INTRUSION (Whitney Holmes Series) (8 page)

“
I cannot tell anything just by touching it. I need to go in and do a biopsy. I think we will remove the whole thing. There is no reason to have a lump on your neck,” the doctor said.

“
Will I have to have surgery?” I asked.

“
Yes. I will have my nurse make an appointment for me to do it. I am a surgeon, so don’t be afraid,” he said.

I knew Dr. Sherrill was also a surgeon, but I didn’t care until now, I was kind of dazed, I had never had surgery before, I even still had my tonsils.

The doctor thanked us and told us to see Eve, his nurse, and she would make all the arrangements. He left the room.

I got off the bed and my mom hugged me.

“It’s going to be all right,” she said.

I didn’t know if she was telling me or herself.

We went out and saw Eve. She said the doctor wanted to do the biopsy as soon as possible so we made the appointment for the next day. She told me to be sure and wash my hair and take a shower the next morning.

I said I would, feeling kind of insulted. I always showered in the morning unless I had something weird going on.

My mom thanked Eve and we left. We always go to McDonald’s after a doctor appointment, but I wasn’t hungry and neither was my mom.

Mom asked me if I wanted to go to school and I said, “I feel like going back to bed, if that is okay.”

“I understand,” my mom said.

When we got back home, I had a message on my landline voicemail, and the person said, “Where are you?” in a creepy voice.

“Mom, it’s happening again!”

“
The stalker?”

“
Yeah, he said, ‘Where are you?’” I was so upset and Mom was, too.

“
Don’t delete the message, in case we need to play it for the police.”

“
Fine.” I didn’t feel like dealing with the stalker today so I just turned off my phone in my room and turned off my cell phone, too.

I got Gretchen out of the back yard and she went and immediately laid on her bed. I shut my door and crawled into my bed. I was asleep in a minute.

My mom woke me for dinner and I was starving. She had made my favorite: macaroni and cheese with hot dogs cut up in it I thanked her and ate a good helping.

The boys were quiet at dinner so I knew my mom had told them about my biopsy. I wasn’t supposed to eat or drink after midnight. I looked at the clock. It was five ’o clock. I had seven hours to drink water. I was really nervous about the surgery. I didn’t know too much about it. We had gotten a pamphlet from the doctor so I decided to find it and read about it. I found the pamphlet and on the front it said, “Biopsies are not scary.” I begged to differ. I was scared out of my wits.

The first page showed a lot of boobs. I guess most biopsies were for women who had lumps in their breasts, not lumps in their necks. I decided to not show my brothers this. I didn’t want them to get the wrong idea about my surgery. The pamphlet said they might put me to sleep or they might just give me a local anesthesia in the area where the lump was. I hoped that is what they would do. I was afraid to go to sleep on the operating table, I was afraid I would never wake up.

My father came home while I was reading the pamphlet he wasn’t too thrilled with dinner, but after he heard the news about the biopsy, he stopped complaining about eating little kids’ food. My dad said he would take the day off work for me. I said that was okay, my mom was going to take me. He looked a little hurt. I knew his job was really important and if he missed a day, it wouldn’t look good.

I had trouble sleeping that night. I kept getting up and drinking water until midnight. Then I would have to go to the bathroom a little while later. Finally, around one o’ clock in the morning, I fell asleep beside Gretchen on her bed.

CHAPTER SIX

My mom woke me up at six a.m. I was startled. I had been having horrible dreams.

I didn’t tell her I had had a bad dream because I knew she would blame it on me sleeping on the floor with my arm around Gretchen. Lately, that had been the only way I could sleep at night. I took a shower and washed my hair. I blow dried my hair. I liked the way my brown hair looked when I blew dry it, but it was such a pain to dry because of such curly, thick hair. I put my hair in a ponytail. I quickly put on some sweat pants and a tee shirt the pamphlet had said to wear loose clothing.

My dad was going to take the boys to school because we had to be at the surgery center at seven.

My dad kissed me goodbye and prayed for me. I thanked him when he was finished. He kissed me on the forehead and said that everything was going to be all right. I believed him, a little bit.

My mom and I got in the car and we drove to the surgery center where Dr. Sherrill was going to meet us. The center was next door to the doctor’s office so that was convenient for him.

When we got there, my mom asked me if she could pray for me, too and I said yes. My mom usually prayed these beautiful long prayers, but today she just prayed a short prayer, I could tell she was nervous, too.

We walked up to the surgery center and Eve the nurse was there, I was kind of glad to see her, she was a familiar face.

I sat down while my mom filled out some papers for the surgery. I wanted to ask Eve if they were going to put me to sleep, but I was afraid of the answer. Eve asked me what I had eaten that morning and I said nothing. I guessed that was a trick question. She smiled and wrote it down. She asked me when was the last time I had had water and I said around midnight.

After all the paperwork was finished she asked me to come back to the pre-surgery room to change into a hospital gown. After I changed, they put in an I.V. which hurt like the dickens, but I didn’t flinch. I just wanted to get this over with.

When the I.V. nurse left, my mom said she was proud of me, I smiled wanly, I knew this might be the beginning of some pain.

Dr. Sherrill came in busily, he asked me if anyone explained what we were doing and I said I had read the pamphlet. He explained to my mom and I that they were going to localize the area with anesthesia and take the lump out while I was awake.

