'The Man' Tales - Cid Heals

Voting continues for this final week at The Best of Blogs. Bigbluebarnwest is still in the lead for Best Inspirational Blog but needs your votes to keep it there. I greatly appreciate the fact that everyone is taking the time to vote. While you are doing so, MOB (menopausaloldbag)and Carolyn are both nominated. Mob for funniest blog and Carolyn (laughingaloneinthedark)for best Mummy blog (although she has thrown her votes behind PunkRockMommy. Any votes for these two are also greatly appreciated. Winners will be announced on June 2, 2008.
And now - on with the story.

I stayed beside Cid’s bed and held his hand that day. He was high on the morphine pump and was laughing and smiling. His surgery prevented him from doing much leaning but he would make a motion and I would lean over and kiss him. His breath smelled of chemicals but his lips were sweet and soft, and mine clung to his – desperate for more.

I stayed with him until 11pm when the shift change happened and the new nurses asked me to let him sleep. I kissed him once more and we clung to each other – happy to be able to do just this. Leaning in close, I whispered in his ear that I would return and once more our hands stretched towards each other – refusing to part – as I slipped from his grasp.

The night was cold and the wind was blowing snow into my face as I made my way to the lonely parking lot. A man came out of nowhere and walked towards me along the sidewalk. He was bundled up against the cold and his head was down and I quickly sent up a silent prayer as we neared each other. Just as he passed, he lurched into me and my heart sent a shot of adrenalin through my body. As my feet sped up I whipped my head around to see if he was following, but he was still going in the other direction. Perhaps the snow had been uneven on his side of the sidewalk – but I wasn’t taking any chances.

As I hurried towards my car I heard another vehicle’s engine trying to turn over. Jumping in my car, I started it quickly and locked the doors. As the windows unthawed, I could see the person who had been trying to start their vehicle. It was obviously a woman and she had popped the hood and was standing in the cold, staring into the engine. We were the only two people in the entire parking lot. I couldn’t drive away and leave her there, so I got out of my car and went over to see if I could help. The woman was one of the nurses who had been looking after Cid for the day. We fiddled with connections for a bit before she tried to start the car once more, but it was obvious that it was frozen and now the battery was dead. Neither of us had jumper cables, but fortunately she had a cell phone and I had a roadside assistance plan. I made the call and we waited in my car with the heater running. Almost two hours later, the tow truck arrived. In no time he had her boosted and she hugged me hard and was on her way. And so was I. When I arrived home at 3am, D hugged me hard and asked immediately after Cid. I felt terrible as he had been worried about both of us.

I drove back and forth to Edmonton everyday that Cid was in the hospital. The nurse from the parking lot thanked me every day for helping her out, until I had to ask her to quit. I had been happy to help. On the weekend, D came with me as he didn’t have to work, and we entertained Cid for the entire day. Both of us were so happy to have him on the mend. He had more pain after they took away the morphine pump, but he was more himself and you could see he was happy it was over with.

His ex-fiancée came to visit a couple of evenings when I was there. She would stand at the end of the bed and glare at me as Cid held my hand and refused to give it up. After two evenings of this, I stepped out into the hallway as she was leaving and told her it was crazy to be so jealous when she should be happy that Cid was healing. It didn’t help her attitude and that just saddened me. I thought a united front would be more helpful to Cid than the nonsense she insisted on carrying on with. When Cid was discharged, she took him home and dropped him off, then drove away. He had insisted that I stay home and I was frustrated that she would treat him like that. Cid excused her by claiming that she had always been like this. I just shook my head and asked him why he had ever proposed to her. At least it made him laugh.

His doctor never ordered chemotherapy or radiation after the kidney was removed. Cid was determined to live a healthy lifestyle after the surgery and threw himself into a physical routine to prove that he was healthy. He biked miles around Edmonton – sometimes going too far and having to call a cab to get back home. He refused to take the elevators and took the stairs instead. He ate healthy. Eventually his strength returned and when spring came we went back to hiking.

The three of us went to Drumheller and hiked around the hoodoos and into the canyons. This is an area of Alberta that is like stepping back in time. Many dinosaur bones have been found here in the deep canyons. The hoodoos are sandstone that have been eroded by the winds and the ‘hoodoos’ are what remain. It was on this trip that I was able to show Cid his first Bluebird. With his terrible eyesight he could never see the smaller birds, but this day we had our binoculars and I spotted this bluebird sitting in a tree not far from us. Cid found it with his binoculars, the bright blue of its feathers standing out against the budding limbs of the tree. He sat and watched it until it flew away. When he turned to me, his face was streaming with tears and he hugged me hard, thanking me for giving him that little treasure in his life. I hugged him back as I burst into tears, and thanked him for being in my life.