Opening Credits

My brother called me Friday morning. He sounded distressed and a bit distant. He said he was at the emergency room at Royal Darwin Hospital and he was on heavy painkillers. The bulging disc in his vertebrae was pinching the nerve and he was having trouble urinating. He wanted some headphones to listen to his ipod to pass the time. Waiting at R.D.H. to be treated can take up to six hours on a good day. I rode over to find him on his back in ICU. He told me he was going to have an operation that evening if possible. He had put off surgery for two years and it couldn't wait any longer.

I was meant to be at work at 1pm. I got to work at 1.30pm. I kept my phone on me if my brother needed anything. My mother called and said she was on the next plane to Darwin. The surgery was not minor. If there were 'complications' then my brother may not ever walk again. Any damage to the nerve could mean a life altering change.

I don't remember much of the remaining day. Everything that night felt meaningless. If anybody asked how I was doing, I would usually say 'fine' but at times couldn't help telling the person how worried I was. I must have seemed like I was from another planet. I tried not the think about it as I might have started hyperventilating and crying. My head hurt. I felt nauseous. I needed to get outside. What was I even doing at work?

I got back to the hospital at 10pm to find my brother in the Private Hospital waking up after the operation. There were no apparent complications. I talked to my brother for at least two hours as he awakened slowly. He had a little pump in his hand that injected some wonderful drug into his system that he was told by the doctor that he couldn't overdose on. He showed me the sinew that was scraped-out so the disc wouldn't bulge. Somehow his showing of the little white tangle floating in a jar didn't seem morbid at the time.

I have no idea why.