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Stuck by a Drummer- The Adventure Continues
The first thing I was aware of when I woke up was pain. My forehead throbbed, and radiated agony to every muscle in my body. I moaned, squinted my eyes shut against the blinding overhead lights, and rolled over. My hand experienced a sharp pain; looking down, I saw a needle with attached IV tube taped in place. Judging from the same sensation that radiated from between my legs, I had a cathetar in me too.
"KC, thank God," I heard my sister gasp.
Slowly I looked over my shoulder. Kerri stood by my bedside, her face pale and tired. Her clothes were terribly wrinkled, as if she hadn't changed them in days.
"I'm in the hospital?" I asked. My voice sounded dry and creaky. I coughed, and winced at the soreness in my chest.
"You've been out for four days, Kase," Kerri replied. "Hold on- I'll get the nurse."
Four days? I laid back on the pillow to fight off the rising dizziness. Oh my God. Had I really hit my head that hard? Left alone with my thoughts, I struggled to remember. I'd been freaking out over Steve's and my sexual slip up, and hit my head when.....
STEVE!! I sat upright in bed. But dizziness and pain made me lie back down immediately. Where was Steve? I'd been out for four days? Four days made it too late for me to take emergency post-sex contraception! Oh shit....
Footsteps echoed in the corridor outside my door. Seconds later, Kerri and a nurse came in. While the nurse took my blood pressure, I stared pleadingly at my sister. "Before this happened I was with a guy named Steve. A British guy. Do you know where he is?"
She nodded. "He's the one who called the ambulance for you and then called me after the paramedics found the next of kin information in your wallet. Unfortunately no, he's not here. He left for England with his band day before yesterday."
I began sobbing. I had to talk to him!! Especially since there was now a chance that I might be pregnant. Kerri, alarmed by my tears, rushed over and rubbed my shoulder through the thin hospital shirt.
"KC, he left me his card with his home phone number written on the back. He said to let him know when there was any change in your condition. Seemed like a REALLY nice guy."
"He is."
"Wish I could have said the same for that bitch," she added under her breath. I don't think she wanted me to hear that, but I did anyway.
"Bitch? Who?"
She rolled her eyes. "Some girl attached to your friend Steve's band. When I called him at the hotel before he left, she answered the phone and was none too nice."
"Really?" That description only fitted Pete's wife Lynne, but she had been pleasant enough to me during the few minutes we chatted prior to my interviewing the band. Besides, she was married to Pete: why would she care what I did with Steve?
"Don't worry about it, Kase. I don't know who it was. Maybe some groupie who found her way upstairs."
We paused as the nurse noted my blood pressure reading and said that although it looked to be on the low side of normal, she was going to get the doctor to check me out. When she left, I quickly filled my sister in on the pre-accident frolics, emphasizing the reason why I was so freaked out. She heard me out with wide eyes.
"Shit, Kase, you need to get tested as soon as it's possible to get accurate results. Then you have to talk to him."
"I know. Kerri, this is so fucked up."
We paused once more as the doctor on call entered the room, face showing that blend of reassurance and concern that I always associated with the medical profession. He asked me the standard questions: how was I feeling, rate the current pain in my head from 1 to 10, did I know my name, etc. Then he explained that I'd suffered a severe concussion that had put me out for almost 96 hours. The swelling was going down, which allowed me to regain consciousness, but he wanted to keep me in the hospital another few days to run some more tests and make sure there were no relapses. I nodded wearily through it all, by now thoroughly exhausted from my emotional shock.
After he left, I sighed deeply. "What the fuck am I going to do?"
"Don't worry about that now," Kerri soothed. "Just concentrate on getting better."
Before I could reply, a commotion erupted in the outside corridor.
"What the hell is that?" Kerri frowned. She headed for the door-and nearly got a concussion worse than mine when it swung open suddenly, narrowly missing her head.
More soon, folks!!
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