Hello there,
You might or might not be aware of the fact that I've had an operation of the 22th of May. Having returned from that I wanted to share what I went through because it's a huge experience. So in this story I put a certain brunette through that fateful day. Also because it just makes sense.
The experiences are highly detailed and a majority of them are how it went with me. In fact, all of it but I was there for my foot instead of my leg. That would be the only difference. Also I left the part out where I spilled the water on my bed, the poor thing already had a tough time.
This will be a twoshot, next chapter handling the aftermath of the operation.
Anaesthetics
A red Mazda came to a halt on the parking lot of the Inazuma Hospital. The passengers door opened and a somewhat nervous teen stepped out. The driver joined him and they walked inside. It was 06:47 am so they had enough time to walk inside and take the elevator to the fourth floor. Because it was still really early there was hardly anyone around. Having arrived at the fourth floor they ringed the bell to open the doors and took a seat in the waiting room. The teen started to get a bit nervous. Last time he was here he didn't get through the pre-operational process, however this time he would. A few minutes after 7 am a woman walked around the corner and caught the eye of the two people sitting in the waiting room. She walked up to him and gave him a hand while asking his name and introducing herself as his nurse for his stay at the paediatrics. The teen found the paediatrics humiliating, he wasn't a little kid anymore yet he wasn't old enough to stay at the adult daycare section.
This is Shindou Takuto's story, a year after breaking his right leg he's been scheduled to get the osteosynthesis in the shape of a pin in his tibia surgically removed. Going back to a year before he had quite an unfortunate fall during the Holy Road semi-final match against Arakumo Gakuen in which he fractured his right leg. He didn't stop before the match ended though. The high rate of adrenaline in his blood was probably the cause why he didn't feel much pain and he destroyed his leg by continuing. However after the final whistle it occurred to him that maybe it could be more than a sprained muscle which he intentionally thought of. After cooling down a bit the pain in his leg returned as the adrenaline vanished from his blood circuit. Adrenaline crash combined with a mild shock. He tumbled down the pitch.
After being diagnosed with a fractured leg he was immediately admitted to the operation theatre of the nearby hospital. An emergency operation, the emergency part meaning he could lose capacity of his leg or his whole leg if not acting fast. A titanium pin was inserted into his right tibia to prevent the bone from growing back the wrong way after they set it, which would be problematic. The wound was stitched shut and his leg bandaged, ready to be opened up a year after to remove the pin.
Back in the present Shindou is being taken to a patient room with his bed ready. It was a double room with a curtain in the middle, apparently there was a child laying in the bed beside the window but Shindou couldn't see him. A woman was sitting on a bench, presumably his or her mother. The room wasn't very big, unlike the room he was in last time. It had the usual hospital smell of pure alcohol and other disinfecting stuff. The nurse told him to sit down to measure his blood pressure with a sphygmomanometer. He took off his coat and put his arm out to make space for the dark blue synthetic band. She fastened it around his arm and warned him that she was going to turn it on.
The last time Shindou had his blood pressure checked was during the pre-operative consulting, where he met one of the anaesthetists, it had turned out completely normal so he was almost convinced that this case would be the same. One of the reasons he was there were to talk about any needed medicines during his stay and possible allergies, fortunately he didn't have any so that wouldn't be a problem. However mainly it was to determine what kind of method would be going to be used during the actual operation. He decided he didn't prefer to hear his surgeon while she was removing something inside him, because that was all it was. The anaesthetist suggested general anaesthesia, during which he would be unconscious and wake up afterwards. He agreed.
The band around his arm inflated, it felt weird, a vibrating weird. While the sphygmomanometer was measuring his blood pressure she put a plastic cover on an ear thermometer and put it in his ear, he kept his head perfectly still until she was done. Shindou looked at his arm for a bit before looking at the person who's gone with him, his mother had settled down in a chair next to the door. The nurse was satisfied with the brunettes blood pressure and took two plastic bands from her instruments. Shindou's name and birth date were imprinted on it along with the three-symbol acronym of the paediatrics ward. She fastened each around a wrist and told him it was a new procedure. "In case they have to cut one of them to inject the IV, you still have the other one," she explained. Shindou just briefly nodded in understanding.
Much time for relaxing or thinking wasn't on the schedule because the next thing the nurse handed him was a hospital gown. Oh. She pointed to another door, "there's the bathroom, you can change there. Take all your clothes off and," she laid a boxer short on the gown. "An O.R. short as we call it. Also, be sure to go to the toilet" Oh my god. Shindou felt uncomfortable with the stuff in his hands. He stood up and slipped into the bathroom. It was quite big, it had a toilet, a washing table, a chair and a shower - for children who had to stay longer he figured. Throwing the hospital gown on the backrest of the chair he took a deep breath before changing his clothes. On the back of the gown were three white snaps which he fastened before pulling it over his head. Looking in the mirror he saw a frightened boy, unaware of what was waiting for him. Something in him wanted to turn back.
