Ranma's Flu
8
As the trio left, both Ranma and the nurses watched them go and close the door after them. Ranma started coughing.
"I'll be back", the nurse whispered in the laboratorian's ear. She was waiting for the machine on the cart finish with measuring the CRP stats. After she was gone, suddenly Ranma gagged and covered his mouth with his hand. The laboratorian flinched and just managed to give the boy the bucket of cold water the other nurse had brought. He gagged and coughed hard. As he managed to aim his vomit in the bucket, the cold water in it splashed everywhere. There was blood mixed in it.
The other nurse arrived, carrying two IV fluid bags, antibiotics and blood. She flinched when she saw the vomit-blood-water mix scattered on the bed and a bit on the floor.
"Oh dear..." she sighed. "We must change you covers and pajamas."
The nurse got herself a wheelchair and parked it next to the bed. Ranma sat up and got in the wheelchair.
Everything went just like a few days ago – Ranma had some trouble being showered by a female nurse, all naked and so on. But he didn't let that stop her. After he was clean and dry, they returned to room four. The nurse helped Ranma sit on his bed, and this was when the laboratorian returned.
"Your CRP is high, not alarming though", the laboratorian nodded. "Now we should get the urine sample. Would you mind if I help you with it?"
"... What do you mean 'help me with it'...?" Ranma mumbled his eyes half closed. The nurse undestood what he was trying to say.
"Okay, there is a way you can do it alone, IF you can get up and sit down on a commode chair by yourself."
"W...what is a commode chair?"
"Like a portable plastic toilet seat. Wait, I'll bring you one", and she left again.
Ranma waited. He stared at the clock above the door. About 5:30 AM. He hadn't slept a minute.
Soon the nurse came with a white commode chair and placed it right next to the bed.
"So!" she smiled. "Just sit on this and do your thing. After you're done, call us."
"M...mmh..." Ranma mumbled quietly.
And he waited. And waited. No pee anywhere. Then a nurse peeked in from the door.
"...Are you awake?" she whispered.
"Yea", Ranma mumbled and coughed once
"Have you perhaps managed to pee?"
"Nah."
"Hmm..." the nurse hummed and walked to the boy. The looked at the bucket under the commode chair. Yep, it was empty. "...May I ask you, when did you pee the last time?"
"Dunno..." Ranma mumbled, closed his eyes and yawned. "...But now thatya mention it... It has been a few days..."
"W-what?!" the nurse shouted out in horror. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I... didn't think it was necessary..."
"Thank Lord you told us now!" the nurse looked horrified. "I will go tell a doctor at once!" She rushed out of the room.
'My ass...' Ranma grunted in his head. He yawned and curled up inside his blanket. He felt grumpy. Sick. Tired. In pain. Was there no way to get better?
No. An hour went by. And Ranma had just feeling he was getting worse. He had trouble breathing, and his chest, throat and lungs were killing him. He was coughing up blood, and the kidney dish he had in front of his face was almost filled with blood.
Then the nurse came back with a doctor after her.
"So, Saotome Ranma", the doctor said and walked to the boy's bedside. "I heard some bad news about your bladder."
"...What are ya gonna do then?" Ranma asked quiet, eyes half closed.
"We will place a catheter in your bladder to let the urine out. But don't worry..." he said, put on vinyl examintation gloves from a box on the wall, "I will do it."
"Hm? Do what?"
"Here we have this tube", he said and showed the boy a thin but long plastic tube. "I will insert this in your penis slowly. I must be honest, it will probably be a pit uncomfortable..."
"No. No way. Not gonna happen", Ranma flinched his eyes wide.
"Boy, you must understand you are in danger. We must get the urine out of your bladder before it bursts, since if that happens, you will find yourself from the ICU, barely alive."
"Uhh..." Ranma looked at the nurse, then the doctor. "Okay then. But do it fast."
"Note that it is the best to do it slow and sure."
The nurse handed a plastic, transparent bag to the doctor. She left, and the doctor got down to work.
This was maybe the most horrible thing Ranma had ever felt in his whole life. His pants were pulled down and... Let's not talk about it.
Thank God it was finally over. The doctor pulled the boy's pants back up and pet his chest.
"That went well", he nodded with a smile.
The plastic bag was hung from the bed's side, and it had started slowly filling with urine.
