Robert sat there confused. “Can you remember your name?” Kym asks. He shakes his head no. “Can you remember the accident?”<br> He just has a confused and angry stare. “Tell him to stop,” he orders. The therapist was working on his legs and the motion and pain was distracting him. <br>“Ok. Hey can you come back later, set up a schedule for him.” The therapist leaves. Kym sits on the side of the bed. “Ok what’s the last thing you remember?” <br>Robert shakes his head. He moves his arm and motions for the glass. Kym gets it and helps him get a drink. “I don’t know,” he answers his voice still raspy. “Waking up in the dark, maybe today or yesterday.” <br>“Ok. I’m going to call the neurosurgeon.” She pats his arm. “You get some rest.” She leans over grabbing the call button, she puts it adjacent to his left hand. “Push this if you need anything.” She gets up. He wants her to stay. But she’s gone too fast. Ok think, why can’t I remember anything.</p>
<p>Kym goes back to her office and calls the neurosurgeon. “Hi, Dr. McCormick please. This is Dr. Johnson at Lance County.” She waits while they get him then explains that Robert is awake, but can’t remember anything. They set up an appointment to get him an MRI. </p>
<p> People come in and out of his room the rest of the day. The nurse asks if he wants to eat anything, he asks where Kym is and the nurse informs him with other patients. She tries to feed him something, but he has little appetite. Later the therapist comes in and explains all the things Robert should be doing like trying to move his small joints like fingers and toes, which are going to be stiff. The therapist works on his muscles for a while. That afternoon Robert is already able to move most of his body. He calls the nurse saying he needs to use the bathroom, she informs him that he has a catheter and colostomy bag so can just go. Ok step 1 he thinks is getting mobile to get rid of those and being able to use the bathroom himself. Kym checks on him that evening before she leaves for the night, but he’s sleeping. </p>
<p>The next morning he’s awake. The nurse is in his room. “Where’s Kym?” he asks. <br>“Dr. Johnson is with the neurosurgeon, we are prepping you to move you. Do you think you can work with me and get out of bed.” Robert nods and tries to be helpful. The nurse removes the colostomy bag and catheter. That was really uncomfortable. Robert makes himself a promise that those are not going back in. She then gets him dressed in some scrubs. He notices his knee is really sore. He thought it was from the therapist, but it has bandages on it. It must have been from the accident. “Can you sit up?” the nurse asks. Robert tries, but his core muscles are so weak that it’s hard to just stay sitting. “Ok I’m going to get a band, but I think we can use the wheel chair and not a stretcher. Ok you can lie back I’ll be right back.” She leaves. Robert thinks about seeing Kym. He works to get his arm up to fix his hair, where’s his hair, its very short like shaved on the side, it’s a bit longer on the top. He can feel a big scar or stitches along the back and side. The nurse comes in with two orderlys. They get him up and into the chair, strap him in. They wheel him to an ambulance and load him into the stretcher. It’s a long ride. Then they get him out and into another chair. </p>
<p>Finally he sees Kym, he can’t help but smile. “Hey, look at you, you look so much better up and around,” she says. He loves her accent. <br>“Wearing clothes helps too,” he jokes. <br>She laughs, “Yes the scrubs are a better look than the gown.”<br>“Hi I’m Dr. McCormick the neurosurgeon. I saw you when you first came in. We’re going to do another MRI to see where you’re at. Dr. Johnson says you can’t remember anything?” Robert shakes his head no. They get him loaded up into the MRI while Kym and Dr. McCormick go into the office. “Ok, these earplugs will help drown out the noise of the machine,” the technician tells him.</p>
<p>It’s an unbearable 45 minutes. He’s thankful to be out. <br>“How are you feeling?” Dr. McCormick asks. <br>“Ok. It was pretty bad being stuck in there for so long.” <br>“Understood, no one likes an MRI.” He leans down to check Robert out, looking at his eyes, asking if his head hurts, etc. <br>Robert turns to Kym, “So being stuck in there I thought of a bunch of questions I wanted to ask you.” <br>Kym is going to respond, but the neurosurgeon cuts her off, “Do you remember those questions now?” Robert says yes. “And you remember when you woke up in the hospital a few days ago?” Robert also says yes. “That’s good. It doesn’t look like you have any lasting short term memory issues. Can you remember anything about your childhood?” <br>Robert thinks. “I know there’s a boat. And I think the name Christopher. Maybe my name is Christopher?” It didn’t feel right, but he can’t think of anything else. <br>“Ok well that’s good. Your scans look good. I’ll continue to go over them and talk to Dr. Johnson. But it doesn’t look like there’s any continued damage to your brain.” <br>They go to move him back out to the ambulance. “Hey how did you get here?” he asks Kym. <br>“I drove.”<br>“Can I ride with you?”<br>“Unfortunately no. You have not been released so you need to be transported by the hospital. But I’m going back there. I’ll be on shift so I’ll check in on you.” Robert was disappointed. He hoped he would get a chance to talk to her later. He really did have a million questions for her.