Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Reckoning

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Reckoning

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: The Reckoning

(snip)

It was Randy and Shrine. Shrine and Elbbirt had figured out Rand and Roman’s relationship before anyone else and she wasn’t phased to find them in an embrace. She just moved into the room busying herself. Rand sat up a little straighter, “I’ll be here when you wake up.” Then she looked at Randy, just to confirm that and he winked at her. He’d taken care of everything. Randy helped her down and took her back out to her biobed. “Try to rest Rand. I’ll be back later.” He returned to Alden and helped Shrine prep him for surgery. “Just remember Cmdr, when you wake up, your leg will be numb from the nerve block. We’ll remind you, but it will probably be the most disorienting thing right after.”

The kiss ended as Randy and Shrine entered, but Roman kept hold of her until Randy helped her down. “I’ll hold you to it.” He said as Randy helped her back out. Surgery prep made him feel more nervous again, something he wouldn’t show near Shrine. He nodded to the reminder. The nerve block would keep nervous signals from travelling to the brain from that region of the body. It would be handy in controlling the pain immediately after he woke up, but it would be like his leg was gone. He wouldn’t feel anything at all. It was infamously disorienting.

Soon it was time to put him out. They let Randy stay while they gave him the meds to put him out. As he felt himself losing consciousness, his body started fighting against it, trying to stay awake. It made him feel panicky and anxious, a feeling he was unaccustomed to. With a little more time and Randy’s help, he was fully out and ready to go.

The surgery was long. Randy was not a surgical nurse so once Alden was out he had to leave. He sat with as much as he could. Finally he ended up giving her something for her anxiety, put on one of her favorite films, and let her drift off for a few hours. Shrine set up the IVs and medications: pain, electrolytes for the potassium, anti-myoglobin, and precautionary antibiotics. Elbbirt was careful and methodical. The removal of the dead and damaged tissue was easy. The transplant of the vein and artery was also easy, but time consuming. Without the nerve block the pain as blood and oxygen returned to the area would have woken him, feeling like he was burning from the inside out. The tissue graft was placed and the dermal regenerator was put to work binding it to the remaining tissue. The neural regenerator was hard at work too. What took the most time, was going after each of the clots and removing them without damaging the arteries and veins. Elbbirt let the regenerators work for as long as he could after he was done and closed off the site.

The surgery was many hours long. Elbbirt’s methodical style made it take longer, but it was a good thing, it meant he was careful and thorough. After the leg was finished, fishing clots out of arteries and veins was never easy, but after Elbbirt’s work, the most threatening ones that were too large to break apart naturally were gone. It was a good thing they had anticipated the spike in the chemicals. Once blood returned to the area, it was not long before the sudden increase in potassium had his heart rate on the incline. But the preventative medicine kept him stable.

They moved Alden to surgical recovery along with the regenerators. Rand woke up a bit later and asked for Randy. “He did good. He’ll be asleep for a bit longer. The longer he’s out the better. We both know that.” His voice lowered, “But we aren’t supposed to let anyone in the recovery room, but I pulled a few strings. When he starts waking up, I’ll take you.

Roman was fully asleep for another hour and a half. The nice thing about medically induced sleep was, there was no dreaming. At least, not for Roman, there had never been. It was just inky blackness, and then an indescriminate amount of time passed, and it was over. Waking up came slowly as if paying him back for taking so long to go out in the first place. He stirred slowly, his fingers twitching before he had any awareness to what was around him.

True to his word, when Roman started to come out of the anesthesia Randy took Rand back to the room and set her up with a couple chairs beside his bed.

Rand and Randy

Roman felt groggy and tired. He couldn’t remember before he went out very well. His mind felt foggy, unclear. His body felt heavy, moving his arms felt like moving hundred pound sandbags. He found himself expecting the pain that had been in his leg for weeks now. The aching pain that had slowly worsened over the last few weeks had been there to greet him every morning, showing up as soon as he was awake at all. Now he felt nothing, nothing at all from that leg. The unexpected sensation of nothingness shocked him and pulled him out of his sleep a little faster.

Rand settled into the chair and then Randy lifted it up so she could be more level with the bed and then helped her prop her foot up. She saw Roman’s hand twitch a little and she rubbed it gently before turning to look at Randy and fussing with the pillows that were making it harder to keep her ankle still than relax. “Randy? Can you tell me? Is everything going to be okay?” Rand never wanted him to break confidentiality, she just wanted to know Roman was going to live. Anything else she could find a way to deal with. Randy nodded, “He said earlier he wanted you to know. Everything that was so dangerous, Elbbirt was able to get rid of. It’s going to take time and the right type of stubbornness from him, but he’s going to be okay.” He didn’t have to tell her they would need to monitor him for post surgical complications, but so far everything was happening as expected. There was some increase in his heart rate, but the medication was keeping that stabalized.

