All That We Needed

It was a beautiful and heartbreaking sight seeing my dad stand next to my uncle's bed. He was silent, but I knew that his presence there was all that mattered. My dad talked about random things to his brother, trying to see if he was responsive. Each and every one of us were so relieved that Uncle Mark woke up. It brought our spirits up a little bit. We were hopeful that everything will be ok.

Uncle Mark laid there staring into space each time we came in. He would look at us with these sad eyes. It broke my heart. I knew that he wanted to talk to us, but he still had a tube in his mouth. He couldn't swallow without the help of the tube. He was getting his nutrients, medication, and water through other tubes.

When the nurse came in to give him his medicine and water, it made me cry. I didn't know how to handle what I was feeling. I felt so sorry for him. He was getting fed through a tube. We knew that it was the only way that he could get his nutrients, but it was extremely difficult for me to watch the nurse administer anything through the tubes.

My dad told me that this was his third stroke. One happened before I was born and another happened when I was fairly little. This one was the worst one out of the three. We were trying to transfer him to a closer hospital. The staff at Stanford Medical was doing their best to transfer him each day, but with each day, there were no open beds for him. We were still trying.

I believed that he was responsive. He had looked into my eyes and squeezed my hand when I was talking to him. It made my day. I knew that soon he'll be able to breathe by himself and talk. Things will get better soon.

"Courtney, there's someone here to see you," my mom said. "Go to the waiting room." I walked into the waiting room and I couldn't believe my eyes. Adam was here. I ran up and hugged him.

"I wanted to see how you were doing," he said.

"I'm ok," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you're here. Did you bring anyone else?"

"No, they were busy," he said. "Haylie made up some lame excuse not to be here today." Adam was the only one who asked where I was. He was the only one who called, worried about me. Logan hasn't talked to me in awhile and I stopped caring.

"Oh, ok," I said. I didn't have time to worry about Haylie or Logan. I had more important things to worry about. "Do you want to go see him?"

"Sure," he said, smiling. "Lead the way."