Chapter Eleven

“I know, they had to do this because you were suffocating. Now that you’re awake, maybe they can take it out for you. Don’t try to fight the machine, let it work for you.” Jessica said as she hit the nurse call light.

Nick panicked when he woke up with the tubes in his throat. It was a terrible feeling not to be able to talk, swallow or breathe on your own. He was scared and wondered what was happening to him.

As the nurse entered the room, Jessica did not waste a second informing her that Nick was awake. The nurse did an about-face and left the room. She was back in a minute with a resident physician and they grabbed gloves and walked on either side of Nick’s bed. The nurse assisted the physician and told Nick to relax so they could take the tubes out. She put her hand on his forehead and moved it back so that his chin pointed upwards. The resident wasted no time in taking the tubing and gently pulling it out of Nick’s mouth.

Jessica watched Nick’s face as the tubes came out of his throat. Once the tubes were out, the nurse put the green oxygen tube back into Nick’s nose and then watched to see what the oxygen saturation levels peaked to. If they didn’t stay where they should be, they would have to put an oxygen tent around Nick.

His levels stayed at 94 percent, they weren’t the greatest, but they would do for now. The nurse was glad they wouldn’t have to do anything more to Nick at this point.

“Is there anything you need, honey?” the nurse asked Nick as she was preparing to leave the room.

Nick opened his mouth to speak, his throat felt weird after having the tubes in his throat. He tried to clear his throat, but was having difficulty in doing so. The nurse walked over to the sink and drew a glass of water for Nick and came back and had him take a sip.

“No thanks.” Nick replied hoarsely.

“I know you’re feeling pretty weak, Nick, but with your pneumonia, you should try to take deep breaths and you should try to talk more. I’m gonna check with Dr. Gaynor and see what he thinks about trying to get you to sit up today. I think you’ve been laying down too long.” The nurse left the room.

“Wow, wouldn’t that feel good to sit up?” Jessica asked Nick.

“Great.” Nick replied half-heartily. All he could think of was how much it would hurt and that how would he stay up if he can’t feel his legs yet.

Not too much time had gone by when the nurse cheerfully entered the room with another nurse.

“Good news Nick! We’re going to try to have you sit up a little bit.”

“How?” Nick was puzzled. He couldn’t imagine those two tiny women trying to move him around.

“We need you to help us, we don’t plan on doing all of the work now.” the nurse replied as she was slowly raising the back of Nick’s bed. “Let me know if you start to feel dizzy.”

“Whoa, stop.” Nick was already feeling woozy when the bed started to push him up.

“It’s okay we’ll go slow, you tell us when you’re ready.”

They waited and watched Nick’s face. He looked pale. He didn’t want to move anymore.

“Can we stop here for now?” Nick wanted this to stop, he was scared and didn’t feel comfortable with not being able to feel from the waist down. He didn’t know what to expect.

“Sure. Let’s leave your bed up like this for awhile and give your lungs a chance to open up somemore. How are you feeling?” Nick’s nurse asked.

“Okay, I guess,” Nick replied quietly. He wasn’t sure how he felt.

“Good, then we’ll leave you up for awhile and we’ll come back in a little bit, okay?” the nurse asked.

“Fine.” Nick answered. He looked around his room from his new vantage point. Everything looked different to him at the new angle. He looked at Jessica. She smiled at him.

“One step closer, eh?” Jess was trying to encourage Nick.

“Yeah, I guess.” Nick replied. His attention got distracted when a commercial blared loudly on the television. It was for MTV:

Backstreet Boys new album, Millennium which debuted last month has topped the charts. The boys will be kicking off their American tour in two weeks. Join us as we will be interviewing Nick, AJ, Howie, Brian and Kevin, Monday, June 26 at 8:00 p.m. eastern and central.

Jess looked at Nick. This was almost like a stab in the heart. Things had been scheduled months ago. How was the band going to deal with this? There was no way Nick would be well enough by next Monday or in two weeks.

“I guess this will give me something to shoot for.” Nick said quietly.

“Nick, you’re crazy, how could you possibly be ready to tour, let alone interview when you can’t even sit up by yourself yet?” Jessica tried to reason with him.

“Watch me.” Nick answered bluntly.