Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: FRAGILE (02/23/17)
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TITLE: Crystal | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
03/02/17 -
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The doctors were delicate in the way they told us that there was no fatal disease more common in children. Some kind of sweat test showed she had too much salt content. The specialists in the adjoining room were caring for her while we sat cooped up with the white coated professional whose label read Dr. Malloy.
“What’s the cure?” asked my husband Walt. He had his back to us looking out the window at the falling snow. Everything looked so beautiful outside.
Dr. Malloy, sitting on his black leather stool, shook his head slightly – frown firmly in place. “There is no cure.”
Walt interlocked his fingers behind his skull and paced the small office floor. Tears pooled in his eyes. “It’s genetic isn’t it?” he asked. “Is it me?”
“It takes both parents to be carriers,” the doctor replied. “You would never know unless you’d been tested.”
The plastic chair beneath me seemed to shift. Walt and I had been fighting about having a family so soon. Our marriage seemed even more fragile now. “What is our little girl facing?” I asked.
The doctor pulled a handout from his file. “She’ll have trouble with digesting fats and proteins. She’ll have trouble absorbing nutrients. She’ll probably have chronic infections and inflammation which can damage her lungs. She’ll likely have sinus infections and a form of diabetes.”
“How long do we have?” Walt asked. His six foot frame seemed to wilt with the weight of the question.
“CF is a chronic illness. There are plenty of treatments to help with symptoms but she likely won’t have as long as you’d like.”
“Is her coughing and wheezing part of the CF?” I asked.
“Yes,” the doctor said. “You will likely be spending more time than you want in the children’s hospital. It would be great for Crystal’s trust if you could be with her through her treatments. A child’s sense of security is fragile in these early years.”
Walt glared at me. “I knew we should have waited. Now how are we going to pay off the mortgage if you can’t work anymore? What am I going to tell our families – our parents? Your dad never did want me to marry you.”
My husband might as well have taken a scalpel and cut into my heart. He had dreams – big dreams; dreams now so fragile.
The doctor stood between us and placed a hand on Walt’s shoulder. “Crystal will need you both more than ever,” he said. “Your disappointment, your loss, your grief – it’ll take time to sort through. You need to be there for each other in this journey.”
Walt pulled away from the doctor and faced the window again. The accumulated snow was bending the branches of the evergreens ever so slightly.
Dr. Malloy turned toward me. “You may have to be the strong one for now. I need you to be hopeful; to listen to your daughter as she grows up and wonders what is wrong; to be flexible with your lifestyle; to have fun together; to involve all your family members in as normal a life as possible.”
I scanned the paperwork he held out to me. Perhaps if I didn’t take it I’d wake up from this nightmare.
“You need to take advantage of the respite care available,” he went on. “You need to take care of yourself and your relationships – things seem fragile right now but that can change.”
I looked at his hands – strong hands – veins, wrinkles, tendons all doing what they were supposed to do. Holding out that paper. Waiting for my fragile fingers to anchor the fate of my baby in reality.
“What about other children?” I asked.
The doctor raised his eyebrows. “There’s a twenty-five percent chance of CF now that we know you are both carriers. You’ll have to make that decision carefully.”
A knock on the door startled me. I turned to see a nurse carry in my little fragile bundle of squirming life.
Motherly instincts took over as I cradled her and began to rock back and forth.
“The nurses have done their part,” the doctor said. “Now, it’s your turn.”
Walt hunched over us and ran his finger across Crystal’s brow. “Shhh! It’s going to be all right now. We have faith and hope. With you we have joy. Let’s go home.”
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Congrats on winning 9th in EC.
So well deserved. God bless.
Congrats on winning 9th in EC.
So well deserved. God bless.