“Just your ribs?”
She nodded at the doctor. Then she looked toward Cesar as the doctor walked away.
“I hurt.”
“I know. The doctor is going to take X-rays and is giving you some pain medicine.”
“You’ll be here?”
“Yes. You know I won’t leave you.”
She tried to smile as she closed her eyes. “Okay.”
He cringed when the nurse inserted the needle into the back of her hand and started the IV with two bags of fluid.
“I think her head is fine, but I’ll do more tests after I talk to her. We’ll get her hydrated again, and with the meds, her blood pressure should come up. Hopefully, the X-rays won’t show any major damage.”
“I hope so, too. When do you think I can take her home?”
“I can’t speculate until I have all the information. She’ll need to be kept in the hospital at least until tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
While they waited for the machine, the doctor went all over her body. Besides bruises, he couldn’t see or feel any breaks, but they wouldn’t know for sure without the X-rays.
Within five minutes, two technicians rolled in a machine.
“I want a full-body scan,” the doctor said.
Cesar watched as the techs took three different pictures, and the doctor looked on the monitor as they went.
“Send me these,” the doctor said.
“You got it,” one of the guys said.
“Good news is I don’t see any breaks, but the area around her ribs I’m still concerned about. There still could be some fractures but are too small to see on this monitor. I’ll send them to radiology for them to look at, but she does have some serious tissue damage that will take time to heal.”
“What if there are fractures?”
“Nothing you can do about it but let it heal.”
“What about wrapping them?” Cesar asked.
“No. That may actually cause more problems. If you wrap them, the lungs are constricted, and that can cause pneumonia. So, it will be more uncomfortable for her, but we don’t want to take a chance the compression wraps will cause other issues.”
Cesar nodded.
“We’re going to take her up to a private room where she can rest. A nurse will be in to give her a sponge bath and put her in a nightgown.”
“I can do that,” Cesar said. He wanted to … no, he needed to be the one to take care of her.
“All right. I’ll have them get you the things you’ll need. She should rest comfortably with the pain meds I gave her. I’ll check on her later.”
Cesar shook his hand. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“You’re welcome.”
Cesar followed the gurney up a few floors and down a hallway. The room they came to was private and large.