He examined the gown, it was a shade of darker blue and the hem of the v-neck was yellow. He turned around to see his open back and the O.R. short which was a kind of transparent because of the net structure. Shit. He awkwardly wrapped the back of the gown together and took his clothes back into the room making sure not to turn his back to anyone.
He gently sat down on the bed and had to admit to himself he was rather surprised when the nurse handed him a black marker. "Next thing is marking the place they're going to operate. Just put an arrow at that place." Shindou obediently lifted his right leg on which he drew an arrow pointing to his previous surgery scar, to prevent more scar tissue they were going to open the exact same spot again. After a few moments of seeing the nurse busy putting a bit of information into the portable computer on a movable desk she pointed to the nightstand on the left of his bed. On it stood a glass and two pills. "Could you take those two pills with as less water as possible? It's paracetamol to prepare you for the O.R." So Shindou took the glass of water and the two pills, putting then on the back of his tongue before swallowing them with just a bit of water.
The brunette was ordered to lie down on his temporary own bed and the nurse and his mother were riding his through the corridors a minute later. With the elevator to the second floor, immediately to the left when they got out of the elevator. Right in front of two doors, above them the word 'HOLDING' could be read. Because Shindou was still officially underage the nurse asked if he wanted his mother to come with him, he refused. He was going to do this alone. His mother kissed him goodbye and wished him good luck and the nurse threw the doors open and pulled Shindou's bed inside. It was a small room between the actual holding and the rest of the hospital. She told him to wait for a moment while she vanished through the door before coming back and leading his bed further into the big room. The young patient was parked into the corner and once again told to wait. He observed his surroundings. To his right was another room he presumed, there was no door between them and he could see some doctors standing near the doorway, on the left of the doorless room was a door. On the other side of the room also stood some beds with people like him, being prepared to be cut open. Men and women walked around, wearing blue clothing, their hair kept together in nets. By the time he'd taken up most of the room the nurse had disappeared.
After a while a man with the same clothing as the other people in the room approached Shindou and introduced himself by shaking the boy's hand, but he forgot the man's name immediately. Explaining he was going to prepare him for surgery, he turned to his computer. "I have to follow the protocol and ask you these questions, you might be asked them again a lot of times today but that's the rule here." Shindou hummed in response. The man faced the computer screen.
"Your name is Shindou Takuto, is that right? And your date of birth?"
"Yes, twenty, seven, ninetynine."
"Good, and you're here for an operation on..."
There was a moment of silence.
"Your right leg, removing the osteosynthesis."
"Yes."
"Very good." He turned around on his chair, "then." He opened a drawer beneath the computer and took some plastic packages out. "I am going to apply the IV needle, but before that I need the veins in your arm to get a bit bigger." He took a polyester band, "we use this to get that effect." He fastened the band around the boy's arm and Shindou felt that it was really tight.
"With this tourniquet we limit the amount of blood going through your veins for a moment, resulting in an increase in size in your veins. That make it easier to find the vein and inject the needle." He explained. When the man was satisfied he opened one of the packages and retrieved a long needle from it. Before injecting it he cleaned a spot on Shindou's hand with some alcohol. Then he diagonally pushed in the needle, letting the end of it rest beneath the brunette's skin. It stinged, he had to admit. It hurt even though he never had any problems with needles. The tourniquet was removed from his arm.
The doctor dabbed some blood away from the plastic outfall on the other end of the needle and connected a tube to it. The tap was turned open and the fluids began to run into Shindou's bloodstream, washing the bit of blood away. Not that it felt different from the moment before they entered his body, he guessed that was a good thing. After securing the infusion with a couple of adhesive tape the tube was also bound to his hand. "In case you hit something with your hand and the needle moves, that can be quite painful. So we tend to tape it down." Shindou nodded, he was trying his hardest to be brave, smiling when he could.
He thought of his friends at school. It was Friday and half past seven now, school wouldn't have started yet. The brunette wondered if his teammates would think of him. He'd told them that he would be here this day, Tenma had reacted slightly dramatic. But that's Tenma for you alright. The rest just wished him good luck, even Sangoku and the gang who left Raimon last year took the effort to send him a text.
As mentioned before the hospital had a tight schedule even though it seemed they always end up being late. Well, that was for appointments with specialists. However it seemed like the holding was running in on time. Shindou had no moments to relax, the man came back after having walked off for a minute, transparent package in his hand. Filled with fluids.
