I had picked out the perfect outfit. I had gotten my hair straightened, and my nails done. I wanted to look perfect for him. My husband Trenton.
Trent said he was taking me to my favorite restaurant The Miller House. Its the most expensive restaurant in town. Its well worth the amount of money you pay to eat there. Service is top notch and you get an AMAZING Appitizer called The Southern Sampler. It has fried cheese grits, fried green tomatoes, sweet potatoe chips, and delicious bree. The scenery is amazing and they play beautiful music in the back ground as you romantically hold hands.
We were sitting there talking about our dreams for the next five years, we had ordered our tea and the southern sampler and it was all just -perfect.
And then –
Trent’s dad called. You see, Trent’s identical twin brother had been in surgery while we were there.
We had decided to go to the hospital and visit him the day before, so we could have our anniversary all to ourselves. And we weren’t planning on coming to the surgery because, well, it was just a regular proceedure that they had done two other times that week.
It had gone fine the rest of the week. Heck, when Trent and I visited him the day before he was spelling people’s name on a piece of paper and he was VERY responsive.
We talked about their 30th birthday and how its about to be next month and Travis motioned that he wanted us all to get drunk.
So, we are sitting there at The Miller House and Trent answers his phone thinking that his dad is going to tell him that the surgery is over and they had him closed up.
Instead Mike told Trent he wad on his way to The Miller House and he needed to talk to him. I looked at my husband from across the table and I knew something was wrong. He had lost all the color in his face.
I started to cry and everyone in the restaurant was looking. “Trent, ” I manage to muster from my throat. “What’s wrong, your starting to scare me…”
Trent hung up the phone and told the waiter he needed to pay because we had an emergency we had to take care of. He told me to go to the car.
I went outside and Mike was standing in front of the restaurant.
Trent followed and the color still haden’t returned to his face.
Mike started, “Travis had a really bad infection. They are putting him back into the ICU, they may or may not have to put in a trechea, and they putting him in a paralyzed coma.”
I stood there in shock. Trent fell on the ground in long deep sobs, “I know its scary son. Its okay to be scared, I am too.” Mike says.
We drove to the hospital. We waited until it was our turn to see him.
We walked into the ICU and we saw Travis. Trent held his hand, “Bubba, I need you to get better. We love you…” Trent broke down and started to cry.
We left the hospital around midnight.
We went to sleep and the next day we went to work and visited Travis at nine when we got off. Trent had dropped me off at the door and I actually went up to his room without Trent. Travis’ leg was hanging off the bed! I screamed for the nurse to get in there.
“Nurse! His leg is almost completely off the bed!” I said.
“Yeah, ” She says nonchalantly. “He’s been doing that all day.”
I pause for a moment, “Is that normal? With him supposed to be paralyzed and all?”
“We have given him as much pain sedatives as humanly possible, he just keeps fighting it.”
I go and sit in the chair next to him. I hold his hand, “Hey buddy.” He opens up his eyes and opens his mouth. It looks like he’s trying to say something. It looks like he’s trying to say, “Help me!” I jump up startled. I sit back down and I grab hid hand. “You’re okay Bubba. I need you to calm down and stop fighting this.”
I see Trent walking down the hall and I decide to keep it to myself what it looked like he had said.
Trent is holding his hand and I decide to give them a moment alone.
Trent meets back up with me at ten when visitation is over. He us just as disturbed as me at how restless he was.
I get home and talk to Dana.
“I’m a little fucked up after seeing Travis.”
“I know! Me too! It was like he was fighting it!”
Later on we are talking and she says that when she worked at the Nursing Home she only had three residents that had sepsis.
” None of them survived,” she said.
We talk about how he has his age on his side but each time we think something is going right, it has turned out horribly wrong. Should we be preparing ourselves for the worst?
I go upstairs.
“Trent, we need to talk.” I say.
“Okay.” he responds. There is an awkward moment as if we ate both thinking the same thing but neither wants to say what that is.
“Trent. I think you need to get off from work tomorrow. I am having a hard time processing my thoughts right now about this whole situation, so, I can’t imagine how you’re feeling with him being your twin brother. I don’t think working with the public is a good idea right now. I think you need to take tomorrow off and go be with him and…I think you need to really try and process what happening. Distractions at work are good, but after a while its going to hit you what’s happening, and you aren’t going to want to be there at that store.”
“What will we do about the bills? If I’m not working we can’t pay the bills.”
“Let me handle it Trent. I’ll pick up extra hours if I have to.”
Trent nods his head and says, “Travis opened his mouth when I was up there tonight like he was trying to say something …like he wad trying to say help me.”
“I know honey, he did that to me before you got in the room, I just thought it was my mind playing tricks on me!” I cried.
We both started to cry and hold each other and the release of the tears and of the uncertainty were the only thing that felt right in that moment.
My Life As Maegan Hagan 