Playing for Keeps

“Sweetheart why don’t you go home and shower and get a change of clothes,” Adam urged Stacy as she sat by Evelyn’s bed for the third day in a row. She was still wearing the same clothes she had on on Sunday when they came in with their daughter. Evelyn had six more seizures in the last three days and Stacy refused to leave her side.

“I don’t want to Adam,” Stacy sighed. She was really worried about their little girl, she hadn’t had a fever since Sunday but she was still having seizures.

“I will sit here with her until you get back babe,” Adam stood behind the mother of his child and rubbed her shoulders gently. He watched as she dropped her head down and let out another large breath. “I know this is scary, but they’re doing the best they can to figure out what’s going on.”

Stacy’s shoulders started to shake, signaling to Adam that she was crying. “They should have found something by now Adam!” She stood up and faced him. “Why is it taking so long?”

He moved and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. Stacy breathed in the scent of him, he had gone home last night to shower and sleep and then returned this morning. “I’m sure we will hear something soon.” Adam looked down at Evelyn in bed, she was sleeping again. It seemed like she slept most of the time lately. When she had her seizures she would get very exhausted and sleep for hours afterwards. It wasn’t their little girl, she was a shell of the fun loving child she used to be.

Adam pulled back and wiped away a few stray tears, holding on to Stacy’s shoulders, looking her in the eye. “It will make you feel better if you go home and shower. Just clear your mind and get out of here for a little while.”

Stacy looked at him, contemplating his suggestion. “Okay, I’ll go home and shower but I’m coming right back afterwards.”

Adam let out a soft chuckle, “Whatever you say dear, just take some time for yourself.”

She gave Adam a soft kiss before going to Evelyn’s side and kissing her forehead gently. “I’ll be back in a little bit. Don’t let the doctors talk to you without me!”

“I won’t Stac, I promise.” He sat down next to Evelyn’s bed and looked at her. She was pale and she had dark bags under her eyes. He hoped that they wouldn’t find anything seriously wrong with his baby girl but he was slowly starting to lose hope as they did more and more tests and still found no answers.

Currently they were waiting for the results of an MRI that they did early this morning. The physicians were sure that this would give them the information they needed to see where the seizures were being triggered from.

Adam sat quietly next to Evelyn’s bed for two hours, watching her sleep, waiting for Stacy to return. He was just flipping through the muted TV channels when her weak voice spoke.

“Daddy?” She asked from the bed.

He sat up and leaned in, smoothing her hair over her head. “What sweetie?”

“I’m thirsty, can I have some juice?” She asked him, her big blue eyes still sparkling when she looked up at him.

“Absolutely, I’ll go ask the nurse for grape juice.” He smiled and kissed her forehead before going out to the nurse’s desk to get juice.

The nurses gave him two plastic containers of juice and he walked back into the room to see Dr. Johnson in there talking with Evelyn.

“Hi Dr. Johnson,” Adam greeted the man.

“Hello Adam,” He nodded in her father’s direction and then looked back at Evelyn. “I always liked Batman and Spiderman when I was younger!”

Evelyn giggled, “Those are boy shows! I like Barbie and My Little Pony!”

Dr. Johnson laughed and then turned towards Adam, “If Stacy is around we’d like to speak with you both about the results of Evelyn’s MRI.”

Adam didn’t like the tone of Dr. Johnson’s voice and he certainly didn’t like the pained look on his face when he said those words. “Um, she’s not here at the moment, she went home to shower. I can call her to see when she’ll be back.”

“Go ahead and do that, I’ll sit with Evelyn.” Dr. Johnson said, sitting down next to Evelyn’s bed. Adam was grateful that they had found a physician that was so good with their daughter, one that took time to talk to her as well and not just to himself and Stacy.

Just as he stepped out into the hallway to call Stacy she walked around the corning, smiling at him.

“Hey, I was just about to call you.” Adam told her as she got closer. Her smile disappeared then and she looked concerned.

“What happened?” She asked, looking into Evelyn’s room.

