“Oh good!” I said. “I think I’m going to need to take a few days off to get over this.”

Maggie said, “When I called Larry, he said he wouldn’t let you come back to work for a week, so don’t worry about it, sweetheart. It looks like you’ve got a week off!”

“One hell of a way to spend a vacation!” I said. And with that, I drifted back to sleep, feeling relieved we were all going to be okay.

I woke up to an empty room and realized after glancing at the clock that I’d been asleep for three hours. I buzzed my nurse on duty and within a few minutes she appeared in my room.

“Oh, I see you’re doing better! You’ve been sleeping all day! Just what the doctor ordered!” the young nurse on duty said. She was very cheerful, a little too cheerful, because I had a pounding headache.

“Can you bring me something for a headache?” I asked.

“Of course, and Dr. West will be by shortly. He’s making his rounds and I expect he’ll be by in about thirty minutes,” she said.

“I’ll be right back with something for your headache,” she said as she left the room.