The room grew colder with each passing minute as Ashley held her grandmother's hand while listening to the sounds of her breathing through a ventilator. She massaged every vein and skin that she could see and feel, that has not been bruised by needles.
They decided to go for the surgery. There wasn't much of an option. It was either her grandmother suffer and spends the rest of her life hospitalized every other day while the hospital pumps blood into her whenever she loses blood or they take the chance, hope and pray that she could strive through it.
She had been in and out of sleep, mostly in. She was out of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but she was not out of danger yet. "Now, it is up to her will power to live." the doctor said.
Looking at her grandmother's frail condition, Ashley couldn't fight the tears that came. Her eyes welled up just seeing a bag of blood and a bag of Natrium Chloride hanging and dripping into her, and to see another 3 bags hanging by the bed, one for her excess bile, another for her urine and one more for what looked like excess blood.
She was glad she came. For the past week, while her grandmother was in the ICU, everyone, including relatives from out of country, came to visit. Everyone but her mother. She didn't want to think about the lost case. It was too much to bear.
Ashley continued to massage her grandmother's hands, slowly and gently, while humming a song her grandmother used to listen to at home. As she moved on to the legs, her grandmother stirred.
This is my third part entry to @Ozzyy 's Stories in Series contest which has ends on September 19, 2020.
Lead image by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash.
I think I'll gonna cry if I read the last part. 😭😭😭