Like Wings, Your Hands by Elizabeth Earley

Author:Elizabeth Earley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Published: 2019-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

31. March 15, 2015: Cambridge, MA

The doctor told Marko that the shunt in his head had malfunctioned and the cerebral spinal fluid was accumulating around his brain. They needed to admit him to surgery immediately and replace the shunt. Marko had had many surgeries. While the doctor spoke, Marko listened for every utterance of “the,” “it,” and “now.” The doctor prefaced almost every sentence with “now.” After every second “it” that Marko heard, he lifted his hands alongside his face. After every fourth “it,” Marko cut his field of vision in half with his hands. After every fifth “now,” Marko cut back the other direction and lowered his hands. In doing this, Marko found a calming rhythm in the doctor’s speech. He couldn’t remember the last surgery he’d had near his brain because he had been a baby. His heart surgery had scared him a little. But this surgery scared him a lot. Marko was afraid that all he was, everything about him, was concentrated in his brain. If they messed that up, he would disappear forever. But if he counted words and marked the rhythms, maybe he’d be safe.

Marko’s hydrocephalus required the insertion of a tube inside his body. The tube, a catheter, had a shunt and a valve on one end. The shunt end was in his head, just under his skull where the excessive cerebral spinal fluid formed. The valve ensured a one-way, regulated flow of the fluid through the tube. The tube drained in his abdominal cavity. His first tube required a second surgery when he was three years old to replace it as he outgrew it. The second required a third surgery to replace it when he outgrew that one. The third tube was meant to grow with him, as it was coiled up in his abdominal cavity. As he grew, the tube would uncoil, and he would never need to have it replaced. Unless it got infected or obstructed, which of course it did.

After the doctor left, Marko sat in a shared hospital room with his mom, waiting for someone to come and take him in for surgery. Behind the closed curtain separating Marko from his roommate, he could hear small sobs. Another voice was there, making soothing murmurs, but also sniffling. Marko could smell the fear in the room. He asked his mom to help him into his chair. Without telling her what he was thinking, he wheeled slowly across the room to the curtain partition. He glanced back at his mom, then peeled back the curtain. Marko found a boy in there, at first laying with his back to Marko.

“I’ve been through plenty of surgeries and there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Marko said. Marko’s mom fell in behind him and pulled the boy’s mother aside and into the hall to talk with her.

Marko turned to the boy. He looked very young, curled in the bed like a pill bug. “I’m Marko. What’s your name?”

“Matt.”

“What is your surgery for?”

“My appendix. What’s yours?”

“My brain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.