Chapter 46 - I'm Gonna Hold Ya Till The Hurt Is Gone

"Can we stop and say goodbye to the family?"  Beth asks Jon as they stand in the elevator and wait for it to reach the ground floor.  She's having terrible anxiety and doesn't want to go.  "I want to say goodbye to the kids."

"I don't think that's a good idea.  Let's get you to the hospital before I have to carry you in.  Babe, you're getting worse by the second."  He says, with his arm firmly around her waist, at the ready to catch her if need be. 

She knows there isn't any point in responding, the only thing that he is going to let her do was go to the hospital, so she bit her tongue and exited the elevator with him when it stopped.  As quick as he could, with her in her condition, he gets her into the car that was waiting for them.  As soon as they are in, he puts his arm around he and holds her tight, kissing the top of her head.  "I'm worried about you." he mumbles into her hair, "Very worried about you."

"Me too." she says, in a whisper "I have no idea what's wrong with me."  Jon can feel her breathe deep and try to relax, he knows she's scared and he's trying not to let her see how terrified that he really is. 

Resting his head on hers, he tells her, "We'll know soon enough.  Then we'll get you better and go home."

"I wanna go home." she admits, this vacation has been terrible for her.  "Something always happens when we're some where tropical.  We need to stay way north of the equator."

Jon gets a chuckle out of that, because she's right. 

Once she's in her room and all the triage is over, the doctor appears in her doorway.  "I trust that your admission was flawless?" he comes in and closes the door.

Beth nods her head, "With the exception of having trouble finding my veins, it was alright."

"Well, it's hard to get a vein, especially when your as dehydrated as you are."  He looks up at the IV bag and adjusts the flow rate to almost all of the way open.  "Let's get this one in as fast as we can, and then subsequent bags will be at a much lower rate.  You might feel the coldness of it as it goes in, but your body will warm it up nicely."  He goes on to say, paying no attention to the Italian that's hovering over Beth with a 'look' on his face. 

"What do you think is wrong with me?" Beth asks, needing answers.  She's so tired, all she wants to do is sleep. 

The doctor pats her hand and replies, "We are going to run some tests to rule a couple of things out first.  The nurse is going to take you to radiology to have an ultrasound and an x-ray done.  After you take a pregnancy test of course."

"I'm not pregnant." she tells him.

"Well, were going to just make sure before we shoot you with an Xray."  He turns to leave, "The nurse will be in right away, and as soon as you get back - we'll be back in to see you."

Jon finally talks and asks, "Who are we?"  Referring to the doctor saying 'we'll be back in to see you."

The doctor stops at the doorway and says, "My colleagues, sir." 

Jon didn't like that, he gave instructions that she was to have ONE doctor and two nurses, "Doctor, I explained to you that she was to have one doctor and that was you.  What colleagues do you think you need to bring in?"  Jon realizes what he's doing and he needs to stop.  He lowers his head and shoos the doctor away with his hand, "Please just go get the nurse."

He leans over and kisses her forehead.  Resting his lips on her cool and clammy skin he mumbles, "I love you"

"I love you.  Come on now, I need you to be strong." she says as she reaches up and brushes her hand across his face.  "You have to be the rock here, I can't do it anymore."

"I know, I'm sorry.  I'm just so worried.  Plus, I told him only one doctor.  Is that really all that hard to understand?" he whispers out.

Beth moves a little, to get comfortable and says, "Maybe he can't handle what he thinks is wrong.  Maybe they are specialists?"  Saying that out loud made Beth even more anxious.  She thinks to herself, oh my god what is wrong with me?  what do I have?

 

"Then he should tell us that he needs specialists." Jon kind of snaps.  He knows that none of this is Beth's fault and he's really worried about her, but he thinks to himself on Christmas Eve, really?

 

Beth takes his hand, "Let's just wait and see.  Can you get me another blanket, I'm pretty cold."

 

Jon walks over to the closet, opening the door to see that there isn't any extra blankets.  He didn't want the hassle of going to the nurse's station and asking, so he pushes the call button on her bed.  When he hears, "How can I help you?"

