The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Page #9

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and I turned around when Pam called.

Tiredness can cause this,

and his blood pressure is high.

This isn't tiredness. Something's wrong.

Where's... can't we find Pam?

No, I'm the charge nurse.

- You were here. Why didn't you call us?

- Because it never occurred to me.

- Where's Dr. soni?

- She's on her rounds.

Something is happening to my father.

- I want Pam!

- Okay, you're gonna have to stop shouting.

- We're sorry, he's just emotional.

- It's our dad.

I'm not emotional, Danny! I want Pam!

Right now we're waiting for a neurologist

to read his eeg for brainwave activity.

- When will that happen?

- I don't know. It's being read in India.

Because of... why?

In the meantime, I'm gonna give him

lotensin for his high blood pressure.

I'll be right back.

Okay.

He's giving him lotensin. What did he get

for his blood pressure before?

The other nurse came by.

She did something.

- Yeah, she seemed to know.

- Did you write it down?

- I can't remember.

- Me neither.

From now on, everything gets written down.

Do you understand?

It's one thing!

You can read what the number is now.

He's alive!

Jesus, these people do this for a living.

These people change every five minutes.

If we're not paying attention,

he might die.

- Do you understand that?

- I do.

- Jesus.

- I'll write everything down.

- Everything.

- Yeah.

- I got it!

- I'm sorry!

It's okay!

It's nice to see you, Matt.

The lost speech could be

because of frequent or partial seizures.

An up and down is common,

but this is more of a down than expected.

If it was his heart,

we'd shock him out of it,

but you can't shock the brain

in these cases,

so we need to quiet the brain.

We're putting him in a barbiturate coma,

with a combination of propofol

and pentobarbital or phenobarbital.

Probably pento. I want to be aggressive.

Will he be okay?

Think of it like shutting down a computer

and then restarting.

Or, if you're a luddite like me,

like a grain of sand becoming a Pearl.

[Jean chuckles]

Will he be okay?

Well, it's not what we'd hope

at this stage.

Because he'll be completely sedated,

we'll need to intubate.

I want you to know

we're doing our very best.

We want to see your father

walking out of here soon.

Thank you, Dr. soni.

Now, I'm going to be on vacation

for three weeks starting tomorrow.

- What?!

- Really?

Are you serious?

He'll be in very good care.

Dr. brotman will be taking over.

- "Dr. brotman."

- Do you have to go?

- Can't you just push it?

- We need you here!

God, no. My husband would divorce me.

We're going to China.

You're putting our dad in a coma

and then leaving us?

It's not like that, Matt. It's not.

Right, Dr. soni? It's not like that?

Well, technically, yes. It's that.

- You can't do that to us!

- First Pam, now you?

- Can we get Pam back at least?

- I'm not in charge of nurse assignments.

- Hi, Dr. soni.

- Hi, Dr. liu.

- Shouldn't you be packing for China?

- It doesn't feel fair, Dr. soni,

that you can just live your life normally

while our dad is lying here.

Maybe it isn't.

I'm gonna stay a few days

until dad's opening at bard.

Stay with us at Maureen's house.

Okay.

Dad says you started your own company.

- Yeah, a couple of other guys and me...

- How does that work?

Did you just tell your boss,

"I'm gonna start my own..."

I was one of the partners,

so I didn't technically have a boss.

No, I understand.

So, you got a better offer?

No, there were no offers.

That's what was so scary.

We were creating our own opportunity.

- Because you wanted something smaller.

- Bigger.

- Many of the firm's clients came with us.

- Which was surprising.

No, we expected it. We can't legally

ask clients to come with us...

But they don't have much choice.

It's totally their choice.

No, I know. Because you have their money.

Well, their money's with the firm,

but their money is in investments

or a bank.

I understand. My buddy ptolemy,

who lives across the street, or lived...

Dad told me about your...

- Karen? I'm sorry. I've also...

- Ptolemy's like you, works in arbitrage.

Yeah, that's not what I do.

No, I wasn't saying...

But ptolemy said

that the system is rigged from the inside.

- That's not entirely true.

- But mostly?

- So, this is an exciting time for me.

- How's your boy?

Good.

Victoria and I are having some problems.

I never met her. Karen and I separated.

- I know. I just said I was sorry.

- Did you?

I'm sorry, too.

- I liked Eliza's movie.

- She sent it to you?

- Are you limping?

- Yes!

It's always stiff after I've been sitting.

- You should see the other dog.

- What?

[Matthew] nothing.

[Danny] I borrowed an old cane

from Maureen's dead ex-husband,

but it's really not necessary.

I keep it in the car. I'm telling you.

- It's tax season.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- There's a step!

- Thank you.

- Jean, there's a step.

I left the necks on for those of you

who are feeling... adventurous.

Evidently, they net them.

They net whole trees, and they just

take off with the little birds,

and just deep fry them, and just...

[Makes explosion sound]

It's very sad.

I've never known little birds

that didn't mind leaving the home.

The Knicks totally started, but then got

to the point with one player away.

- Yeah.

- The Knicks need a point guard.

I'll take two.

Would you f*** Pam?

I would.

Just kidding.

You'd think they never took

a photo of me as a child.

You were both such middle-aged men

in the making.

Don't tuck it up your shoes

don't look at the sky

Say it with confidence

and look them in the eye

Myron

Danny?

The night nurse today is rich.

He's okay. He doesn't know anything.

Dad's blood pressure is 178...

His blood pressure dropped,

so they put him on a levophed drip,

but that's hard on his kidneys so...

[Nurse] it should taste sweet, too.

It was a little gooey.

It freaked me out.

Do I want meatballs?

Do I want meatballs?

[Machine beeping]

[Doctor] and overnight he contracted

sepsis, which is a full-body inflammation.

Unfortunately, the longer he's here,

the more susceptible he is to infection.

[Jean] what about his brain?

Do we have an eeg?

This is a different unit.

We're in the icu.

I don't have those answers as of yet.

So now we're in the right unit

to treat his sepsis,

but the wrong unit to treat his head?

They have a call in to a neurologist.

People rarely come in on the weekends.

Do people not generally get sick

on weekends?

We're working on getting you

those answers.

This is a helpful summary of

the conversations you might want to have.

[Danny] "end of life conversation"?

These are things we suggest you say

to your father before it's too late.

- "I love you."

- I'm sorry.

"I forgive you." "Forgive me."

- I'm so sorry.

- "Thank you." "Goodbye."

["Wild horses" playing]

- Through the rails

- [sniffling]

I spied

He told me he liked this

when I played it once.

I tried

With sugar cubes

and they're okay

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