Concussed
Chapter 3
Surprisingly Jay had slept through the night and he woke up to Kim looking down at him with her big hazel eyes, kissing him awake further when his eyes opened.
His phone beeped suddenly, and he hoped, even prayed, it wasn't work. Instead it was from his brother who had snapped a picture of the two of them lying in Kim's hospital bed. He had to admit they looked good even while asleep.
"Who texted?"Kim asked curiously, wondering what put a smile on her boyfriend's face.
"Just Will." He replied, and he showed her the picture.
"That's sweet." Kim admitted softly. "Hopefully I can go home today."
"Let me go and see what I can do." Jay declared impatiently. He wanted Kim to come home too. He walked quickly down to the Information Station at the entrance to the Emergency Department.
"Hey Ethan!" He called to his friend and the Chief of the ED. "Who do I need to talk to about taking Kim home today?" He asked friendly, turning off his police interrogation mode.
"Well the neurologist is coming in at 11, so I'll have him stop by and see if he can discharge her today if he is happy with her test results." Dr. Ethan Choi informed him.
"How is Kim feeling?" He asked, curious about his friend Kim. Everybody who worked on the front lines in Chicago worked in a tight knit circle of first responders and were at the very least, familiar with most of the people who served the city. And Kim, having been a cop in the city for a long time before she moved to the Intelligence unit, was in the ED a couple times a month.
"Tell Kim I said hi and that I hope she is doing better." Ethan told Jay as he received a text on his pager. "Sure, thanks Ethan." Jay replied.
Until the neurologist came in, Jay could get her a decent breakfast to help pass the time.
"I was wondering where you were." She teased him as he came back into her room. He put her coffee and bagel on the table that lay across her lap, and pushed the button to make the bed go into a sitting position.
"Ethan says the neurologist will be in around 11 am." Jay spoke while Kim was eating. "How are you feeling? Maybe you can come home today?" He said with a sheepish smile. Kim could tell he wanted her home as much as she wanted to go home. Or go home to Jay's apartment she should clarify. It had become their hope by default, but they had never discussed it.
"Good morning Kim. I'm Dr. Morgan." He introduced himself as he came in the room, grabbing some sanitizer and her chart. "I know you are anxious to go home so lets see your CT scan."
"So like Dr. Halstead stated yesterday, there is some inflammation around your brain from a couple of concussions on top of each other." Dr. Morgan explained as he pointed to the image of her brain on the light board.
"I would like to keep monitoring you once a week to make sure nothing pops up and give you a week or two off work to rest your brain, and come to physical therapy here at the hospital." He continued further.
"For now, I want you to rest, no reading, no computer work, no working out or strenuous activity, dim lights, quiet spaces." Dr. Morgan instructed her. "No driving
"Do you have someone to stay with to keep an eye on you?" He asked seriously before he would sign the discharge papers. "She's stuck with me." Jay volunteered to the doctor.
Dr. Morgan added, "If at any time you feel dizzy or light headed, or actually pass out please come in immediately." He passed over the discharge papers for her to sign. "And you will start physical therapy for concussion rehab tomorrow at 9am at Gaffney Physical Therapy."
"Have fun at Brain Camp." Jay said laughing,that is what Kim was calling her physical therapy. He dropped Kim off at the hospital for her physical therapy in the morning, and her counseling session in the afternoon. Will was going to drive her home afterwards while Jay finished his shift up at Intelligence.
At the 21st District Police Station
Jay was greeted only with "How's Kim?" questions as he came into the bullpen. First Trudy, then the team. He didn't mind really, because they all loved Kim so he answered their questions until Hank presented a case for them.
"Hey Jay, a word?" Hank asked the detective to come into his office. Jay followed his boss, hoping he didn't seem too distracted to be at work. He wanted to be here, especially since he couldn't be with Kim at the hospital right now.
"What's up Sarge?" He asked as he shut the door. Hank gestured to the chair. Oh, it was going to be one of the chats. A longer than usual chat, which meant not a chewing out chat, thought Jay.
"How are you doing?" Hank surprised him with that question. "I know all of this must be difficult." "Yeah", he agreed. "I just want things back to normal." He settled into the leather backed seat.
"How's Kim?" Hank followed up. "A little tired of all of this, she wants to get back to work. But she's not cleared yet, hopefully just a few more days of Brain camp."
"Brain camp?" The older man questioned curiously, repeating the phrase, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows.
Jay laughed. "Yeah, Kim calls her concussion physical therapy brain camp." he replied. "Casey is in her class, so that will help keep her entertained. She was up late last night making t-shirts."
BACK AT BRAIN CAMP...
"Hey Matt!" Kim greeted cheerfully, genuinely happy to see a familiar face.
"Hi Kim." He returned the greeting, hoping that she would help make therapy go a little faster.
"Come in." Caleb and Tiffany were welcome faces to see and Kim gave them both a hug. "Hey guys, I would say I'm happy to see you but…" she trailed off with a laugh.
"This is my friend Matt, he's the captain over at Station 51. The handsome firefighter shook hands with both therapists.
"We are ready to be tortured." He joked, trying to hide the fact that he and Kim were a little bit nervous. "So Kim did tell you about us." Caleb joked, interlocking his hands in front of him and cracking his knuckles in a show of false intimidation.
"Yeah, Matt was one of the guys who rescued Jay and I from the crushed van." Kim explained quietly, that memory still shook her. The man she talked about reached over and gently squeezed her arm in support. He could tell she was still affected by the memory as it was a very traumatic one.
It had been a routine call up till Stella realized that there were people stuck in the building that had collapsed, and then to find out the people were Jay and Kim. It had been a long, emotional night and he was grateful that the miracle they had needed had come through. Kim and Jay had come out in bad shape, Kim taking the brunt of some serious injuries. It had taken them over 12 hours to get them out of the van and to Chicago Med and both Jay and KIm had even gone back to work.
"Follow us." Tiffany invited them from the waiting room into the gym area, where they got the tour. "We're going to take some baseline tests and then we'll get started with some exercises and treatment." she explained more thoroughly.
Caleb found two patient tables next to each other and chose those figuring it would put Kim and Matt at ease. The gym area was a light gray with light blue striping, white crown molding and light brown wood cabinets for storage. Workout equipment was spread out throughout the space.
"Okay so what symptoms have you been experiencing?" Caleb asked Matt and TIffany asked Kim, typing their notes into their computers.
"Dizziness." Kim stated
"Headaches." Matt added.
"Nausea.", continued Kim.
"Fatigue." declared Matt
"Forgetting." Kim said simply.
" Ringing in the ears." Matt mentioned.
" I passed out yesterday." Kim announced.
"Our first exercise is to check your balance. You are going to stand on one leg for 30 seconds." Caleb said before starting the stopwatch.
"That was harder than I thought it would be." Matt declared laughing. "Maybe if someone wasn't laughing so hard." He continued with a knowing look to Kim, who just shrugged it off with an innocent face. "Who me?"
"Maybe if you weren't making so many funny faces I wouldn't have started laughing." Kim teased the firefighter.
Tiffany brought over two balls that looked like they were cut in half and glued to a rubber board. They were called Bosu, short for Both Sides Up. "These are to help stabilize your core and help you regain your balance. Stand up on them and you are going to toss a ball back and forth thirty times." She explained their next exercise and her and Caleb stepped back to watch their form but close enough in case one of them started to fall.
"Great job!" praised Caleb. "Keep throwing, now every time you catch the ball name something that starts with the letter g." He directed, turning this exercise into more than a physical activity.
"Grass."
"Ginger."
"Glow."
"Giraffe."
"Gift."
"Glove."