I went home and finally fell asleep, only to be awakened by my phone ringing. It was the hospital and I immediately felt my heart stop. Generally it is very bad news when the hospital calls at 4 o'clock in the morning. I answered the phone and it was Gessner's ICU nurse. "He's off the vent and asking for you," she said and then handed him the phone. I immediately started to cry and told Gessner that I loved him. The first thing he said was "I'm so sorry that the surgery took so long." The man nearly died in the OR and he was apologizing because I had to wait so long. It makes me smile, because that was the type of guy that he was; the type that thought about other people, especially me.
I rushed to the hospital and was amazed to see a different person. He looked like himself, though still a little swollen from receiving so much blood and fluid during the procedure. But mentally he was completely himself. When his doctor came in to check on him, Gess voiced disappointment because he wanted to go back to work the following week. Dr. T told him that he could go back to work soon. Later he snuck out of the ICU to get a root beer float and some how got the doctor to discharge him that day. He went from nearly dead to home in less than 24 hours.
This kind of "bounce back" was why his death came as such a shock. He was the ultimate come-back kid. He beat the odds. He was a miracle. And then it all ended. I wish that I had known on that day that we would have less than 2 weeks together. I wish that we would have spent that time doing something amazing rather than preparing to move. I wish it would have been different.
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