“It didn’t upset Gini?”
“No, it was only four days after we moved in. She was still suffering from the move. What she said yesterday to you was the first time she has said anything about him. She has such good perception. She knew exactly how he felt with no one telling her. It’s sad but for the best, I guess. I did have hope for him, but I knew his head wasn’t in the right place. Anyway, it’s just the two of us now. She has adjusted to life in the city, and we are getting along just fine.”
The next Tuesday Robert called Debbie to give her instructions for the appointment on Wednesday. He suggested they take Gini around the hospital in a wheelchair to save time. Debbie said she’d bring Gini’s.
“I’ll meet you at the main entrance,” he said. “Just give me a heads-up when you’re close. We’ll have the valet park your car.”
“Valet?”
“Oh, yes, Nurse Pierce, we are a very classy hospital now with valet service to help our patients and their caregivers.”
Once inside the building, Debbie pushed the chair and Gini immediately put her hand up for Robert to hold. In the examining room, Dr. Adams rolled his stool in front of Gini. The sound startled her, and she jumped. Robert took her hand in both of his.
“Sweetheart, this is Dr. Adams. He wants to take a look at your eyes.”
Gini’s hand flexed in his, and her bottom lip quivered. Debbie reached from the back of the chair and rubbed down the sides of Gini’s head. “It’s okay, baby.”
The doctor gently rubbed on Gini’s other hand and told her he wanted her to open her eyes so he could see them. Gini continued to be frightened.
After a few minutes, the doctor said, “We don’t have to do this today if you don’t want to. I’m glad I got to meet you, though. I want to try and help you. So you tell Dr. Young when you want to meet again.”
“Ock… tor… ong.” Her lip was still quivering.
“Yes, he’s my friend, just like he’s your friend.”
“Ock… tor… rob… ber… un… gee.”
The doctor looked up at Robert. “We’ll reschedule.”
After a long few seconds, Gini said, “Be… uff… o… k.”
He looked back at Gini. “You’re ready now?”
“Be… uff… o… k.” She repeated the words over and over while the doctor positioned the equipment.
The exam took over an hour; most of the time was spent convincing her to keep her eyes open. Gini’s lip quivered for the first fifteen minutes or so. Robert continued to hold her hand. Debbie marveled at Dr. Adams’ patience with Gini; Robert told her later the doctor often worked with brain trauma patients.
Then he became concerned and wanted to do an internal exam with a probe, which meant Gini would have to be mildly sedated.
The probe showed infection of the optic nerve. The left eye had scar tissue and infection. The right eye was also infected. Dr. Adams recommended a strong eye drop to put directly in the eyes. He, Dr. Young, and Debbie met in Dr. Adams’ office as he explained his findings. Gini was attended by a nurse as she slowly came out of the sedation.
Dr. Adams instructed Debbie to patch the eyes after applying the drops, darkening the room for the procedure, once in the morning and at bedtime. He suggested Gini wear the eye shields most of the time to let the area breathe. He gave her self-adhesive patches for when they were out of the house.
After further conversation, it was revealed Gini had had a high temperature a few months earlier, and she had had the Coch virus the year before.
“Who treated her for the Coch virus?” Dr. Adams asked.
“I’m not sure,” Debbie said. “I can ask Dr. Nelson. She’s Gini’s OB-GYN. She may know who Gini’s GP is, if Dr. Nelson didn’t treat her.”
Dr. Adams continued to write on his tablet. “I would suspect Gini had a reoccurrence of the virus when she had the fever earlier. In New York, eighty percent of the Coch virus cases this year were people who had it last year. It appears it attacks different parts of the body in different people. The outbreak this year was much milder than last, but I doubt we have seen the last of it. I would venture to say, in Gini’s case, it attacked her eyes.
“We’ll try the drops to start with. They are potent, so they should do the job. Otherwise, we’ll have to do fluid removal.”
Before Gini was completely conscious, Dr. Adams administered the drops and put on the eye shields. Robert helped Debbie get Gini settled in the car. “I’ll come by tonight and check on her.”
That evening both Debbie and Gini greeted Robert at the door. He was pleased to see Gini was up and moving around.
“How are you, sweetheart?”
“Be… uff… goo. Er… guiney… be… uff… buge.” She giggled when she slowly placed the palm of her hand on one of the eye shields covering her eye. “Pa… lay… bray… caah.”
He took her hand, and they all went into the living room. “You don’t look like a bug.” She smiled broadly.
The eye patches were still on her eyes after three weeks. Dr. Adams increased the dosage and the number of times the drops were administered. It concerned Debbie that the infection seemed to be stubborn, but Dr. Adams assured her the drops were working.
Gini didn’t seem to mind the patches. She remained her sweet self and took the exam and treatment each week in stride. It was obvious she could see without the patches, because with them she would not walk unless someone held her hand, and she seemed reluctant to take steps.
Robert
