I walked toward his room and caught sight of him lying on the bed with his hand on his stomach. He looked pale again, as if his fever had returned.
“Hey, buddy. Are you okay?” I asked, seeing him half awake.
He shook his head. “My head hurts, Dad. Even my stomach, my body, everything.” He groaned, his hands pressed hard to his stomach.
“It’s going to be okay. I’m right here.” I excused myself to call Garren. I had to take off another day.
“Yeah, man. You should take Vince to the doctor. Don’t worry about the shop; I’ll take care of it.”
He was right. Time to get some help. It wasn’t a small flu bug that would disappear on its own.
I dressed Vince, carried him in my arms, and put him into the car. I should have done this a long time ago at the first sign of his illness, but things were too hectic for me, and honestly, I’d expected it to just go away.
I drove to the hospital as worry filled my insides. Please let my little man be okay.
As we arrived at the nearest hospital, the nurses assisted me as they took Vince to the emergency room. He was still curled into a ball, pressing his tummy, talking about the pain he was in. I held his hand tight, being the only thing I could do to support my son. I wished it was me in pain instead. Seeing him suffer broke my heart.
“Kindly wait here, sir. We can take it from here.” I watched as they checked on Vince, the doctors, and nurses attending to his pain. He was very responsive, telling them everything he felt. They seemed relieved since it made it easy for them to pinpoint what meds to give him. After a few minutes, he looked calmer, less in pain.
One of the doctors approached me. “How long was he feeling this pain?”
“About a week ago, Doc.” I felt embarrassed answering his question.
The doctor scratched his head. “Right now, we can’t tell what’s going on, but we’ll take some blood and figure it out. We need to run a few more tests to know what put him in this situation.”
“I understand.” I nodded, feeling like shit.
“Whenever things get a little out of hand, you should take him here immediately. You should check on your son and see if things are still in the normal range. An on and off fever that keeps up after a week is too long, Mr. Yonnie.” He left me alone in the hallway, walking back inside the emergency room to attend to the other patients.
I wrapped my arms around myself and pressed my back against the wall. How could I have let Vince be sick this long? What the hell was I thinking?
I wasn’t thinking… Focusing on ensuring my business was successful and bringing in loads of money was my top goal. I had neglected him, and now he had to pay the price for my mistakes. It simply wasn’t right. I couldn’t bear seeing him suffer due to my bad decisions. He deserved so much more. Damn Linda for leaving us both. I hated her with a passion, though doing so only made me feel worse.
“Mr. Yonnie, can you come over here and let’s get some lab work for Vince today? Everything is in-house, so it should be pretty fast, pretty easy.” A pretty nurse waved me over to her station.
“Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” I walked over and set up the appointments, ready to see my boy again and find assurance that he was going to be okay.
The entire day was spent running tests for the doctors to determine Vince’s illness. He looked so much better a little while later, and it appeared as if his pain was finally gone.
After the last test had been done, the two of us were supposed to m
eet with Vince’s doctor again. I knocked on his office door, hoping he was inside.
“Come in.”
Vince and I went inside and sat down, nerves tearing up my insides. It was just the flu, right? Had to be.
“Let’s see what’s going on inside of you, little guy.” The doctor unsealed the envelope to look at the results of the various tests inside. It took him several minutes of scrutinizing the contents of the results, reading through the findings. At last, after a long period of silence, he began to speak again.
“Okay. Vince, is that medicine helping a little?” the doctor asked.
Vince nodded and gave a lazy smile. “Yes, sir. I’m just still a little tired.”
“Yeah, I can see that here.” He glanced over at me. “He’s got a really bad strain of the flu, and we might want to test for some autoimmune issues in the future, but for now, lots of rest and fluids. He should recover and be just fine.”
“Thank God,” I mumbled and ran my fingers through my hair. A strong strain of the flu? Jeez.
After talking to the doctor for a few more minutes about autoimmune issues, Vince and I were free to go. I grasped his hand as we left the doctor’s office, walking out of the hospital together.