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

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: The Reckoning
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Roman smiled and shook his head. Randy was good at keeping things secret. Then he looked up at her. “No one knows?” He sort of liked that no one knew. No one would be trying to see him or asking him questions about why and what happened. But it wouldn’t stay a secret. He was going to be recovering for too long for it to be a sprain or pulled muscle like they’d thought on Kelmao. And the amount of padding and bandages on it would be excessive for anything other than a major surgery on it. Not only that, but Captain Rogers was going to need to know why exactly her first officer was off duty for at least the next week.

“The medical staff involved in the surgery know, and of course Dr. Haadok, and I’m sure Cpt Rogers knows. Or she will when she gets the departmental report. But no one else.” She understood the need for privacy and keeping things quiet. “I…I thought…maybe you could say the muscle was torn instead of sprained. That would probably explain the extra time off and the dermal regenerator. I mean…Elbbirt was a bit excessive about my foot, people would believe it.” She was making up a lie for him, to make him feel better, and she’d sell it too. No one would doubt her when she told them - if she told them. Randy heard of course and thought it wasn’t a bad idea. It was amazing how much medical knowledge Rand retained from helping him study. What was also amazing was the calming effect she was having on Alden. Despite her own high strung tendencies she was good for his health apparently.

Roman nodded in approval to the idea. It sounded plausible, and then he wouldn’t have to tell anyone. He wouldn’t feel expected to talk about it when he didn’t want to. Anyone who knew him would wonder why he didn’t insist on recovering in his quarters but that was easy for two reasons. He had to be in Sickbay for the regenerator, and he could say he was ordered to stay. It wasn’t technically untrue. It also wasn’t technically true, he hadn’t pushed Elbbirt that far, but he might as well have.

He smiled as she kissed his cheek. “Franks will do fine managing the labs. I’ve been working with him, he’s to be temporary CSO if for some reason I can’t be.” Either because of his XO duties or something like this, something happened to him, Franks would be in charge. It made it easier, because then everyone knew who to go to if Roman wasn’t there. He was clearly more awake than he had been before. He sounded clearer, his responses taking less time. And he was moving around more, mostly just his arms and head but his movements didn’t look so sluggish.

~ Roman

“I’ll check on him and the paperwork, so you don’t have so much waiting.” She laid her forehead against his arm for a moment, just because. Maybe because her adrenaline was dropping now that he seemed better. Randy came over hearing Alden shifting around. “Let’s sit you up a bit. Slowly, we don’t want your blood pressure to drop going too fast. Might make Elbbirt keep you here longer. Let me lift you, we don’t want to shift your leg and the regenerators not be lined up correctly.” Randy lifted him carefully and then watched his vitals for a few minutes. Then repeat until Alden was inclined by 45°.

Rand

Roman slid his own head over a little so it was next to hers while she had her head on him. Another moment later, Randy was headed back over to them. He had been about to protest that he could sit himself up, and that would be evident from the look on his face, but the last thing he wanted was Elbbirt to decide he needed to stay even longer. Randy sat him up little by little, pausing every so often to look up at the biobed’s readings of his vitals for several minutes. Roman found it to be an irritatingly slow process. But when he tried to sit up more than Randy was moving him at a time, the soreness in his body protested and his heart rate went up. He decided to wait for Randy to sit him up after that. Finally, he was at a forty five degree angle and he had a better, more comfortable view of the room. “What happens if the regenerators aren’t lined up correctly?” He asked.

~ Roman

As he tried to sit himself up and the monitors went a little nuts with his heart rate Rand glared at him. She wasn’t comfortable enough, even with just Randy around, to say anything out loud, but she was thinking all kinds things about how he needed to be still. Once Randy had him settled she tried not to fuss with his pillow or over him. Randy was going to tease her endlessly for how she was acting. As long as it was only Randy she could handle it.

Roman caught her glaring and gave her a sheepish shrug. The pace of his heart rate when the monitors were going off made his chest feel kind of funny. Tingly and tight. But it was only a minute or two before it dropped to a more acceptable level as Randy settled him in. He started messing with his pillows but found Rand had that more than covered and before long he was comfortably sitting. If it took that much effort to shift positions every time, this was going to be a very long recovery.

“The regenerators have to be programmed, to help stimulate the right type of tissue growth. So your muscles are multi-layered and each layer goes in a different direction. So right now it’s working on a specific layer, you move and that layer…it doesn’t grow right.” Put two finger next to each other touching, side-by-side, and then he made one go off in a crooked direction, then the next followed, and again. “So you end up with tissue that won’t work right because the muscle didn’t heal and grow like it should. It’s not connected right. In the end, instead of looking like a brand new skein of yarn it looks like a three year old and a kitten got together and yanked and pulled and knotted the skein in a marvelous display of child delight…and then tried to shove it all back in the paper wrapper before Grandma catches you. Then that means Elbbirt has to go back in and remove the ill formed tissue, and we start over.”

Rand thought that sounded sickening. She had been looking at Randy while he talked and now she turned to look at Roman. “You are staying still, I don’t care how much you don’t like it.”

Rand

Randy’s example did not disturb Roman as much as the prospect of another surgery. Though, no, his demonstration did not make it sound particularly pleasant. Roman shook his head when Rand looked at him. “I’m not sure you’ll have anything to worry about, at least not before I’m finished with the regenerators.” Causing the surgery to be redone would only double, or more, his recovery time. The neuro block made sense then, both because the process would probably be excruciatingly painful without it, but also because his leg wasn’t going to be doing any moving between the neuro block preventing him from feeling it at all and the way it was propped up so it wouldn’t shift at all unless he was trying to do something he shouldn’t be. “You said Doctor Elbbirt would be in later with the rest of the details. Whenabouts is that going to be?”

