Chapter 18
Over the next few weeks Emily and Caleb had their hands full with the 3 boys. Even at a month old they were such a handful for the 2 of them. Molly had taken a week off work to come by and give them a hand. Everyone worked in shifts and everyone took a nap here and there when they could. They were trying to get the babies all sleeping at the same time but it wasn’t working out too well.
One very cold and dreary day while all the mayhem was going on in the Harrison household the phone was ringing as it usually does but no one was able to answer it. The machine picked up and after the beep this message was left. “Mr. or Mrs. Harrison this is Nurse Sarah one of your daughters attending nurses. She is going into surgery right now please give us a call…….”
“Hello, Hello” Emily said frantically trying to hand Jayson to Caleb who already had Logan and Austin in his hands.
“Hello is this Emily?” The nurse asked.
“Yes this is what’s wrong with Gracie?” Emily asked with tears in her eyes.
“They are taking her in to surgery right now. Our fears of a brain bleed have been confirmed by MRI and we are afraid it’s a grade 3 bleed, the worst of all. She will need surgery right away. We don’t know what her outcome will be. We thought you should know so you could get here as soon as possible.” The nurse said.
Emily assured her that they would be right there and hung up the phone. She didn’t have time to cry. She had to call her mom and get her over to the house to watch the boys. She had to make sure her mom could handle it and then they had to hit the road.
Once they got to the hospital Gracie was already in surgery. The nurse told them they would have to wait in the waiting room and a doctor would be out soon with an update. The wait seemed like it took forever even thought it was only 2 hours. Finally a doctor they had never met before came out. He was a younger man, tall with dark hair. He shook Caleb and Emily’s hands before motioning for them to sit down so they could talk.
“We have just finished the surgery; it went better than to be expected. Grace did well but the real challenge will be these next few days. The first 46 hours are critical. She may also have some sort of brain damage but we really won’t know until she is older. It will mostly be delayed motor skills, she might not walk when the boys do or she may not talk right away. We won’t know the extent of the damage for some time.” The doctor was very nice and said that Caleb and Emily could wait in Gracie’s recovery room while they finished up in the OR.