{"id":165,"date":"2016-09-04T13:55:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T17:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.herbheineman.com\/?page_id=165"},"modified":"2024-07-24T15:24:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T19:24:03","slug":"chapter-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/edensgarden\/chapter-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 10: Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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PART II<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cShake a leg!\u201d<\/p>

Rick stood at Eden\u2019s bedside, his finger on her pulse. Strong, regular, eighty per minute \u2015 at rest. How would her heart respond to physical activity? With stronger beats, or with an excessive increase in rate because the strength wasn\u2019t there?<\/p>

Eden knew nothing of such questions. To her, Rick\u2019s command meant her sentence was over and life could resume where it had left off. She had no inkling what six weeks of enforced rest had done to her leg muscles \u2015 never mind the unpredictable capacity of her heart.<\/p>

\u201cWhich one?\u201d she asked.<\/p>

Rick hesitated a second. \u201cWhich one what?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhich leg do I shake?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe right one, of course. You always do the right one first. Didn\u2019t you know that?\u201d<\/p>

With a gracious smile she shook her left leg. Rick took note of the pulse rate: Ninety-six.<\/p>

\u201cNow,\u201d he said. \u201cSit and put your legs over the side.\u201d Pulse one hundred.<\/p>

Flanking her on opposite sides, Rick and a nurse helped Eden out of bed. As her feet reached the floor, her supporters loosened their grip. She almost collapsed. She tried again. With an effort she supported her weight. Pulse one hundred twenty and noticeably weaker. They let her stand for ten seconds, then helped her back onto the bed. Her mouth was agape. Rick\u2019s hand was still on her wrist: One hundred twelve and stronger. He smiled and she felt better.<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s what happens when you don\u2019t use your legs for over a month. How\u2019s the breathing?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBreathing\u2019s OK,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut my legs! I can barely stand. What\u2019s going to happen?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYour legs\u2019ll be fine, but we don\u2019t want to push the heart too fast. Be patient.\u201d<\/p>

Assisted by a physical therapist, she spent two weeks learning to walk the length of the hallway. When she finally went home, she found her bed in the recreation room on the first floor. For the first time in more than two months she ate at the kitchen table.<\/p>

The weeks passed and her heart gained strength. With fanfare she tackled the stairs.\u00a0 Alan reported the pulse rate. \u201cNot bad,\u201d Rick said. \u201cJust once a day for now.\u201d<\/p>

By stages she was allowed more and more exercise.<\/p>

It took another month to wean her from steroids, a slow process to allow her body to adjust to every decrease in dosage.\u00a0 Spring came and Eden took walks outdoors, first up and down the block, then longer distances. She felt ready to toss aside all restrictions, but Rick insisted that every lab test be normal before giving her a clean bill of health.\u00a0 That took two more months.<\/p>

Debbie and Joshua knew about heart troubles. Uncle Milt had never worked again after his heart attack. No one needed to tell him to take it easy; breathlessness wouldn\u2019t allow otherwise.\u00a0 Within a year he was dead.\u00a0 Witnessing Eden\u2019s forced inactivity, not knowing how her illness differed from his, they saw her heading the same way. Mrs. Avery tried to calm their fears, but too much of her effort went into reassuring herself. The children sensed this and did not probe.<\/p>

It was Eden herself, getting stronger by the week, who laid their anxiety to rest. Six months after inflammation had first ravaged her heart, the process fell silent. Eden put illness out of her mind, and her friends knew no better than to accept her recovery as complete.<\/p>

\u201cShe still has a mitral systolic murmur,\u201d Rick said that summer. \u201cNot sure what it means.\u201d<\/p>

Six months later the murmur was gone. She had escaped intact.<\/p>

The days in which Eden\u2019s life had hung in the balance; the weeks of her recovery; the months of waiting to see how complete her recovery would be; all had taken their toll on Alan. His agony was more than that of a father trembling over the near-loss of his child; it was his self-blame for allowing it to happen. He also knew that absolution would forever be a mirage, for as surely as year upon year would pass before Eden\u2019s valves showed their scars, so would his conscience lie in ambush year upon year to pounce on him again.<\/p>

