Brain Matter

Chapter 3

It had been almost two days since Nic got out of surgery and Conrad hadn't left her side.

"SBT's have been going great, she's triggering the vent on her own," Dr. Jacobs said as he peered at Nic's chart, "I think we can start lightening sedation as well."

"That's great," Conrad exhaled, nodding gratefully, "Thanks."

Dr. Jacobs turned to his nurse and ordered a change in Nic's medication dosages. Conrad tried not to think about the fact that Nic may wake up a different person. Or worse, not wake up at all.

He had poured over all of her test results. The surgery was successful, she had no complications, her post-op EEG was normal, and she was already an ideal candidate for a full recovery to begin with. There was no reason to believe that anything will go wrong, yet that's the only thing he can think about. Nic needed to be okay. She had to be.

It was late when Devon came by after his shift.

"Hey man," Devon spoke quietly, "How's our favorite patient?"

"Good, good," Conrad replied with a small sigh, "We're backing off her sedation now."

"I brought you a coffee and food," Devon placed a cup and a sandwich down on the table before poking at him, "Remember that thing? Food? The stuff with the nutrition?"

"Yeah, yeah," Conrad dismissed him with half a smile, "How was the ER?"

"It was a train wreck down there today," Devon shrugged, plopping down in a chair.

Conrad smirked. "That bad, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure the only thing we didn't get was an actual train wreck," Devon said.

Suddenly an alarm began to ring and Nic's head started to jerk back. Devon and Conrad were instantly next to her.

"Is she seizing?" Devon asked, unsure of what he was seeing.

"No, no, she's bucking the vent," Conrad explained before placing a hand on Nic's shoulder and waist, "Nic? Nic can you hear me?" He gave her shoulder a light squeeze and her eyes opened.

Her panic heightened for a moment as her senses were flooded. She started grabbing at her face, desperately attempting to remove whatever was choking her. Conrad caught her frantic hands, stilling her.

"You're alright, Nic, look at me," Conrad said calmly, "Look at me."

Nic followed the man's directions and connected the familiar voice to the person above her--Conrad. She searched his face frantically, trying to figure out what was going on. Conrad read her expression.

"Nic, you had to get surgery," Conrad told her plainly, "You have a tube in your throat helping you breathe--"

Nic started to shake her head in protest.

"You have to leave it in," Conrad said apologetically.

Her eyes welled with tears as she continued to shake her head, quickly escalating. She withdrew away from him.

"Nic-" Conrad warned.

She immediately reached for the tube tamer and tore the velcro off as Devon and Conrad jumped to stop her, trying to grab her hands.

"Wait, wait, wait, Nic stop!" Conrad gave in, grabbing a syringe as a show of good faith that he was going to remove it. "Hang on, I got you," He murmured quietly as he deflated the balloon. "Big cough on three, okay?" He instructed as he gripped the tube, "One, two, three."

Nic erupted into a coughing fit.

"There you go, easy, just breathe," Conrad soothed.

Devon gently held an oxygen mask up to her face, which she gratefully gasped into. Once she slowed down, she finally rested her head back.