I woke up in the middle of the night to Cheta shivering and his temperature very high. I didn't even know when I had slept off.
"Baby!", I almost shouted when I woke up to see him like that,
"Call mum, she has to get the doctor", he managed to say.
I got out of bed and retrieved my phone from my bag in a hurry. I dialled Cheta's mum's number and she picked up at the first ring, When I told her what was going on, she said she was coming up to the room. I think she flew across to the room because she got to the room in literally 2 minutes, she opened the bedroom door and ran over to Cheta's bed,
"What happened?", she asked me, looking at Cheta,
"I woke up and saw him shivering and he asked me to call you to get the doctor", I replied,
"I have called him, he is on the way", she said, then still looking at Cheta, she asked me to check the wardrobe and bring an extra blanket, which I hurriedly brought and we had to cover him up, then the kitchen brought a hot flask with a teacup and we made drink a hot cup of tea.
About 30 minutes later, the doctor came up to the room and then he had to fix him up with an IV drip and he was given an injection to stop the fever. In a few minutes, the fever was down and Cheta was sleeping.
"He has an infection and I can't say for sure what it is until I have a run a test on him", the doctor was telling us,
"When can you do this?" Cheta's mum asked him,
"I'll be back in the morning to draw his blood and run the tests", he replied,
"But how are we sure he will be fine the rest of the night?", she asked him again,
"Well, I have taken care of the fever and given him something to sleep, he will be fine the rest of the night but if anything changes, you just call me", he said,
"Okay. Thank you Dr Uche", Cheta's mum said, then added, "I'll walk you out".
"Thank you doctor.", I said just as they were walking out.
I went over and sat down next to my baby, this whole time I was standing. My baby was going through a lot and there was nothing I could do to help but be there for him, even though I didn't feel like it was enough. The door opened and Cheta's mum walked back into the room and sat down on the bed, looking at Cheta. I could tell that she was exhausted but I knew it would be difficult to get her to go back to bed, but I tried anyways,
"Mum, I think you should go back to bed, you look very tired", I told her,
"I can't. I don't think I'll be able to sleep", she said, still looking at her son,
"Mum, I'm here, I'll watch him and make sure he is fine and if anything changes, I'll call you", I told her, trying to reassure her,
"I don't want to put you through that", she said,
"It's fine. I want to do it.", I said to her,
"Okay, call me if he wakes up", she said,
"I will Mum. I will.", I said to her.
She got up and walked out of the room. I got up, turned off the room's light, and joined Cheta in bed. I didn't feel sleepy, so I sat down and watched my man, sleep. I think I only stayed up for 3 hours or so before I slept off because it was Cheta that woke me up in the morning,
"Baby.", he said, touching me lightly,
I woke with a startle because I thought something was wrong.
"Baby, are you okay?", I asked, waking up startled,
"I'm fine love", he said,
"Are you sure you are fine?", I asked him again,
"I'm okay. I just have a parched throat", he said,
"I'll get water for you to drink?", I said,
I got up and walked out of the room. By the time I was back, Cheta's mum and his sister were in the room with him.
"You could barely talk last night, now you think you don't need the tests", Cheta's mum was telling him,
I walked into the room.
"Good morning Mum", I greeted her,
"Good morning Dinma", Cheta's mum answered,
"Good morning Nneoma", I greeted Nneoma,
"Good morning Dinma, how was your night?", she asked,
"It was fine", I answered,
I walked over to give Cheta his bottle of water.
"Thank you, baby, " Cheta said, taking the water from me.
I sat next to him.
"Cheta is refusing to take the tests", Cheta's mum said to me,
"He will take the tests when the doctor comes", I said, smiling at Cheta,
"Don't do that babe.", he said to me,
"You either take the tests or I go home", I said, still smiling,
"I see what you guys are doing..", he said again.
We laughed.
The doctor came by later that morning to take Cheta's blood to run the tests. We had breakfast later and went down to the pool to sit and talk alone.
