Page 44 of The Head Game

Needing to kill some time, warm up, and get some food, August returned to the car and found a 24-hour diner near the hospital.

After August’s plate was clean and he was nursing a second cup of coffee, he checked social media again.

The Fisher Cats had updated it recently to say that a team representative would be doing a press conference at the hospital later that morning and that the team would be flying out to Columbus for tonight’s game as planned.

August signaled for the waitress to bring his bill.

Well, now was as good of a time as any for him to try to see Nico.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I have what?” Nico asked hoarsely, staring blankly at the woman in the white coat.

Dustin and Kate sat nearby in his hospital room but all Nico could focus on was the neurosurgeon’s words.

“You have what’s called an oligodendroglioma or more commonly, a glioma. It’s a tumor located here in your temporal lobe.” Dr. Douglas pointed to a white spot on the scan of his brain.

Nico touched the spot on his right temple that had been hurting so much lately. “So I have cancer?”

“We don’t know yet. On the scans, the tumor appears to be a Grade 2 and the lower the number, the better. Based on that and a number of other factors, like the shape, there’s a reasonable chance it’s benign. However, until we know, we have to assume it is cancerous and that means treating it aggressively.”

Nico stared blankly, the words whirling in his head, making no sense.

Brain tumor. Cancer. Holy shit.

“Benign would mean it’s non-cancerous, Nico,” Kate said quietly as if she could see he was internally panicking. “Dr. Douglas is saying that there’s a good chance you don’t have cancer but that they’re going to treat it quickly in case it is.”

“Oh.” He blinked. “Okay. I … how will you know which one it is?”

“Once we remove the tumor, we will send it to a lab for a biopsy.”

“Wait, remove it? You mean I need to have brain surgery?” Nico laughed weakly. “Jesus, I feel like a lot of people would say they’ve known for years that I needed to have my head fixed but …”

In the background, Dustin huffed, somewhere between amusement and annoyance. Probably at Nico cracking jokes when he was supposed to be taking this seriously. But if he took it too seriously, he’d freak out.

“I know brain surgery sounds scary,” Dr. Douglas said, her tone kind and reassuring. “But the good news is that this tumor is located in a very accessible part of your brain. The surgery can be quite a bit more complicated when it’s deeper in the brain or in other more delicate areas but if you have to have a glioma, this is in one of the better spots.”

Nico swallowed hard. Still, they were going to open up his skull and do surgery on his brain. Even if it was in a better spot, that was terrifying.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “This is all a little overwhelming.”

It had also been terrifying to wake up on a stretcher in the hallway of the arena.

Nico had no memory of the seizure or the hit that came before it.

Everyone kept trying to tell him that the hit had been a good thing. The scans had shown no signs of a concussion and had allowed them to find the brain tumor.

But Nico felt very stupid for ignoring the symptoms for so long.

“How long will I be out?” he asked.

“The surgery itself will last—”

“No. I mean, from hockey. How long will it take me to recover and get back on the ice?”

She hesitated. “I can’t give you a timeline. It’s dependent on if we’re able to remove all of the tumor, if you need any additional treatment, and if it’s cancerous or not. I think right now you need to focus on getting through the surgery and we’ll be able to give you a more realistic idea.”

“C’mon, doc. Give me something,” he pleaded. “What’s the best-case scenario?”

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