Meet Again

Parents

The next Saturday, the whole gang (plus kids) were over at Rory and Logan's house. The kids were all playing in the jungle gym that Logan had built in the basement. Everyone else was in the living room.

"So how does it work?" Stephanie asked.

"The tube in his nose goes all the way down to his stomach" Logan said. "Every night before he goes to sleep we put the liquid formula stuff into a bag which gets hooked up to a pump. We connect it to the NG tube, turn on the pump, and that's it. We don't have to do it at night, but it takes about 9 hours so doing it while he sleeps means that he's not tied to an IV pole all day"

"And it just stays in his nose?" Ethan asked

"That's why it's taped to his cheek" Rory said. "To keep it from moving"

"Hey, what about the dog?" Stephanie asked

"He's doing the same thing as he's always done. Nicky's still having seizures" Rory said. "Plus I think there's a certain level of emotional support that Nicky gets from having Shadow around. It makes him feel safe"

A little while later they ordered pizza since the kids started complaining that they were hungry.

"Nicky, do you want pizza?" Logan asked. Even though he was getting all the nutrients he needed through the feeding tube, the doctors still advised Rory and Logan to keep trying to get him to eat solid food.

"Do I have to?" Nicky asked.

"It would be good if you ate something"

"Can I have something else?" Nicky asked

"Sure. What do you want?"

"The crackers" Nicky said.

"Ok"

"Crackers?" Stephanie asked Rory quietly.

"Pretty much the only thing he's willing to eat right now is those little saltine crackers" Rory said. "And he might drink a smoothie. The smoothies are good because we can put things like nuts or protein powder in them. Doesn't change the taste too much, but since he's barely eating it's a good way for him to get some more calories"

"God, how do you deal with all this?" Rosemary asked.

"I accept it" Rory said. "I can't fix the situation, but I can do everything in my power to make sure that my son is as comfortable as possible while he goes through this"

That night, around 1am, Rory and Logan were woken up by the sound of someone crying, and a moment later Shadow ran into the room and started barking at them. They got up and went into Nicky's room where they found him sitting up in bed, crying.

"What happened?" Rory asked.

"I don't feel good" Nicky said.

Logan went downstairs to get Nicky some water and an his anti nausea medication. When he got back, Rory was sitting on the edge of Nicky's bed and he was laying with his head on her lap. "Nicky, buddy, sit up so you can drink some water"

Nicky slowly sat up and took his green metal water bottle from Logan.

"Do you wanna swallow the medicine, or do you want me to put it through the tube?" Logan asked. Other than his anti epileptic drugs, which were pills that he had to swallow, all of Nicky's medications were in liquid form. Every day he had the choice between swallowing them or taking them through the NG tube.

"I'll swallow it" Nicky said and took the syringe from Logan. He took the medicine before giving the syringe back to Logan.

"Alright" Rory said. "Lay down so you can go back to sleep"