Now that I had the I.V., which hurt, I was wondering how he was going to numb my neck. I asked him and he said he would give me a series of shots until I didn’t feel any pain. He said I would be on a chiropractic table so I could breathe through the hole in the bottom and I wouldn’t feel any pain, only a little tugging. I felt like throwing up. I was glad I hadn’t eaten. I told the doctor I was afraid, so he said that he would have the anesthesiologist give me something for nerves. He said they would put it in my I.V.

A nice-looking doctor came in and said he was the anesthesiologist, Dr. Lindsor. He said he was going to give me something that would make me not so nervous and it would also make me sleepy. I was really glad because I was on ultra-alert right now. About a minute after he put something in my I.V., I felt sleepy and more relaxed I think it was a miracle drug. They wheeled me on my bed down to the operating room. My mom had to say goodbye at the door. She kissed me and said she loved me. I told her I loved her, too.

When I got inside the room, everything was bright. I must have said something funny because the people in the room laughed and asked if the anesthesiologist had given me something and I said yes. They all said, “oh” in unison.

Someone asked me if I could move to the next bed. It was the chiropractic bed and I moved over groggily.

They asked me to turn over so my face was in the hole and I felt a little claustrophobic but I laid there. I wished my mom was there but the nurses and doctors seemed nice. I heard Dr. Lindsor come in.

He said to me, “I am going to give you a series of shots to numb your neck. I will make them small and often. Please don’t flinch away from me.”

I laid there and waited for the first shot. Wow, that one hurt. The second one didn’t feel so great either. But eventually, I guess the numbing started to work because the pain wasn’t as sharp. I felt him give eight shots I was so glad when he was finished. Dr. Sherrill must have sneaked in because I heard his voice.

“
Whitney, can you hear me?” he asked.

I said I could. He said that he was going to pinch the area on my neck to see if I felt anything. I didn’t feel anything and he said that was good. After that, I could not really describe the feeling except that I felt a pulling sensation, it did not hurt, the whole thing lasted about half an hour. They kept asking me if I felt pain and I would say no. I was so woozy, I don’t know if I would have felt any pain. When they were through I felt them put tape around the area they didn’t numb. I guessed they put a bandage on the wound.

The woozy, good feeling was wearing off and I laid there breathing deeply.

“
Everything is fine,” Dr. Sherrill said to me.

“
Okay,” I said.

They slowly helped me up and put me in a wheelchair. I was glad because suddenly I felt like crap.

“We are going to take you out to your mother now. We will send the biopsy to the lab and call you with the results,” Dr. Sherrill said.

“
All right,” I said.

Someone pushed the chair behind me and I started to feel my neck again and it hurt, I wanted to cry, when I saw my mom’s face, I was so happy that she was there for me.

When they signed me out of the outpatient hospital, they gave me a prescription for pain, I was glad, I needed it. The nurse had my mom drive around to the front of the hospital, so I didn’t have to walk. They pushed me right up to my mom’s car in the wheelchair. I got in my mom’s car gingerly. I didn’t want to move my neck. I was getting a headache, also.

We stopped at the drugstore on the way home. The doctor had prescribed Tylenol with codeine. I took one immediately and I laid my seat down so I could rest on the way home. My neck was so sore I couldn’t get comfortable, so I sat up and I felt a little woozy. When we got home, I was surprised to see my dad’s car in the driveway. My mom helped me out of the car and we walked up to the house. The door was unlocked so we went right in. My dad was sitting in his chair.

“Dad, you stayed home today,” I said happily.

“
Of course, I couldn’t have done a decent job today, I was so worried about you,” he said. I walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek and was immediately sorry because I felt woozy again.

“
I need to lay down,” I said.

“
I have your blanket and pillow all set up on the couch,” my father said. That was so sweet of him, I got on the couch and laid down.

“
Honey, are you hungry?” my mom asked.

“
No, I couldn’t eat a thing,” I said.

“
It is around eleven and you haven’t eaten all morning,” my mom said.

“
I am afraid if I eat, I will throw up,” I said.

“
Then no food for you,” my dad said, smiling.

I tried to get comfortable on the couch and my neck ached. Not just in the surgery area, but all over like someone had been pulling on it. I finally fell asleep with my hand dangling off the couch onto Gretchen. She was very quiet and her amber eyes looked at me with a worried expression.

I woke up when the boys came home from school. They were their usual noisy selves. When they saw me on the couch, they ran over and asked how I was.

“
I think the surgery went well,” I said.

“
Do you know yet if you have cancer?” Jordan asked.

“
We won’t know until the doctor calls with the biopsy results,” I said.

I sat up and I started feeling woozy again and I didn’t know if I liked the pain pills the doctor gave me and my stomach hurt, too. My mom came in and she had some broth for me to drink. It was chicken. I drank some gingerly and I felt a little better.

Chanda came to visit and she said everyone at school was worried about me. This was such an exaggeration since I didn’t know everyone at school. She told me to turn on my phone because she had been trying to call me all day. I asked her to bring me my purse and she did.

I turned my phone on and it took a few minutes to come on. Finally, it came on and I had one hundred and three messages. I almost laughed but I knew it would hurt.

“Look Chanda, I have one hundred and three messages,” I said to her.

“
Well, there are only four from me,” she said.

I started listening to the messages. After about nineteen or so from the creeper, I could see a pattern. At first, he was concerned, then he was angry, then he was sorry.

“Did you tell everyone we know about my surgery?” I asked Chanda.

“
Yes, I wanted them to pray for you,” she said.

“
Somehow, the stalker heard about me. He was getting kind of weird toward the end of the messages I heard. I will listen to the rest later. It creeped me out a little,” I said.