"Those are the antibiotics, we're going to run those through your system to prevent infections. It's still really early so these just came out of the fridge. Your arm is going to feel a bit cold in a minute, that's the downside of being early." He connected the bag to the IV pole and made a few attachments Shindou couldn't see but felt his arm getting colder. Very slowly. "Also, if it feels too cold, tell me and I'll put the drip on a slower pace."
"No, I'm fine." Shindou insisted, shifting a bit uncomfortably.
"Then I'll move on to the electrodes. I'm going to stick two of these on your chest and the other on your side. We'll be able to monitor your heart rate during the surgery with these."
Shindou knew that, but was still glad they told him every little thing that they were doing.
Two electrodes were put a bit beneath his gown on his bare chest, the one on his left side was placed while lifting the blankets and his gown. The doctor straightened, "all ready then, your arm isn't too cold?" Shindou didn't know what to say anymore so he just shook his head.
"Good, then I'll get you some warm blankets since it'll be quite cold in the operation theatre. Then we'll wait for the surgeon." He walked off to return some minutes later with a pile of blankets in his arms. Putting them on Shindou's bed, he turned to the boy. "Are you cold?"
"No."
"Then I'll put the blankets under here to keep them warm." His blanket was raised as his foot board and he immediately felt the cold air of the big room, though it was soon replaced by the pile of warm blankets. It felt nice.
A hair net was put in his head to keep his brown wavy hair together. After arriving in the room having lost track of time, Shindou waited for someone to get him to the theatre. In the meantime he looked around some more. He had got a new neighbour. A woman had been brought in minutes ago, a pregnant woman Shindou figured. Probably here for a caesarean, however he would never know for sure.
Finally, a man walked through the doors of the corridor next to the room without doors and announced he was going to take Shindou to the theatre. After repeating all information about the now slightly nervous teen, he was handed over to the man who removed him from the corner he had been in all that time. The doors were pushed open and Shindou looked into the corridor before being ridden inside. The man talked gently to him.
"You know how anaesthetics goes. It's not possible to get an overdose, we'll constantly give you sedatives until the operation is finished. Then we'll stop them you'll wake up." Shindou knew that already and hummed in acknowledge. Slowing down and turning, the doors of O.R. 1 were opened and the boy was brought in. Three more people were already present in the room, one of them Shindou already knew as his surgeon. He had met her a few times during their consulting meeting. The man rode him to the middle of the room, next to the operation table. The Surgeon, doctor Watson patted him on his leg. "Today's the day, then." She said cheerfully, Shindou smiled back at her.
"You're going to sleep?"
"Yes."
"Good, we're going to get you ready before we'll pull you through the time out to make sure we haven't missed anything."
The blankets were pulled off and Shindou was helped on the operation table. There the electrodes were connected to the Electrocardiography monitor and he was covered by the warm blankets. The man shortly concluded that his heart rate was a bit higher than normal because he was clearly nervous. Another woman who introduced herself as assistant slipped an oximeter onto his finger. A device meant to measure the amount of oxygen on his blood. Those results were also shown on the ECG monitor as Shindou could see when he turned his head. His infusion pole was now on the left side of the table and his hospital bed was gone. Some kind of tights were slipped around his right leg as the blankets were slightly lifted. The surgeon disinfected his whole lower leg with iodine and fastened another tourniquet around it, leaving it brown-yellow before putting the blankets back. On each side on the table appeared two arm rests and Shindou's arms were guided onto them, slightly parted from his torso.
The man who took him to the operation room held an oxygen mask above his face. "We'll put on this mask during to operation to help you breathe. Do you feel the cool air?" The mask was lowered a little and Shindou lifted his head to sniff at the mask. He could feel the air flow around and into his nose.
"Yes."
The oxygen mask was removed from his sight and Dr. Watson stood by his side. "High time to start the time out." She announced.
"Your name is Shindou Takuto, you're born on the twentieth of July in nine hundred and ninety-nine. Is that right?"
"Yes," Shindou answered shortly.
"You're here for an operation on your right leg to remove a pin, you've marked the spot earlier. Correct?"
"Absolutely."
"Then let us begin."
The assistant appeared on Shindou's left side, holding a syringe with a white substance. "We're going to inject this into your infusion and then you'll fall asleep." Dr. Watson explained. The other young woman pressed onto the top of the syringe and Shindou turned his head to face the ceiling. A few seconds passed and just when he thought it wasn't working the ceiling turned hazy and dark. The boy didn't feel the oxygen mask being put on his face as he was pulled under.
