Page 47 of In the Shadows

“Gentlemen, as you can see the bruises are healing. From what I understand, it’s a miracle no other bones were broken. And while his being in a coma is hard on both of you to see, it’s a blessing in disguise as it’s allowing the rest of his body to heal.”

“It would only be a blessing if the scans showed a decrease in swelling on his brain,” Joe informed her.

“Understood,” she said, “but multiple points on his body require healing and this is allowing them to do so.”

I wasn’t going to argue the point with her, I just wanted to get on with the exercising.

She slid a hand under his left calf, lifting and bending behind his knee, “Let’s start with calf and knee motion. Mr. Branson—”

“Please, call me Stoli,” I told her.

“That is an unconventional name,” she said.

Joe snorted beside her.

“It’s a nickname Joey gave me,” I informed her, and she said no more on the subject.

“Stoli,” she began again, “slide your hand under his calf and place it behind his knee. Lift and bend then gently push the calf down and hold it for five seconds.”

“Good. I’d normally tell you to use your other hand in conjunction but since you’re injured we’re going to have to improvise. Put his leg back down and bend his leg at the knee out toward you. Now that his leg is turned, take your hand and bend at the knee moving it back and forth. As you can see, this stretches his inner thigh muscle.” In the interim, she continued exercising Joey’s left calf and stretching his thigh. “Mr. Hayes.”

“Joe, please,” he said.

“Joe, you’re going to need to exercise Joey’s hips because that requires two hands.” She slid her hand up the underside of Joey’s thigh until she’d reached his hip. “Place one hand under his hip, and the other under his knee like this.”

He nodded.

“Then you’re going to rotate his hip as best you can without forcing it. You don’t want to injure anything.”

Joe’s eyes bulged and his face paled.

“Joe, it’s simple if you feel something push back then you need to release. Here, place your hands here, and here.” She put his hands in place of hers then put hers on top of his. “Feel how it starts to push back when we reach this point?”

He nodded again.

“That’s where you stop, hold it there for five seconds then slide it back in place.”

“Okay,” he told her, but the uncertainty never left his face.

“I’ll be in once a day to work with him, but extra stretches are good for the patient so that’s where you two come in. Plus, I’ve been told you two are pretty much here around the clock so it will give you both something to do as well.”

We spent the next twenty minutes with Carla working on both of Joey’s legs and his right arm, careful to avoid his chest, neck and head areas. She told us to keep talking to him, even if we spoke of the most mundane things. She shared stories of past coma patients who said when they came to that they could hear their loved one’s voices and would hone in on them, claiming them to be a life line.

Dr. Stone came in shortly after Carla left, letting us know that Joey’s injuries were healing well, all but the swelling that is, but that they’d be taking the staples out of his head this afternoon. He wanted to leave him on the pentobarbital for a couple more days and then slowly wean him off at the two-week mark and hope we’d see him start to come around. Joe and I left to get some lunch while they did the staple removal. Not sure how well either of us would have handled that visual.

The guys came in around dinner time, we filled them in on everything that the doctors said today and let them know they’d be weaning him off the coma meds in a couple of days. They said they wouldn’t leave until after that, as we all shared the same hope that this would be the key to bringing Joey back. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I couldn’t stop wishing for it just the same.

Derek and Ryder messaged each day asking for an update, so I filled them in and around ten p.m. Joe and the guys headed to the hotel for the night. I got myself situated, pulled out the notebook and went back to work on the song I now had a title for,Who I’ve Become.A song that I knew would be packed full of the emotion this nightmare I was currently living filled me with.

With pen and paper in hand, I began.

Who I’ve Become

Your love has made me the man that I’ve become

Once battered and bruised, thought beyond repair

No longer a shattered man

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