He wished he were a religious man. Prayer might help. \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad<\/p>

~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>

To prevent another attack of rheumatic fever, Eden had to be protected against strep throat. Karen learned to give the monthly Bicillin injections.\u00a0 A checkup every three months would reveal valve damage at the earliest stage.<\/p>

\u201cWhy do I have to keep going back?\u201d Eden asked her father. \u201cIsn\u2019t that over and healed up?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cJust to be sure,\u201d Alan said.<\/p>

\u201cSure of what? What could he find next year that isn\u2019t there now?\u201d<\/p>

Alan tried to balance simplicity with truthfulness.<\/p>

\u201cHe listens to the heart valves open and close. If they get scars, they\u2019ll sound different.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHow can a scar take that long?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cIt does. It\u2019s not like skinning your knee.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat if there is a scar?\u201d she asked. \u201cWon\u2019t it fall off after a while.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou\u2019re thinking \u2018scab.\u2019 A scar can keep the valve from working right.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cHow bad is that?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cA person can get along fine with a little scar,\u201d he answered as off-handedly as he could.<\/p>

\u201cAnd if there\u2019s a big scar? Would I have to take medicine to get rid of it?\u201d<\/p>

Alan sighed. She was not going to take her foot out of the door he had opened. \u201cThere isn\u2019t any medicine. If a valve is scarred so bad that\u2014\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBadly<\/u>.\u201d Her face was the very picture of smugness.<\/p>

\u201cYes, miss. If a valve\u2019s scarred so badly<\/em> that it strains the heart, it may have to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou mean an operation?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, like having your appendix out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut the valves are inside the heart, aren\u2019t they? So they\u2019d have to cut the heart open. I think I\u2019d rather have my appendix out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOK, it\u2019s not the same. But they do it all the time; it\u2019s not that big a deal. So don\u2019t worry. Let Doctor Harmon do the worrying.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cI guess I\u2019m not really worried. Can you teach me about the heart and the valves sometime?\u201d<\/p>

Alan saw an opportunity to score a few points as parent. Seizing his first free evening, he sat down with Eden to explain the heart chambers and valves, using an atlas of anatomy and his own impromptu drawings. Her teachers would have been amazed at her power of concentration.<\/p>

\u201cHow do they get pictures like that, Daddy? They look like photos.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThey are. At least, they started out that way, but they\u2019ve been touched up.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhat do they photograph?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe heart, of course!\u201d<\/p>

She looked puzzled.<\/p>

\u201cThe inside? Where do they put the camera?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDo you know what an autopsy is?\u201d Alan asked her.<\/p>

\u201cIs that cutting people up after they die?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYou don\u2019t mince words, do you?\u201d he answered, putting his arm around her shoulder.<\/p>

\u201cJust so they can take pictures for books?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cNot only for that. Autopsies are done so that doctors can learn about diseases. People get sick, and sometimes they die. Then a special doctor, a pathologist, takes out all the organs, opens them up, and figures out what went wrong. Sometimes you can\u2019t tell from just looking, so you cut out tiny pieces, slice them ever so thin, and put them under a microscope.\u201d<\/p>

All this she took in without a hint of disgust. Her eyes were bright with fascination.<\/p>

He remembered the first autopsy he had attended as a medical student. A classmate had had to be carried out. With a feeling of pride he imagined his daughter ten years from now, lapping it up without effort. He almost missed her next question.<\/p>

