Chapter 38: Chapter 38
"Is there any way it can be rectified soon? I need her alive and healthy please." He cried, looking at the doctor as though he was at the tip of a cliff and had no one to help him but him.
The doctor squirmed on his seat and smiled ruefully at Sadeeq. He pinched the gap between his eyes and spoke, "Blood transfusions decrease stroke risk in patients deemed high risk by transcranial Doppler. However, transcranial Doppler has poor specificity, and transfusions are limited by alloimmunization and iron overload. Transfusion withdrawal may be associated with an increased rebound stroke risk. Extended blood typing decreases alloimmunization in SCD but is not universally adopted. Transfusions for thalassemia begun in early childhood are associated with lower rates of alloimmunization than are seen in SCD, suggesting immune tolerance. Optimal oxygen transport efficiency occurs at a relatively low hematocrit for SCD patients because of hyperviscosity. Consequently, exchange rather than simple transfusions are more effective in improving oxygen transport efficiency, but the former are technically more demanding and require more blood units. Although viscosity is of importance in the noncerebral manifestations of SCD, inflammation may play a larger role than viscosity in the development of large-vessel stroke. The future of SCD stroke management lies in the avoidance of transfusion. Hydroxyurea and anti-inflammatory measures may reduce the need for transfusion. Recent genome-wide association studies may provide methods for modulating fetal hemoglobin production enough to attenuate stroke risk and other complications of SCD."
Sadeeq looked at him, utterly confused. How is this doctor expecting him to understand all he had said while his mind was in shambles? He groaned and closed his eyes. "It might be a bit early for all this, but we will try our best insha Allah. Calm yourself down please."
Sadeeq spent another five minutes in Dr. Uzayr's office before he walked out, crest fallen. He couldn't be allowed to enter her room, she was still being taken care of by some doctors. Even if they would let him in, he couldn't. How would he set his eyes on her. He couldn't see her in this situation. He slumped on the waiting chairs in the reception and scavenged for his phone in his pocket. Luckily, he came with it.
He kept looking at his family's numbers and didn't had the courage to call any of them. Who would he call? Even though they didn't know what he had done, he was sure Abbu would practically beat him through that phone. Ummu would cry his ears off and make him even more guilty than he was. And Daada? How could he call that man and start telling him the daughter he had and loved the most had stroke? Just how? Maama is his last option, albeit he knew she would be more than heartbroken, she's the only one among the four people that could calmly understand him. So, he dialled her number with shaky hands.
She picked up his call and he could hear her smile, "Sodikeke, how are you doing?" He had always loved her easy going attitude, but today; she made him cried.
"Good afternoon, Maama. How are you doing?" He managed to sound calm, even though his voice was more like a thunder.
"Subhanallah, Sadeeq your voice sounds somehow. Are you sure you're alright? How's Ihsan? Is she giving you a hard time so I will call her and smack some senses to her? Don't worry, my dear." Panick had set in in her, but she still managed to sound like the caring mother she was.
He broke into tears, he couldn't hold it in anymore. "I'm sorry, Maama. Ihsan is sick, seriously sick. The doctors said she had a stroke and it would last for only three weeks, that's if she's responding to the treatment." It felt weird and painful uttering those words with his own lips, but what is he to do? When he too needed someone to console him and tell him she would be fine.
"Innalillahi wa'inna ilaihir raji'un. Sroke, Sadeeq? I'll call you back." And she ended the call. Before he could breath out a huge breath in his chest, Daada's call came through, and he told him the hospital they were. And respectively, Abbu and Ummu's call came in. Manaal called too.
It was settled that Abbu and Daada would follow the next flight to Qatar, and they hardly convinced the women to stay at home. It's just three weeks to Eid-ul Adha, and she would be fine before that, Insha Allah. Sadeeq felt as if he was seated on the tip of a needle, waiting for a call from any of their parents about their arrival. Even when the nurses told him that he could go in and see her, but he should make sure not to make a sound because her brain needed rest more than ever, he declined. He just couldn't see her with all the tubes and wires adjoined to her body.
Around 10pm, a call from Abbu came through Sadeeq's phone, and he need not to be told that they had arrived. He rushed out of the hospital and drove directly to Hamad international airport, Doha. He found them at the arrival, each one of them had a glum look on his face and their luggage were being pushed by a worker.
He greeted them briskly and collected their luggage. Throughout their cruise to Al Ahli hospital, none of them spoke, except Daada that asked him wether he had eaten for the whole day or not. That's when he remembered about food, he hadn't eaten anything for the day.
They arrived and he directly guided them to room 205, and he halted at the door and motioned for them to enter. Daada knew what he feared to see, and he placed his hand on Sadeeq's shoulder and gave him a fatherly pat.
"You need to be strong, Sadeeq. She needs to see you when she wakes up, let's go in together." Sadeeq couldn't object to what Daada had said, and so he followed them into the room.
Ihsan was laying lifeless on the bed, numerous wires Sadeeq found depressing to count were adjoined with her body in different parts. She was changed into the hospital attire and her head was wrapped and closed with the a cap. How her chest was rhyming slowly and obliviously painfully made tears rushed down to his cheeks. This was the outcome of his deed. He made this happened to Ihsan no matter how.
He didn't know when he slumped on the ground and muffled his tears with his hands, this shouldn't happen to Ihsan. Why not him? He had never regretted something like he regretted neglecting her for the whole night. Never sleep without checking upon your loved ones, he wished he had payed heed to this piece of advice that is worth lives.
Abbu came to him and lifted him up, he hugged him and Sadeeq cried on his shoulder and they watched as sluggishly Daada was walking towards the bed. It was all so painful to believe. Daada placed his now cold hands on her forehead and a tear rushed down his cheek, oh his little Ihsan.
"Ihsanuwa, wake up; Daada is here for you." He didn't know his tears could now make a fountain until he spoke, painfully and heartbreakingly.
He sat down on the chair placed beside the bed and take her hand, carefully not to injure her with the needles attached to it. "Ihsan, wake up, Daada wants to see your eyes and smile at you. Didn't you missed me?" He crooked. He was a sturdy man that had his guards cracked open whenever it is something pertaining Ihsan, especially her health.
"I won't take you to Rome this vacation, where do you want to go? Barbara? Or Santorini? You asked of it last vacation and I told you it's more lovely there for couples right? Since my girl is married now, wake up and walk on your two feet, fly your hands at me and show me you're strong as you've always claimed, and you'll leave today," he spoke with tears choking his words. This was more painful than he had envisaged. He thought he would come and see her smiling and eagerly waiting for him, but he was wrong, Ihsan was surely stroked.
"Since you don't missed your Daada, I'll leave, may be Abbu would stay with you." He began peeling off his hand from her, he wanted to be out of that room, that hospital and the country at large; when he felt her frail fingers moved, it was time for her to wake up after all.
A smile broke his face with the tears still rolling down his cheeks. "Oh my girl, my lovely Ihsanuwa. Daada is here." Those were the words Ihsan woke up to, and her eyes fell directly into Daada's crying eyes. She wanted to squeal at the top of her lungs, place her hand on Daada's face to feel if it was really him, but then it came, the shooting arrow of pain that dived into the whole parts of her body and she felt unruly to her left side, as if she wasn't the one that had the part of the body.
She fixed her eyes on Daada's face and did nothing but cry, she couldn't even speak to let him know of the pain she's in, how missing him was eating a part of her soul everyday, and now that she saw him; she could fight all odds and pains. They're strong, after all. Together, they made a mess of their cheeks, no words uttered.