Page 49 of Sparking Sara

“She’s not. He’s evaluating her ability to swallow. They want to get her eating solid food as soon as they can.”

“I’ll bet she can’t wait to get that tube taken out of her stomach.”

Krista shakes her head. “They won’t be able to do that for a while. The wound from the surgery needs six weeks to heal before the tube can be removed, or there’s a possibility the stomach could collapse.”

“So, she’ll be stuck with it for a while.”

“I’m afraid so,” she says. “In case you haven’t figured this out by now, waiting patiently is the name of the game in cases like Sara’s.”

“Yeah. I guess it is.”

“We’re going to miss you around here, you know,” she says.

“We?”

Krista rolls her eyes. “Tiffany, you know, one of the night nurses, she, uh—” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a note— “she told me to give this to you. I know it’s unprofessional, but she reminded me that Sara’s not your girlfriend, so …” She holds out the note.

“I’m assuming that’s her phone number?”

She nods.

I push the note back to her. “Please tell her I have a girlfriend.”

Krista looks surprised. “You do? I mean, you spend so much time here, we all assumed you didn’t.”

“I don’t. But it’s better than telling her I’m flat out not interested, isn’t it?”

Krista laughs. “Yeah, I guess it is. Okay, I’ll let her down easy.”

“Thank you.”

I step into the room and wait off to the side to watch Jason with Sara. He’s got a tray of food with him and is spoon-feeding her what looks to be applesauce and diced fruit.

She sees me walk in and her eyes brighten. I give her a wave. “Having lunch, are we?”

She smiles.

“We’re trying,” Jason says.

I watch Sara take a few bites. She seems to chew and swallow without difficulty, so I’m surprised when Jason pulls me aside on his way out.

“I’m concerned that Sara’s not swallowing properly, so before she leaves tonight, I’m going to order a swallow study. We’ll have her swallow a barium drink and then we’ll watch with a machine similar to that of an x-ray to see where it ends up. If all goes well, she’ll be cleared to start back on solid food.”

“Thank you.” I turn to Sara. “I predict you’ll be knee-deep in cheeseburgers in no time.”

She gives me a thumbs up and I can see that she raises her hand off the bed more than she did a few days ago.

Progress.

I sit in the chair Jason vacated. I know she must be tired after all her therapy sessions, but I see if I can push her anyway. I pull the card out of my back pocket and show it to her. “Are you ready to play?”

She nods eagerly.

I grab the cards from the side table and deal some face down onto her lap. She looks at me in confusion.

“You know Go Fish, don’t you?”

Her lips twitch into a smile.

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