“Do you have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or do you smoke?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been told you have a weak heart?”
The questions were becoming unnerving. “No. No to all of it. Like I said, I’m usually really healthy. Although…” She rubbed a hand to her chest. Talking so much was making it hurt more. “My doctor told me today to get an echo done. I was going to make the appointment tomorrow.”
The doctor helped Savannah sit up, then pushed her hair behind her ears and settled the chest piece between Savannah’s shoulder blades. “Deep breath in, please.”
It was more difficult than she expected it to be. She bit her lip, trying not to jump to any conclusions.
“Your doctor didn’t hear anything amiss in your lungs?”
“Rales – he said he heard rales.”
“Did you get a chest X-ray?”
“Yes, at the imaging center in his medical building. He said he saw fluid in my lungs and told me to get an echo done because my heart didn’t look right.”
Dr. Rockwell removed the stethoscope and laid it around her neck. “That’s consistent with what I’m hearing. I’m sending you up for an X- ray, we’re going to check your lungs again, and your heart.”
Shaun’s hand tightened on hers. “Any idea what it might be?” His voice sounded strained.
“I don’t want to say anything until I’ve had a chance to look at the X-rays.” She pulled back the sheets and continued her examination. After a moment she pressed on Savannah’s ankles. “Do you get swelling very often?”
Savannah pushed herself up on her elbows and gasped. Her ankles had swollen considerably. “No,” she said, her voice small. “Never.”
The doctor gave them a sympathetic look as she draped the sheets back over Savannah’s legs. “Don’t worry; we’ll figure this out. But first things first. I’ll order that X-ray, and someone will be with you in a bit to take you up to radiology. As soon as I get a chance to look at the results I’ll come back here and tell you what we’ve found.”
She made some notes on the chart, then left them staring at each other.
“ ‘What we’ve found’ – she didn’t tack on an ‘if anything.’ “ Savannah lay back again.
“Noises in the lungs – that could just be pneumonia. Walking pneumonia, maybe.”
“That’s pretty common, though. Dr. Helms would have picked that up. And my ankles… what on earth would cause that?”
They both fell silent, staring once again at the activity outside their little room. Savannah tried not to let her imagination run wild, but it was an exercise in futility. She thanked the nurse with more gusto than necessary when they were finally taken up to radiology; she was grateful for the change of scenery and another new experience to keep her mind occupied.
By the time they got back down to the ER-and placed in a curtain-walled cubicle room, which did nothing to calm her anxiety since now the noises and drama of the place were more easily heard- Shaun was looking almost worse than Savannah felt. “Honey, you need to get something to eat, or… something. Coffee-go get yourself some coffee. It’s past ten o’clock; who knows how much longer we’re going to be here.”
“I don’t want to leave in case the doctor comes back.”
“I promise I’ll make her wait until you’re back. Seriously, they’re going to think you’re the one that’s sick pretty soon.”
He gave her a weak smile, then reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “I love you, Van.”
“I love you, too. Don’t get all emotional on me, Shaun. I won’t be able to take it.”
He chuckled and stood, kissing her hand once more. “Alright, alright. Make sure she waits for me.”
“I promise.”
It turned out there was no need; it took another hour before Dr. Rockwell came back. When Shaun roused Savannah from her nap to hear the news, the dull ache of too little sleep pulsed in every muscle. She prayed she’d be able to rest again soon.
The look of tension in Shaun’s face was at odds with the gentle way he clasped her hand. Savannah was grateful for his strength; she didn’t know how she’d make it otherwise. “So what’s the story, doctor?” he asked. “Do you have any theories?”
“I do, yes. And I think it was a very good thing you came in tonight.” Dr. Rockwell uploaded the X-rays onto the computer beside the bed and took out her pen. She used it to point to the hazy image of Savannah’s lungs. “You can see the somewhat cloudy appearance of the lungs here – as though the film didn’t develop all the way. That’s called pulmonary edema, which basically means fluid in the lungs.” Then she traced a bulbous shape that ballooned out to the right from the center of the chest. “This is your heart. A healthy heart would only come out to here or so-” She indicated a space about half an inch closer to the center. “Yours is enlarged.”
Savannah felt like the breath was pulled from her lungs. She fought out the words. “Enlarged heart?”
“So what does all that mean?” Shaun’s voice belied his fear, as did the way his hand tightened on hers.
“I believe we’re looking at heart failure.”
Savannah almost laughed. “Heart failure? I’m the healthiest person I know. How is that possible? It can’t be right. Right, Shaun?”
Shaun’s eyes never left the doctor. “You can fix this, right? What do we do now?”
“We’re going to admit you for an echocardiogram and a cardiology consult. But I’m encouraged by the fact that you’re still as active and alert as you are. I think we caught this just in the nick of time.”
THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR HOURS WERE like a roller coaster that only went down.
It was past midnight when she was finally brought up to the room. She insisted Shaun go home and sleep since the night nurse assured her nothing else would be done until the morning. “I’ll call you as soon as they tell me when things will get going again.”
“I won’t be able to sleep knowing you’re here alone.”
“You’re exhausted. You’ll sleep. Believe me. You definitely won’t if you’re here, at least not well. Better chances in your own bed. Just go.”
She slept on and off, woken frequently by unfamiliar noises, vitals checks by the night nurse, and runaway dreams that left her breathless when she woke. Her breakfast was brought in at seven-thirty, and she gave up trying to sleep after that.
In the new semi-private room-which she shared with a woman whose heart monitor beep drove Savannah batty-the television with limited channels was her only source of entertainment, and nothing on the airwaves was interesting enough to hold her attention for long. As a result, her thoughts ran wild, dreaming up scenarios that all ended with her wishing she had pen and paper to write down her wishes for her funeral. She felt worse than she had when they’d first arrived in the ER. True fear was starting to set in.
She was taken after breakfast to the echo lab, Shaun arriving just minutes before the appointment, and underwent the echocardiogram. After that it was back to her room, where Shaun settled in to the chair beside her bed with a book and Savannah tried to take a nap. It was a pointless attempt-her keyed-up nerves were enough to override her exhaustion.
“Jessie wanted to know if she should come,” he said out of nowhere.
“What did you tell her?”
“That we would let her know when we found out anything, but that she didn’t need to come unless she really wanted to.”
“When does she leave for school again?”
Shaun thought a moment. “The 27th.”
“She’s got a lot on her plate with work and getting ready for the next semester. No sense in her wasting time here. Besides, anytime you visit someone in the hospital they always look worse than they really are. I wouldn’t want her getting scared when things aren’t really that bad.”
“Aren’t that bad?”
She kept her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m working on positive thinking.” She sighed and looked to the window, but the sunlight that snuck in through the cracks between the curtains and the walls hurt her eyes. “I should have asked you to bring my Bible.”
“Want me to find you one?”