“Nothing, Dr. Johnson just wants to speak with us about the MRI results.” Adam held his hand out, allowing her to enter the room first.

“Hi Dr. Johnson, sorry to keep you waiting,” Stacy spoke, looking at the man and then at Evelyn. “Hi sweetie, how are you feeling?”

“I’m okay mama,” She smiled at Stacy for the first time all day.

“I was hoping we could go into the conference room a few doors down and discuss the results of Evelyn’s MRI.” Dr. Johnson stood from the chair.

Stacy and Adam nodded as a nurse walked in. “I’ll be sitting with Evie while you guys talk.” She smiled at all of them and then took the chair Dr. Johnson had just vacated.

“Thank you,” Stacy said softly as she followed the two men out of the room and down the hall.

They all filed into a conference room where another neurologist was sitting waiting for them. Once they were seated Dr. Johnson began speaking.

“Now, I know I had mentioned earlier that I thought the cause of Evelyn’s seizures was potentially fevers but the MRI revealed that this was not the case.” Dr. Johnson paused and looked at Adam and Stacy, clarifying that they were following him.

They both nodded and then looked at each other. Adam reached for her hand on the table and squeezed it, showing her that he was there, that they were in this together as a family.

“What the MRI did reveal,” Dr. Chapman, the neurologist spoke this time, “Is that your daughter has what we call, a low-grade glioma.”

Stacy let out a gasp and put her hand over her mouth, tears coming to her eyes. Adam looked over at her, frightened but not fully understanding what that meant.

He looked at the physicians, “What exactly is that?”

“Mr. Levine it means that your daughter has a brain tumor that is causing her to have seizures.” Dr. Johnson spoke softly, trying to break the news lightly.

Adam felt like he had floated outside of his body and he was watching them from across the room. His ears started ringing and he didn’t think he could move. He looked at Stacy and robotically put his arms around her when she leaned in to his chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“What can we do about it?” She asked, suddenly sitting up as if realizing that this didn’t mean that her daughter had to die.

“Well luckily we’ve caught it in the early stages and while it’s going to be a major surgery, I think we can remove it and hopefully that will cure the seizures.” Dr. Chapman explained. “There will be some risks involved and there is a chance that she may have to go through a bout of chemo and/or radiation if the surgery doesn’t get it all but we are hopeful with Evelyn’s case.”

Adam nodded, still in a daze. “How fast can you operate?”

“We’d like to schedule the surgery for the day after tomorrow, I think it’s important that we take the time to talk to Evelyn about what’s going to happen and how we are going to help her.” Dr. Chapman said, he wanted to ensure that the girl was not going to be afraid and that she would know they were doing the best they could to help her.

“Thank you doctors, we really would appreciate that.” Stacy nodded, holding Adam’s hand again. She had stopped crying and was trying to pull it together for Evelyn’s sake. “Can we go see her now?”

“Yes,” Dr. Johnson nodded, “We will be in shortly to talk with her.”

Stacy and Adam nodded once more and then stood up and exited the room.

“Adam we can’t lose our little girl,” Stacy cried as they got into the hallway and were alone for a moment.

He pulled her to his chest and for the first time since they brought Evelyn to the hospital he allowed his own tears to fall. “I know, I know we can’t.” He shook his head, he couldn’t believe this was happening to them, after all they had been through and finally overcome. They were finally going to be a family again and now their daughter would be undergoing brain surgery! It was like God hated them, it was like he was punishing Adam for his infidelity and for screwing everything up years ago.

Stacy lifted her head and looked up to him, “I’m so glad we’re in this together, there’s no way I could do this without you Adam.”

She lifted her hand and wiped away a tear, Adam leaned into her hand and gazed down at her, “She’s going to pull through this, she has to.” He let out a deep breath, “We are going to be a family again, we have to. I love you both so much and I’m not ready to give up yet.”

Stacy accepted his kiss when he bent down and met hers, she was right to fight the good fight with him and they were going to help Evelyn every step of the way. They would get her the best treatment possible and they would be a family again.