Twelve

BK 2 chapter 12

Here I was sitting in the doctor's office nervously, the doctor requested to see me in his office.

"Hello ma'am", he greeted me with a small smile while taking off his coat. I nodded my head in acknowledgment and slumped down on my seat.

"The reason I called you here was because of your son's health" my heart spiked at the mention of my son's name.

"What's wrong" my voice croaked, it reflected my feelings.

"Well, thank God. A good Samaritan donated his blood, luckily it matched your son's own" he smiled lightly while I grinned widely in return happily.

Alhamdulillah!, my son is okay.

"When is he getting discharged," I asked excitedly, I couldn't contain the immense joy I was feeling. I'd missed my boy so much.

"He will be discharged soon but we need to carry out some tests because he might be having some internal injuries" he responded while I hummed.

"When will that be," I asked anxiously.

"Today, when he regains consciousness" he replied shortly then continued," he will be having CT (computerized tomography); a test performed for any traumatic brain injury. It's a scan with a series of x-ray to detail the view of the brain or quickly visualizing fractures and uncover shreds of evidence of bleeding in the brain" he explained, adjusting the rim of his glasses.

I left his office to the waiting room for sometime before standing outside while the nurse wheeled my son out of the ICU to another room - I guessed the test room.

Abdullah has been transferred to another room and I was called back to the new room with my boy unconscious on the bed, breathing softly.

"When some get in an accident like your son, sometimes, some have external injuries like; fracture of the leg or hand while some have internal injuries like; hearing loss, memory loss, speech disorder - and that's very dangerous" he looked at me warily while I nodded my head for him to continue.

"Ma'am, please can I ask you something," he asked sceptically.

"Yeah" I replied softly while using my hands to hug myself.

"Do you have any ideas on speech disorders?" He asked, jotting something down on his clipboard.

I raised my brow, "No" I replied softly.

Why is he asking me this?.

What  happened to Abdullahi?.

I hope he...

"Ma'am!" I jerked away from my thought while the doctor shot me a disapproving look, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Sorry" I smiled sheepishly, slumped on my seat wishing to evaporate or dissolve to nothingness.

"Speech disorder has three different levels of classification when determining the types and the proper treatment or therapy,1) sound the patient can produce; phonetic or phonemic. 2) stimulate sound; easily stimulated or stimulated after the demonstration. 3) cannot produce the sound; cannot be produced voluntarily or no production ever observed" he said looking at me while adjusting his glasses again.

"There are different types of speech disorder - Apraxia of speech; may result from stroke or progressive illness, and involves inconsistency production of speech sound and rearranging the sound in words. Example in a case of a person wanting to say; potato not it may come out topota or tatopo. Production of words becomes more difficult with effort, but common phrases may be spoken spontaneously without effort." I gawked at him in surprise. I've never heard anything like that before in my three decades.

Upon all, I'm grateful to Allah that I don't have any speech disorders.

"Then there is Cluttering; it is the opposite of stuttering, a speech and fluency disorder characterized primarily by a rapid rate of speech, which makes speech difficult to understand" I cut him off abruptly, knitting my brows in confusion.

"I don't understand you" I furrowed my brows.

"What I meant is that those people with this disorder, talk faster without full stop like ( my name isabdulkjdsgkkzkkjlkl)" he said in a breath while I nodded in understanding then gestured for him to continue.

"We have Dysantria; weakness or paralysis of speech muscles caused by damage to the nerve or brain. It's often caused by stroke, Parkinson's disease Als, head or neck injuries, surgical accident, or cerebral palsy. Then we have Stuttering; Is a problem that interferes with fluent (flowing and easy) speech. A person who stutters may repeat the first syllable in a word (as in ra-ra-rabbit) or hold a single sound for long (baaaaaaaaall). There's Muteness, Dysprosody, voice disorder, speech sound disorder and so more." He waved his hand dismissively before he continued, "some of this disorder may connect to hearing loss" he sighed, rubbing his face.

"People with a speech disorder may be frustrated with how they speak or always complain, especially those who stutter when the listener tries to complete their sentences. Or the listener pitied them by saying 'slow down' or 'take it easy'. While some people tend to look at them with pity or avoid looking at them. And people with the disorder often open to being bullied and have low self-esteem" the doctor stared at me while I watched my boy who was sleeping peacefully on the bed.

"Why are you telling me all these?" I asked in a low voice which resonated around the room. I fiddled with my fingers anticipating for him to reply.

"Because" he drew out slowly, "we think your son has a  stuttering problem due to the accident" he smiled softly at me then he walked out, leaving me to wallow on my sadness. I used my hands to clamp my mouth shut from crying out, I sobbed gently while my body shook.

My baby has a stuttering problem. I thought sadly.

It was my fault if I've not taken him out that day. I sobbed silently.

I walked to my body and touched his cold cheeks adorably while sniffing, hot tears were streaming down from my eyes to his while I used my free hand to wipe them away.

I turned around as I reached the doorknob to open, I heard my baby's croaked voice making me rush to him and cry my eyes out.

"Mo-mo-momma I'm o-o-okay".