[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
<h1 align="center">Chapter Thirty</h1>
<br><br>

Dr. Takaghishi came in to check Nick. He was
baffeled by his weakened state. Three days ago Nick was
starting physical therapy, speech therapy and everything was
looking good. Everything on Nick’s chart indicated that he
should be getting better but instead Nick was taking a
complete turn for the worse.<br><br>

Dr. Takaghishi found Nick laying in bed sleeping,
he didn’t appear to notice anyone had entered the room.<br><br>

The doctor thumbed through Nick’s chart. All of
the recent labwork that had been done came back clean. The
only think that had popped up abnormal was an electrolyte
imbalance which could be fixed with an IV.<br><br>

From the nurses notes, Nick had been eating and
drinking all of his meals. The doctor decided to keep track
of imput/output readings.<br><br>

“Nick, it’s Doctor T, how are you feeling?”<br><br>

Nick’s eyes barely opened. Dr. T decided to have
a central IV line done and have some IV feedings done to
ensure that Nick would build up his strength. He also
wanted Nick to be moved back to the intensive care unit.<br><br>

Nick didn’t answer Dr. Takaghishi, he felt too
tired to respond. He closed his eyes hoping that the doctor
would just go away and leave him alone.<br><br>

“Nick, we’re going to move you back into ICU and
get a central line put in.” Dr. T. looked at Nick to see if
he was understanding what was being spoken. Nick was in a
deep sleep and didn’t answer or even aknowledge that he had
heard him.<br><br>
Dr. T. was completely baffeled at how Nick was
slowly slipping away. He had consulted Dr. Gaynor to come
back and take a look at Nick. He figured that Dr. Gaynor
may be able to provide some type of answer to this situation
since he had been with Nick from the beginning of his
injuries from the car accident.<br><br>

Jess, Brian and Kevin entered Nick’s room as they
were preparing to move him up into the intensive care unit.
None of them realized that Nick was progressively getting
weaker, he managed to cover it pretty well. They were
shocked when they learned that he was being moved to ICU.<br><br>

Dr. Gaynor was in the room when they came in. He
spoke to them in a quiet tone.<br><br>

“Nick has been getting weaker instead of stronger.
The bloodwork came back clean, and to be quite honest with
you, I think Nick had stopped eating and drinking fluids
about four days ago. To put it quite simply, he is trying
to starve himself.”<br><br>

Jess couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she
thought he had gotten over the bout of depression he had
been suffering from earlier. He never really indicated that
he was slipping into that again. She knew he was unhappy
about his voice, but she thought he understood that his
voice would improve with time and with the therapy.<br><br>

“What happens now?” Kevin asked Dr. Gaynor.<br><br>

“We have put a central line into Nick which we
will more or less be force feeding him. We will start him
up on several IV’s and we will be monitoring his mental
status as well as his physical improvements. I will have
the psych doctor come in once Nick is better and start to
work with him again. I thought he was keeping up on his
prozac.”<br><br>

“He took himself off that several weeks ago, when
they gave it to him here, he would spit it out once the
nurse left. He said he didn’t need it.” Jessica told the
doctor.<br><br>

“He really is one that needs to be monitored
continuously when it comes to medications. I will make
sure that he is watched while he is here.” Dr. Gaynor wrote
notes down in the chart.<br><br>
Jessica was starting to feel more like a stool
pidgeon instead of a friend. She felt like she had betrayed
Nick in some way.<br><br>

Brian, as usual, had sensed that Jess was feeling
upset about the whole situation and he put his arm around
her to comfort her.<br><br>

“Jess, you are doing what’s right for him, you
know, don’t you?” Kevin spoke softly.<br><br>

“I guess so, I just feel so awful. This isn’t
fair, why can’t he just let himself get better, he keeps
doing things that are creating more harm than good and it
just keeps working against him. He’s been lucky up to this
point, what if one of these times he were successful? I
couldn’t think of life without Nick.” Jess sobbed.<br><br>

Brian took Jessica’s chin in his hand. “Jess, it’s
not gonna happen. We are all going to make sure of that.”
He wiped the tears from her cheeks.<br><br>

They all followed Nick’s bed as they moved him
into the intensive care unit. Nick never opened his eyes
during the whole trip. Once they had everything in place
around Nick in his new room, Jess moved up to the side of
the bed and looked down at Nick sleeping. He was laying on
his side almost curled up into a ball. It almost looked as
if he were in a fetal position. Jess smoothed his hair
back. <br><br>

“Nick, I don’t understand why you’re doing this to
yourself, there are so many people that love you. We don’t
care if you’re a singer or a truck driver, we want you here
with us. Please, you have to fight to survive. I love you
and I want you to come back to me, please.” Jess softly
pleaded with Nick hoping that he would hear her.<br><br>

“That’s right, buddy. We all love you. You
should know that, you do know that. You have to fight this,
you are making a lot of people upset when you do this kind
of stuff. How am I going to explain this to your fans?”
Brian was choking on the words, he was almost too upset to
speak. He knew how bad suicide was, and he felt so sorry
that he couldn’t help his friend.<br><br>

“Nick, you have to pull through this. I am
getting tired of coming to this god forsaken place as much
as you are getting tired of being here. You have a lot of
people that love and need you. Don’t be checking out on us
yet, you have a lot more to accomplish in this lifetime.”
Kevin was trying to reason with Nick and was hoping that he
could hear him.<br><br>
Reluctantly, the three of them left the room
without ever having Nick aknowledging that they were ever
there.<br><br>