 

He says, "Can we get another blanket in here, she's cold."

 

"Right away, will there be anything else?" the voice in the box asks.

 

Jon blurts back, "Just the nurse so she can have her tests done."

 

"I will send in her nurse too."

 

"Thank you."  Jon says with a sound that resonates less than impressed.  He knows that he's not being fair, and he knows that he's pretty stressed but hasn't the love of his life been through enough?

 

A few moments later the nurse appears with a heated blanket and another bag of lactated ringers to hang and push.  She explained to Beth that she would decrease the flow and that will help with the feeling of being cold.  They infused a whole bag into her as fast as they could, need to hydrate ever cell in her body.  "Are you ready to go down for your x-ray and ultrasound?"

 

"Yes."

 

The nurse prepares the bed for transport and within minutes Beth is being wheeled to radiology.  She has the tests that she needs and as soon as they were finished with her, she was transported back up to her room, where she felt better being in her own 'space.' 

 

Beth slid over to the side of the bed and asked Jon to join her.  "Baby, come lay with me.  I want you close."  Jon looks at her and he can see the fear in her eyes and the exhaustion in her face.  His bright eyed financial wiz has had the wind knocked out of her and now she's a shell of a body, still with a heart of gold.  No matter what she looks like, he still thinks that she is absolutely beautiful and his heart skips a beat when she asks him to lay with her.  Without hesitation, he kicks off his flip flops and lays with her in her hospital bed.  He holds her as close as he can and he kisses what his lips can reach.  He's deep in thought, trying to figure out what's wrong with her when he hears, "I'm scared."

"Me too babe, me too."  They lay there together and hold each other.  Beth was able to doze off and get some rest, now that she was in the arms of her protector.  She needed the rest and he needed to hold her.  Both were making the best out of another terrible situation, and they were doing it together.

A while later the doctor appears with a man that he introduces as a surgeon.  "Mr. Bon Jovi, we have good news and bad news."  The doctor takes a breath, "It seems that Beth's appendix has ruptured, but the rupture is very small.  It has been leaking waste into her abdominal cavity and she is suffering from multiple organ infection.  We need to operate and we need to do it right away."

Jon was speechless and feeling terrible that he didn't force her to go into the hospital sooner.  He never should have listened to her when she said it was just the flu.  He feels like he has let her down.

The surgeon stepped in and went right to business, "I will open her up, remove the appendix and clean the organs that I can of the infection.  She will be on some powerful antibiotics and we will want to monitor her for a couple of days.  The OR is being prepared right now, do you have any questions?"  The doctors are in a hurry and the way that they came across to Jon made him feel like their bedside manner sucks.

"Babe, did you hear that?"  Jon tries to roust Beth and she doesn't move.  "Beth, are you ready for surgery?"  Still nothing.  The doctor stepped in and checked her pulse, it was weak and thread.  "Beth."  Jon shakes her.

"We need to get her down now, it looks like the infection may have reached her blood stream.  Do you have power of attorney giving you the authority to consent.?"

Jon gets out of the bed, shaking Beth, "Yes I do and you have my consent. Take her, make her better."  They lay her flat, grab her IV bag and the doctors start to wheel her to the OR room.  Jon is on their heels, ignoring all of the people that are recognizing him.  He can hear what they are saying, but that's the least of his concern.  She's being rushed to emergency surgery, unconscious - he feels like he's been here before. 

Just as they are ready to take her into the sterile area, Jon needed to sign some forms while the doctor explained the procedure.  In the family waiting room, the doctor explains everything and Jon gives his consent, adding, "Please leave her a minimal scar, doc.  She's pretty proud of her body.  She'll be mad if I gave permission for her to have a horrific scar."

"The incision will be small.  Maybe an inch on her lower right abdomen, no worries."

"Take good care of her."  Jon follows the doctor over to Beth, kisses her and says, "I'll see you in a little bit.  I love you."  And they wheel her through the heavy operating room doors and Jon watches through the window as long as he can see her.  It's 4:30pm