• Short drive to the hospital,
    any day but this it is scenic.
    on this day,
    Jonas clutches his bag,
    his face white as a ghost.
    uncle drives the car,
    Jonas in the front seat,
    me and Gerare in the back.
    We turn left onto the hospital drive
    and make a right into the lot
    the one for the cardiology building.
    Jonas has white knuckles,
    has bag is deflated under the pressure
    of his hands.
    We get out of the car,
    jonas seems okay.
    but when we get inot the buliding,
    he started shaking,
    his face white as the walls
    I've seen him like this
    too many times before.
    A nurse walks us to the waiting room,
    and in a few short minutes
    we were in his room.
    We were told to make oursleves at home,
    but that's harder than it seems,
    especially with a 17 year-old
    in a fetile position on the bed
    and nurses bustling in and out
    like dogs following their owner.
    After a night in a lumpy bed
    in a hotel across from the hospital
    it was time fro surgery.
    When we got there at 7,
    Jonas was already being prepped.
    At 8 on the dot,
    he was knocked out
    and wheeled away.
    a 50/50 chance we won't
    see him alive again.
    Nurse said it would take about 8 hours.
    At 10:30, 2 and a half hours later,
    tht nurse came back,
    I swear my heart stopped.
    I had thought he had died.
    I was close.
    She said he had a heart attack,
    right when they made an incision
    into some tissue.
    And when I turned white as
    the walls, she laughed
    and said- "Oh, by the way,
    He made it".
    Then she left and went back
    to the nurse's station.
    Jonas's heart sugery
    caused MY heart to skip a beat.
    But that can't be as bad
    as having mine open for the 4th time.