1000 Memories

Chapter 16

“We are going to run more tests and come back with the results. “The doctor says as they prepare to wheel out Cindy in order to go and run the scans so as to see what the problem might be. I look at Cindy  and she seems to be so scared and confused as if she doesn’t know where she is or who these people standing in her room, staring at her are. Her mom sits down holding her head in her hands, and I can only imagine how heart-breaking this must feel for her.

“She’s okay, her brain is probably just trying to rewire itself or readjust after all that happened.” I put my hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her. Cindy’s dad leaves and follows the doctors but comes back into the room a few moments later.

“Why is she speaking in French? I tried to hug her and she didn’t want me to and you all saw that right?”

“Does she remember anything?” She goes on and on trying to figure out what just happened.

“Susan, there have been so many cases of people waking up from a coma and speaking in a different language but they always get back to normal after a while. We have nothing to worry about.” Cindy’s dad says as he sits down beside his wife to calm her down.

We wait for a while before Cindy is brought back into the room and the nurse helps her with getting comfortable on the bed but she is still looking quite confused.

The neurologist walks into the room a few moments later and starts to update us.

“So, the scans show that there are no abnormal activities in her brain. What she is experiencing is called Foreign Accent Syndrome. It happens in a few cases where patients can wake up from a comma and they speak in a language that is foreign to their native one. It is not something so serious  and usually does not persist for a long time. It will fade away on its own as the brain readjusts itself. She also does not seem to remember what happened or who any of you are but her memories will come back, we just need to give it some time. “She says and I immediately get on my phone to google about this FAS syndrome and how people have come back from it.

“ Is there anything we can do to help her regain the memories?” Cindy’s mom asks.

“Yes, you can show her pictures or tell her about herself or memories you’ve made together. It could help to trigger her own memories although it might be a bit difficult if you can’t understand each other.” She says.

“I speak a little French. I can translate for her mom and dad.” I offer and they both look at me gratefully.

I took some French classes back in college but I wasn’t so interested so I dropped the classes, but not before I had learnt to speak a little of it. Who knew that it would help me at a time in my life when a friend needed it.

The doctor and nurse then leave the room and Cindy falls back to sleep. Emily and Jo come by the hospital later in the afternoon bringing us food since it is well past lunch time and none of us had had anything to eat.

I update them on everything the doctor said and they are just as shocked as we were when we heard everything. “How does a seizure turn into all of this?” Emily asks rhetorically and I also shake my head wondering the same thing.

“You should go home and rest, it has been a long day.” I say to Mr and Mrs Baker. “No, I’ll stay.” Cindy’s mom insists but her dad says that they should go since my friends and I will stay with her for most of the evening. “You will be with her the whole day tomorrow so you should rest now. I promise to call you when she wakes up.” I say.

“Okay, we’ll go. Do not leave her side.” She finally agrees. My mom who had come to visit, offers to drive them home so they don’t have to wait for a taxi.

Emily, Jo and I talk amongst ourselves most of the afternoon as we watch over Cindy. The nurse keeps coming in to check on Cindy although the doctor said that at this point she can breathe  on her own without the tubes.

Cindy wakes up after some hours and we try communicating with her but all she keeps asking is who we are and why she is in a hospital. I show her pictures of her family and the many places we had visited when she came to L.A more than a month ago. We can barely understand each other because  she is terrified and does not understand why she is here. She keeps saying that her home is in Mènerbes, France(which none of  us had ever  heard of until now) and does not know  why we are calling her Cindy because according to her, her name is Margot and her parents aren’t the ones we are showing her in the pictures because they died in a car accident when she was 11. I call her parents and tell them that Cindy thinks she is a completely different person and they refuse to believe it.

It is late in the night and the doctor has already gone home but she assured me that Cindy is probably just remembering a character from a  movie or a story she has read in the past and is associating herself with the character . Emily and Jo also decide to depart for the night and say that they’ll be back tomorrow.

I end up falling asleep on the chair through most of the night. Cindy’s mom wakes me up later and am shocked to see that it is 6 am in the morning and am going to be late for work. I grab my bag and head back to my apartment, shower, eat my breakfast and by the time am done, it is almost 8am so I quickly drive to work.