~ Roman

Randy looked at the display. “About 10-15 minutes. Once the regenerators are done with this round. He also wants you to be mostly awake. So how tired are you feeling now, with the anesthesia and pain meds?”

“Like perhaps I could go for a nap, but I don’t need one,” he said, unsure how to relate how tired he was into words. Roman realised when Randy mentioned ‘in ten to fifteen minutes’ that Roman hadn’t the slightest clue what time it was. “How long has been? What time is it?”

“You can have something to drink, water or juice to start with. If it stays down we’ll move on to something more substantial, maybe ice cream,” he grinned as Rand looked up clearly interested. If Roman didn’t know it yet, a constant supply of ice cream was the quickest way to distract Rand from anything. “Cold drinks usually help you wake up, clear the fog some.”

Roman did not know that, ice cream had not come up between them. He didn’t miss Rand’s eagerness at its mention though. He did not feel hungry or thirsty just yet, but if it would help him finish waking up… “Tea isn’t on the menu yet, then? Shame. Suppose I’ll take the cold water then.” He certainly wasn’t as interested in ice cream as Rand, but it wasn’t that he didn’t like it or anything. “If you’re worried about things staying down, wouldn’t dairy be a poor choice?” He questioned.

Roughly 12 minutes later Elbbirt walked in just as the regenertators beeped the end of their cycle. “Ah Cmdr. I’m glad to see you’re already sitting up. We’re going to take some images while we talk, see how everything looks.” He turned to Rand, “As for you, you and I are going to talk later.” Rand sat up a little straighter, eyes wide, “Randy said I could be in here!” she blurted out. It was everything Elbbirt could do not to laugh. “Right he was. But reinjuring that same broken ankle…tsk tsk. I don’t like it. We’re going to have to have a long look at your foot. So you hop along back to your biobed and I’ll talk to you in a few.”

“But my 12 hours are up.” She looked at Roman and then Randy. She didn’t want to leave. Elbbirt could do whatever he wanted with her and her foot as long as she could stay there. “So they are, but I still don’t have your report on what happened yet, which is very unlike you.” Rand looked like a fish out of water. “I’ve been in sickbay. It’s on my PaDD from the landing team.” Elbbirt nodded, “Well we will send someone for it. In the meantime scoot, confidentiality and all that.” He looked at Alden, “Unless, of course you don’t mind if she stays Cmdr.” Randy turned away hiding a grin while he got the lens ready. Elbbirt was a devious old man.

Rand

Roman nodded. He wondered if Elbbirt already knew how the process of gettting him sat up had gone. He glanced at the lens. “More images?” He protested. He must have been feeling more like himself, his defiant, argumentative side was showing itself again. Rand blurted her permission to be here and Roman had to smile a little. At least she drew attention away from him for a moment.

He gripped her hand tighter when Elbbirt told her to ‘hop along back’ to her biobed. Roman didn’t want her to go anywhere either. He still didn’t seem like he liked being here but he was certainly more relaxed than if Elbbirt made Rand go away. Elbbirt turned to Roman and asked if he minded if she stayed. He didn’t know Elbbirt already knew, but they had decided already it wasn’t a secret. They’d even been on a public date before the landing party. Roman answered confidently. “Certainly she can stay, all she likes.” He almost added she’s my girlfriend, but he wasn’t sure Rand would be comfortable with that declaration. He was sure Elbbirt wasn’t the type to go spreading rumours, so he wasn’t worried about it.

The images, when they were taken, would show marked improvement in his leg. The surgery had successfully removed all of the irreparable and dead tissues, and it seemed the transplanted blood vessels were doing their job well. Blood flow looked good. The tissue graft had begun to bind to the surrounding tissues, but the damage to the surrounding tissues was making it a slow going process. If they looked for it, there was a lot of neural activity, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on, but his body screaming ‘pain’ was probably an accurate description. Some of the nerves were damaged from the lack of blood flow, and from everything else that had gone on in his leg, but with any luck, they would heal. His body had broken down some of the smaller clots, but many were still visible when scans looking for them were taken. The neural block was placed and doing exactly what it was supposed to do, none of the pain impulses (or any impulses) from his leg were reaching his brain, preventing him from sensing the pain.

It would probably take two to three or so days for the potassium and myoglobin to drop to an allowable level, longer to be gone completely. A lot had built up because of how long the dead muscle had been left to decay, and how much dead muscle there had been. The medicines, one which would bind with the excess potassium and neutralize it and the other to help his kidneys function and protect them while they tried to filter the myoglobin, were keeping everything stable. His kidneys were under stress, but not being damaged. His resting heart rate was still high, currently sitting just over 100, but that wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t stay higher than that, besides mild symptoms of a rapid heart beat. His heart rhythm was regular besides being fast, so that was good. Because his heart beat was still fast, his breathing was a little fast, as it had been before.

With the rate the graft was binding to his leg, and how his heart and kidneys were acting, he would need to continue to take it easy at least the next few days. Overexertion would slow the healing process, keep his body in its currrent condition longer. Anything to push that heart rate up would be both dangerous and ill-advised. And of course, moving that muscle would be a bad idea all around. The attachment to the existing tissue was new and tender, easily broken, which would set back his progress. The nerves needed time to heal, time to rest. He needed to be letting them do that.

~ Roman