A glance down told him that regardless of what his brain was detecting, he still had a leg there. Well bandaged and immobilized, it didn’t much look like his leg just then. Over the last three years Roman had become accustomed to his scar, what that part of his leg looked like. Seeing it bandaged like that again caused him to look around, alarmed, checking his surroundings.

No, the room looked nothing like the Ardent’s sickbay. Nor did it look like the sickbay he had spent an additional two months recovering and doing PT in three years ago after the rescue. And this felt too real to be another dream. But his mind was telling him that’s where he was. It was all too similar, save for the lack of pain. There was one person who hadn’t been there three years ago. “Rand? Rand! Miranda!” He called for her. His voice didn’t come out as loudly as he meant it to. It was quiet and slurred. The recovery room’s biobed would betray his momentary panic, showing the sudden increase in heart rate as his mind tried to tell him he was still aboard the Ardent, or in recovery in the year 2247.

~ Lt Cmdr Alden, XO/CSO

Randy quickly silenced the alarms and tracked his vitals. He was watching Roman’s heart rate. It had to come down at least until the potasium levels were back to normal. Then Roman could panic all he wanted. After his fight with going under anesthesia Randy had considered ordering a mild anti-anxiety med after the surgery to help keep him relaxed, but there were already so many medications in his system he didn’t want to do it. He had a feeling Rand would be better medicine anyway. He stayed close, but out of their way for the moment.

It remained in the low 110’s - high, but not too dangerously so. He was okay, but he needed to calm down, to prevent it going higher. For a terrifying moment, he was afraid that Doctor Elliott, the primary physician on his case back then, would lean over him and ask him who he was looking for. His mind was still too foggy to break free of the memory on his own.

Rand turned quickly in her chair and grabbed Roman’s hand and squeezed. Her other hand rubbed his shoulder, creating more contact, to focus him in the present. She had a good idea of where he thought he was, but she wanted him to know he wasn’t. “Roman. I’m right here. I promised.” Her voice was soft but clear as she leaned toward him, so he could see her, but it was also weird having Randy there. Though she had to admit she was thankful it was him and not Shrine. And she knew a nurse had to be in the room right now. “The surgery’s over. You’re going to be okay.” She squeezed his hand and rubbed his shoulder and arm again. “I’m right here.” Calm, she had to be calm and quiet. He was fine she was just stressed from the long wait. He didn’t need to know she was so relieved she could cry. Not right now.

Rand

The familiar feeling of pressure on his hand brought him back. A comforting hand on his shoulder confirmed someone was there. Roman could hear her. She was there, like she’d promised. Then Rand leaned toward him and he relaxed considerably, recognition of her on his face. “Like you promised,” he said, his speech still pretty slurred, but less than before. He took another look around the room as if double checking it really, really didn’t look like another Sickbay in another year. Then he focused back on Rand. That was right, that’s why his leg was bandaged again. Why sensation from it was absent. The surgery, the neuro block. “The surgery went well?” He asked her, assuming someone would have told her. His mind was still foggy, but at least she’d successfully pulled him out of his memory. As he relaxed out of his panicked state, his heart rate dropped from the 110’s to the 90’s. A much safer range.

~ Roman

Rand nodded, “Just like I promised.” She smiled softly and brushed the hair at his temple with her finger tips. She glanced over at Randy who was checking on the regenerators. “It did. They didn’t tell me the details though.” Randy stepped closer, knowing the anesthesia would make Roman’s vision a bit blurry for a bit. “Rand isn’t listed in your file as being allowed to know, but since you told me you want her here, I can tell you, and if she over hears, well that was your decision.” It was a bit sassy but Randy watched Alden carefully. Depending on how much of that Alden followed depended on how detailed the information was he would tell Alden. At least until later.

“It went well, your blood flow is back, the damaged tissue is healing already. You’re nerves also. You have a nerve block on your leg. You have a low dose pain medication to take the edge off where the clots were removed.” Rand glanced up quickly at Randy. Clots? Roman had mentioned clots but not anything else. She knew from her own ‘fake heart attack’ all about clots. If they had to be surgically removed....she took a deep, slow breath and turned her gaze back to Roman. Randy didn’t even miss a beat, “the toxins are dropping. Elbbirt will be in when you are fully awake and will give you the specific details.”

Rand