Beating Heart •Luke Kuechly•

Chapter 36.

Callie's POV

My eyes slowly flutter open and I hear a beeping from a machine and I feel an oxygen mask around my mouth and something in my nose.  I tried to take the oxygen mask off of me but I felt an all too familiar hand on my wrists stopping me from being able to.  

"Callie, don't remove it.  You have to wear it for a while until the nurses give the okay," Luke tells me in a calm soothing voice.  

I nod my head and lay my arms back at my side.  I swallow the lump forming in my throat and it hurts.  

I end up closing my eyes and going back to sleep.

...

Waking up I feel the need to throw up.  I have a love hate relationship with anesthesia.  I love that I don't feel anything during the surgery but I hate that I get sick after I wake up.  At least the oxygen mask is finally off.

"Mom?" I call out.  "I don't feel good."

"Luke can you hand me that?" She asks him.  

He nods his head and brings it to her.  Luckily she gets it to me just in time as I throw up.  After I feel like I'm done it leaves my throat burning and an icky taste in my mouth.  My mom hands me some water and I take it swishing it around and then spit it out.  

"How are you feeling?" Luke asks me as he sits in the chair next to my bed.

"Okay," I say my voice feeling hoarse.  "My voice hurts though and my neck."

I still feel heart palpitations though and I don't get why I would when Doctor Smith said that the surgery would help that.  

My mom hits the button and a nurse walks in.  She looks like she is Ariel's age.  

"Is there anything she can have for an upset stomach?  She's been throwing up non-stop since she woke up," my mom tells her.  

"Yeah, of course.  I can get her a pill she could take for it.  My name's Sophie in case you need anything else."

"Okay, thank you."

She leaves and a few seconds later she comes back with the pill and some apple juice that I can take with it.  I don't know why but I can't take pills with water.  

They had taken the catheter out of me a while ago, which was gross.  but at least I can walk around now.  

...

Doctor Smith walks in along with his nurse, Nancy.  He's still in his scrubs.  

"How are you feeling?" He asks me.  

"Okay.  My neck is sore though and my throat."

"They still have the tube left in when they should have taken it out.  I'm going to get someone in here because they should have taken it out right after the surgery.  Your throat is probably sore from the breathing tube that we gave you so just take it easy alright?  To help with it you can drink some fluids.  Any questions?" He asks me softly.

"I was wondering why it still feels like I have heart palpitations?"

"Unfortunately, I had to go in and use quite a lot of pressure on your chest to get the valve to deploy into place.  After today though, they should stop," he tells me as a nurse removes the long tube from my neck and putting a gauze bandaid on my neck from the area where it once was.  "How are you feeling after the anesthesia?  We had to give you more because the surgery took longer than we anticipated it to be."

"I've thrown up and my stomach feels queasy.  The nurse gave me a nauseous pill but I still feel like I'm going to throw up."

"Alright, I'm going to have the nurse bring you some crackers and some sprite to help.  I also want you to take a baby aspirin of 81 mg, which she will also be bringing.  When you leave tomorrow I want you to continue taking the aspirin one time a day every day."

"Where can we get that?" My dad asks him.

"You can get it anywhere at CVS, Target, Walmart.  It's over the counter but it is important that you take it every day because you have an artificial valve with metal around it.  It helps with bruising and to stop things from sticking to the valve that shouldn't that would cause an infection."

"I have metal in me now?" I feel my voice crack at the end.

I didn't know they were going to put metal in me.  

"Yeah.  The metal is what holds the valve in place.  Your going to be staying the night in here and then we will be in here to check on you tomorrow before you leave to make sure you can."

"Okay thank you Doctor Smith."

"Your welcome.  Feel better alright sweetheart?"

I nod my head and he gives me hug and leaves the room.  

...

Despite having the nauseous pill, I've been sick all afternoon.  I had taken a nap and just woke up a few minutes ago to only see Luke in my room.  Before I went to sleep, I told everyone that they could go eat because I knew that they were hungry.  

"Hey," Luke says to me as he sits up in the chair.  

"Hi.  What are you still doing here?  You weren't hungry?"

"Your parents were going to bring me back something.  I didn't want to leave you."

My heart melts at those words.  

"Thank you, for everything.  I'm sorry that you have to see me like this."

I can feel my ears heat up and they're probably turning a deep red from embarrassment.  I'm used to my family seeing me sick but not my boyfriend.  

"You don't have to apologize, Callie.  I would do anything for you.  I love you."

"I love you."

I take his hand in mine and lace our fingers together giving him a closed lip smile and he smiles back at me.  

"Lay with me?" I ask him.

"I don't want to mess up the wires."

"It's okay."

I had electrodes hooked up to me because they wanted to keep track of my heart rate and make sure that everything was fine.  

"Okay."

I move over to the right making sure not to mess anything up and he gets up from the chair.  Luke then lays on the left side of me and I put my head on his shoulder.  

"Sleep," he murmurs to me.  

And I do.  Right next to the man I love.