"Thank you baby", Cheta said and took my hand,
"For what?", I asked him,
"For dropping off everything and staying here with me. I know I'm a lot right now", Cheta said,
"Baby, who else were you expecting to do it?", I said,
"I know, but..", he said, then I cut him off,
"It's fine baby... I'll do this for you over and over again because I know if the roles were reversed, you would do it for me", I said, then still looking at him, I asked him, "Are you cold?"
He nodded his head.
"Then why didn't you tell me baby?", I asked him,
"I was enjoying sitting outside here", he replied,
"Let's go in baby. You can sit by your window if you want", I said.
Then we got up and walked away from the poolside into the house. Cheta's mum was in the living room when we walked in, she asked if Cheta was okay, and I told her he was coming down with a fever, that's why we were going back inside, she then said she was going to call the doctor. We went upstairs and I helped Cheta get in bed and covered him up, he had already started shivering, so I helped him get medication to stop the fever because the doctor wasn't there yet. I held his hand and tried to stop the cold, but it wasn't helping. The fever had gotten worse. Just sitting there and watching my baby go through that pain, was breaking my heart and I didn't know how long I could take this. I was almost breaking down but I had to keep it together so Cheta doesn't see me breaking down. After almost an eternity, the doctor came to the house and started an IV drip to start antibiotics for Cheta and gave him an injection to stop the fever. The fever stopped after a while and Cheta finally slept off. The doctor said he wanted to speak to all of us about Cheta's health, so we all left the room to allow Cheta to sleep. We moved to the living room to talk.
"So Cheta's tests came back and he has gastroenteritis, that's stomach flu", the doctor said,
"How did he get that?", Cheta's mum asked,
"Probably something he ate, but I have started him on antibiotics. We will monitor him through the night."
"So you will stay the night?", Nneoma asked him,
"I can't but I'll be sending a nurse to do that. She will be here to monitor him", he said
"Okay, thank you, Dr Uche", Cheta's mum said
"So I'll be leaving now, I have an emergency at the hospital", he added
"Yeah, yeah, you should. Thank you again", Cheta's mum said again,
Dr Uche picked up his bag and walked out of Cheta's suite with Cheta's mum. Nneoma and I returned to the room and sat down, watching Cheta sleep.
"You know my brother is very lucky he has you",
"I am the lucky one actually", I said
"Trust me, I know what I'm saying. No one has ever cared about him as you do", She said
"He will do the same thing for me, so I think he takes the lead here", I said, smiling
"Thank you Dinma for caring about him", she added
I smiled and nodded my head.
"Thank you and you are welcome"
The door opened and Cheta's mum walked into the room, looking very worn out.
The nurse came to the house just like Dr Uche said, and she went into full work mode, but none of us could still sleep, we just sat in Cheta's room, watching him sleep.
Two hours later, Cheta woke up and started asking for something to eat, it was almost midnight at this point, so the kitchen brought food up for Cheta and I helped him, feeding him his dinner. He slept off again, a few minutes after eating. Then II had to get Cheta's mum and his sister to go to bed.
"Mum, you should go to bed", I said
"Yes Mum, you look exhausted and I think I saw you nodding off", Nneoma added
"Fine I'll go to bed but you call me if anything goes wrong?"
"I'll call you mum. I will", I reassured her,
She got up and started walking out of the room. Nneoma got up and joined her.
"I'll join you, Mum." She said to her mum. "I'll come and check on you both later but you should try to sleep Dinma", she added.
They both walked out of the room. I got in bed with Cheta but I couldn't get any sleep at all. The nurse kept coming into the room to check Cheta's IV so that kept me up.
The next morning, Cheta woke up feeling better, and the antibiotics worked. He woke with a large appetite, we all thought something was wrong but we were also happy because he had not really eaten anything in the last few days, so we happily gave him all the food he asked for. I think we were just happy to see him back on his feet and eating again, I was very happy to see my baby getting back to his normal self.
I love this man too much and just seeing him strong was the best thing that could happen to me.
#sick #theflu #love #sacrificeforlove #Cheta #family