Read Online When It All Falls Apart (Book One) by Lucinda Berry - Free Book Online Page A

Rori wasn’t getting better despite all of the fluids they were pumping into her. She’d only woken up one other time and the nurses as well as the doctors were getting increasingly worried that she still hadn’t gone to the bathroom. Her stomach was beginning to distend. In addition, the last round of blood work showed that her electrolytes were back to normal but her bicarbonate level still hadn't moved. It seemed to be stuck at 7. In addition, the level of ketones in her blood was increasing rather than decreasing. They didn’t need to tell us that it wasn’t a good sign.
    The good news was they were pretty sure they’d ruled out diabetes. Her blood and glucose levels were normal. The additional lab tests they’d run also didn’t point in the direction of diabetes. The last piece needed to officially rule out diabetes was the amount of sugar in her urine, but since she wasn’t going to the bathroom, we still couldn’t say with 100 percent certainty that she didn’t have it.
    They’d taken another blood draw in the evening, but it had to be sent out to special labs outside the hospital so the results wouldn’t be read by the doctors until the morning. We were left with no choice except to try to get some sleep in our uncomfortable and cramped quarters, but it was impossible. Every few hours a nurse came into the room and checked on Rori and took her vital signs. Whenever I finally nodded off, the door opened and was quickly followed by beeping. David popped open his eyes even though I knew he wasn’t sleeping either.
    “How’s she doing?”
    “She’s hanging in there.”
    The night was excruciating. The mattress on the cot was so thin I could feel the coils underneath me each time I moved. David’s chair screeched along the linoleum constantly because each time he feel asleep, his legs automatically fell off the chair pushing its legs across the floor. At six, I gave up on the idea of sleep all together.
    “I’m going to the cafeteria to get coffee. Do you want any?” I whispered to David even though I didn’t need to because no amount of noise seemed to be able to wake Rori.
    “Sure. Thanks.”
    I wound my way through the maze of hallways until I found the cafeteria. To my disappointment, it didn’t open until 7. I couldn’t make it until then without a cup of coffee. I wasn’t going to give up and found a vending machine with coffee I knew would taste terrible, but it was better than none at all.
    “Thanks,” David said as I handed him his cup with his two sugars and one creamer already stirred in. He slid the chair he’d been resting his legs on all night next to him and motioned for me to sit down. “Look, I’m sorry I was so pissed at you yesterday. I’m just scared. Really scared. And I feel so powerless to help her.” His big blue eyes filled with tears.
    I took his hand. “It’s okay. I get it.” I rubbed my fingers back and forth across his and felt some of the tension in his body leaving. “We’re going to get through this. No matter what happens, we’ll make it through it.” We had to get through it. There wasn’t any other option.
    David turned the TV on for the first time since we’d gotten into our room and we watched the early morning news beginning with the traffic reports. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d watched the news together. Neither of us spoke as we stared at the screen. Occasionally, one of us would turn to look at Rori whose color seemed to be getting more yellow with each passing hour. We’d gone through two series of morning shows before Dr. Koven walked into the door. Unlike us, she looked rested. Her face was flushed with the glow of pregnancy and her dark hair was pulled tightly back into a ponytail. She carried a cup of coffee from Starbucks and an IPad cradled in her arms. David rose from his spot to offer his seat.
    She smiled wide exposing perfectly white teeth. “No, it’s okay. Really. I’ll stand. But thank you.”
    Rather than