Lilli

Surgery

The lovely cover was made for me by InfinityCanLove. Thanks so much! It's so, so, SO pretty. <3

June 23, 2022

I had to be at the hospital by 8:30 a.m. This was two hours before my operation was scheduled to begin. This gave us time for preparation and paperwork. I would be in the hospital until June 30, 2022. That meant I'd be hospitalized for a week. Because this was such a major surgery, I had to be monitored for a while after.

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to pack for the week. I was quickly done. I also had to help my brother pack for his vacation next week. He was going to go to Florida with his girlfriend, Aurora. He had been with her for three years. Her cancer had worsened to the point of having stage 3 cancer.

I went to his room and knocked on the door. Aurora opened it.

"Um, why are you here? Not to be mean, I just wasn't expecting you."

"I understand, Lilli. Derek invited me over last night," she explained. "I wanted to be with you before your knee replacement."

"Thank you, you're so nice. It means a lot," I said to her.

Derek got up from the bed. "Rory, what's going on?"

I covered my eyes. "Ummm.. You have to wear clothes to sleep in the same bed."

Both of their faces flushed red.

"I was going to pack for your vacation before I was in the hospital," I explained to them to ease the awkwardness.

Derek smiled. "Don't worry, Lilli. You don't have to do it. Aurora, what color is this?" He held up an orange shirt.

She giggled and replied, "Pink."

He coughed. "Excuse me? I won't wear pink, especially on a vacation with my girlfriend! I'm the manly one!"

"Calm down, sweetheart, it's orange." She leaned over the bed and kissed him.

I groaned and covered my eyes. "Get clothes on, Derek. I'm telling mom you were naked."

I closed his door and raced as fast as I could to my mother. "Derek and Rory were naked in bed together."

She blinked. "Um, Lilli, did you knock?"

I scoffed. "Of course I did."

My mother sighed and shook her head. "Well, Derek and Aurora have known each other for seven years. They have been together for three years. I trust him to make good decisions," she said to me. "Now, you can't eat this morning.. Do you want to go to the support group?"

My mother was searching around the Internet to find ways to help me. She found a place called Mental Rehabilitation for Handicapped Children and Teens, or MRHCT. It was basically a place where you get to meet other people your age with handicaps or illnesses of any sort. People are welcome to come at any time to socialize, but group therapy sessions were scheduled to occur on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. As soon as she read about it, she called the place and signed me up.

I nodded. It was only 7:10 a.m. on Thursday. I could go to socialize.

When we arrived, there were about five or six people. There was a group of teenagers, a married couple, and a boy that seemed to be my age.

He stared at me from across the room. I was used to being stared at, being a little girl with handicaps, but for some odd reason, this time it bothered me that I was being stared at. I guessed that it was because this was a place full of children like me, yet I was still being stared at. Only children and teens with disabilities or long-term illnesses were eligible for the rehabilitation, so I knew he had some problem. I couldn't see it.

I knew I had to look at the wall. There was a list of the people that showed up. The name "Henderson" was sewed onto the back of his jersey. I finally found his name.

Michael Henderson…Dementia, caused by vasculitis, which is a condition characterized by the inflammation of your blood vessels. He had a stroke and lost most of his memory. He has pain, may be disabled, or might die from vasculitis.

I checked over my name again.

Lilli Trent…Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia in the right knee. She had reconstructive surgery on her knee when she was a newborn baby, and now she is having more issues and is scheduled to have a knee replacement.

I still noticed Michael staring at me. I headed toward him.

"Hi." I blinked at him when he didn't react to me being in front of him.

His mother bent to his level. "Lilli's in front of you."

He blinked back. "Hi."

Had his dementia really hit him that badly? He seemed unable to function on his own.

"I'm going to have surgery today, so my mom told me to come here."

Michael's face suddenly contorted in fear. "What's my name?"

"Michael, sweetheart," his mother softly reminded him. Her face was white from concern for her son. She was trembling. I could understand why. It seemed as if she had lost whatever her son was before. He was a shell of himself.

"Everything hurts." He closed his eyes. "I have to go to the hospital again."

"I'll be there for a week," I explained to him.

Michael was shaking, and tears threatened to pour out of his eyes. "I'm stupid."

I felt bad for him. He knew practically nothing, but he knew that he knew nothing. He felt ignorant. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't help him if I didn't know him before his stroke.

"Lilli.. Ah, you've made a friend. Aren't you the Henderson family?" My mother laughed. "We have to get to the hospital, so we have to leave. Feel free to visit her at any time this week."

When we got there, I got my vitals checked immediately. I was instructed to lay down in the hospital bed while they tried to get the IV in. They managed to get it through my hand. I was given a mask and and a thing to go on my finger that monitors my heart rate.

They then told me they were going to start putting the medicine in my IV to make me pass out.