Sophie was in good hands, so Arianna spent the night in her mother’s room on a little foldout sofa. Alden came up on his break, appearing like a guardian angel in scrubs, bringing her a vending machine candy bar and a bag of chips.
“I figured you wouldn’t leave. This is good for when you’re in the trenches,” he said, which was exactly where she felt she was. “Hang in there. You’ll get through this,” were his parting words as he went back to the emergency room.
She wasn’t so sure. Every little moan her mother made woke her up and had her standing by the beside, checking monitors. Every nurse’s visit she was awake and watching. By seven the next morning she felt like she had sand in her eyes and her head ached.
She brought Mia home later that day, along with the flowers Molly had sent to the hospital. Before bringing her mother home, Arianna talked to Sophie on the phone and did her best to prepare her.
“You can kiss Grammy but don’t hug her. The doctors had to fix her and she’s sore,” Arianna cautioned when Sophie rushed toward Mia.
“I’m sorry you’re sick, Grammy,” Sophie said, stopping short of falling onto Mia, who was in bed. She handed her the folded construction paper card she’d made. “This is for you.”
“This is lovely,” Mia said. “Thank you, sweetie.”
“Want me to read you a story?” Sophie offered.
Mia looked like what she really wanted was to sleep, but she nodded and said, “That would be nice,” and Sophie ran to get one of her beginning reader books.
“One story only,” Arianna called after her. “Grammy needs to rest.”
So did Mommy but that wasn’t going to happen. She was too wound up, anyway.
She tried to find a time when she could discreetly deliver the needed nourishment to her mother without Sophie underfoot, but no matter how many times she sent Sophie to another part of the house on some made-up errand, she boomeranged back faster than a fighter jet.