\u201cIf I died, would you let them cut me up?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s a horrible question! Parents shouldn\u2019t even have to think of their children dying.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, it happens sometimes, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, it does, and I can\u2019t think of anything sadder. You should be thinking the opposite. Someday I\u2019m going to die, and they\u2019ll ask for permission to cut me<\/em> up, as you so tactfully put it. And I want you to say yes. Because if a doctor can learn something that could help another living person, that\u2019s worth a whole lot more than letting me rot six feet under without a mark. OK?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cGruesome, Daddy. But I\u2019ll think about it.\u201d<\/p>

Eden had begun to leaf through the atlas. With each page, her curiosity grew.<\/p>

\u201cLook,\u201d she said, \u201chere\u2019s the uterus. Look how small it is. And it gets so big when a woman\u2019s pregnant. How come it doesn\u2019t burst?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cMade of special tissue. Designed for stretching without breaking. Interesting, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cAnd this is how the babies come out, right?\u201d she said, pointing to the birth canal.<\/p>

\u201cRight again.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThis is fascinating.\u201d She turned more pages. \u201cMuch better than what we get at school, especially in sex ed.\u201d<\/p>

On that subject Alan wondered just what they were getting, but before he could ask, Eden had returned to the heart.<\/p>

\u201cWhat was wrong with this heart?\u201d she asked.<\/p>

\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThen why did it stop?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cStop? What do you mean?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWell, when a person dies, doesn\u2019t the heart stop?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWhy stop if there\u2019s nothing wrong with it? Mine was plenty sick and it<\/em> didn\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>

Alan scratched his head. More than fifteen years\u2019 experience as a doctor, and he had to improvise an answer to the simplest of questions.<\/p>

\u201cThe organs depend on each other. A perfectly good heart may stop because another organ is too sick to work right. Not enough nutrition, maybe. Those details you learn at medical school.\u201d<\/p>

Eden appeared content to defer the mastery of medicine. \u201cCan I look some more at this?\u201d<\/p>

\u201cYes, you may,<\/em> and I\u2019m sure you can, too.\u201d<\/p>

Without looking at him, she smiled and settled down to study anatomy. He went to the kitchen to report to Karen on their daughter\u2019s obvious calling.<\/p>

The experience put Alan in a wistful mood. He gave himself low marks for his performance both as father and as physician. Yet Eden, the victim of both shortcomings, was obviously focused in another place altogether. Two partners in one relationship, yet with such a different sense of its power and its failings. Here was he, brooding over the past and fearful of the future; there was she, all in the present, delighting in the opportunity to enroll him as her tutor, oblivious of his role in the very illness that kindled her interest. Where was her anxiety? Where was her accusing finger? Why, instead, was she so full of optimism and enthusiasm\u2014and yes, affection?<\/p>

It was his obsession, of course, that blinded him to the obvious. She had no reason to behave otherwise than she did. Not knowing the link between her heart disease and her sore throat, not knowing how much difference a shot of penicillin would have made, she thought of herself as a girl who had recovered from a serious illness \u2014 and that was cause for rejoicing.<\/p>

In any case, she evidently held him blameless. And it did nothing to assuage his guilt. On the contrary, his daughter\u2019s forgiveness \u2015 he could see it no other way \u2015 made his burden that much harder to bear. He sank into a depression, detailing all the ways he had failed her. He even toyed with the idea that he deserved to have his daughter, rather than one of his patients, be the victim, so as to place him face to face daily with his greatest failure. But his self-immolation did not do Eden a whit of good, and he chided himself for the thought.\u00a0Add one more to his list of sins.<\/p>

He pulled himself together. The past could not be recalled, and there was a future to take care of. He shook his head. One of these days, he told himself, he might need psychiatric help.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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<< Chapter 9<\/a><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Chapter 11 >><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PART II \u201cShake a leg!\u201d Rick stood at Eden\u2019s bedside, his finger on her pulse. Strong, regular, eighty per minute \u2015 at rest. How would her heart respond to physical activity? With stronger beats, or with an excessive increase in rate because the strength wasn\u2019t there? Eden knew nothing of such questions. To her, Rick\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions\/754"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/herbheineman.com\/Eden\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}