As Ranma wasn't sleeping, he could hear a knock on the door. A nurse peeked in.
"Now I can take some urine from you, so we get all the tests done", she smiled. But suddenly Ranma gagged harsh. He covered his mouth with his hands, and started coughing blood. So much it spilled out from under his hands and scattered everywhere.
"Doctor!" the ruse shouted, standing at the door. Ranma kept coughing, but suddenly it started turning from coughing to vomiting. After calling the doctor, the nurse quickly rushed to the boy's side and put a new kidney dish in front of his mouth. He felt like choking. She pat his side, making blood spill on her nurse's gown.
The doctor rushed in.
"Ranma! Ranma, can you hear me?" he shouted, patting his side. "He needs more blood. Take an another CRP-test immediately!"
Time went by. But how long? Ranma didn't know. Something weird was happening. Ranma opened and closed his eyes slowly. Everything seemed blurry, sepia shaded.
"Ranma...?" He heard a male voice echoing call from somewhere. He could see a light in front of his eyes. "Ranma... Can you hear me...?"
The boy moaned and coughed some more blood, staining the man's face. Ranma turned on his side and could see doors going by fast. He turned back on his back and could see lights go by. He could hear people talking and shouting, touching and holding him from here and there. Like he was being pushed around. He could feel and hear the bed clanking. Then he heard metallic doors open and close. Where was he? He didn't know, but they were all standing in an elevator. There were lots of nurses and doctors standing beside him. He turned on his right side and vomited up a huge blob of blood on the bed's mattress.
"Ranma! Ranma, hold my hand!" one doctor ordered and grabbed the boy's hand. He passed out.
Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...
Ranma bit his lip and moaned. He was in immense pain. But where was he? He could hear all kinds of machines beeping and people talking. He started coughing. And immediately a nurse ran to him.
"Good morning, Ranma..." she smiled, stroking the boy's cheek. "Do you know where you are?" She waited for the answer for a while. "You are in the ICU. You were transferred here in the small hours from the children's infection ward." He coughed some more. He felt tubes on his chest and in the nose, a nasal cannula and in the right nostril, a nasogastric feeding tube. He heard the oxygen hiss.
"...Does it hurt? Can I do anything for you?" She grabbed a kleenex from a box on the night stand and wiped the boy's face carefully from the blood. He didn't answer, just coughed weakly.
"Hm, don't you know me?" the nurse smiled, sad. "You remember your first night here a few days ago? I was there. Open your eyes, you'll know my hair."
Slowly Ranma opened his eyes, and yes, he recognized her – that short, red hair.
"But I guess you don't want a Nutridrink now, hm?"
As Ranma didn't react, the nurse turned around.
"I'll come back soon, just a minute."
Ranma had trouble breathing. The nasal cannula was really needed. He started looking around. There were blue curtains around his bed, some beeping machines beside him, tubes here and there, and some drip bags, hanging from the drip stand.
The nurse returned with two bags – one red, filled with blood, and other filled with some brownish liquid.
"Here we have some blood for you", the nurse said changed the previous, now empty blood bag hanging from the drip stand. "And here, some Nutrison. It's practically the same as Nutridrink, but this is used for IV drip", she spoke as she hung up the nutrition bag too. Now there were three bags: blood, Nutrison and some antibiotics.
The nurse hassled around the boy. He chaged him a new catheter bag, checked his fever and wrote down what the machine screens showed. Ranma was sweating like crazy. His pajama's shirt was taken off, and this 'red-hair' nurse wiped his chest with cold, wet towel. Then suddenly someone peeked in behind the curtain. It was a doctor.
"Good morning, Ranma", he greeted. "How are you feeling?"
No answer.
"You are now in the ICU. Do you know why?"
Yet again, no answer.
"You suddenly got very sick in the small hours, about four hours ago. We rushed you here. We're sorry to tell you, but you have sepsis. If we had come to you just half an hour later, you would be dead."
"M-m-mom... Da...daddy..." Ranma mumbled, quiet and confusingly. Nurse and the doctor stared each other, sighing.
Back at the Tendo dojo.
"I want to come with you to the hospital", said Akane. Everyone in the Tendo dojo were having their breakfast in the living room.
"And I will drive you there", Soun ate his porridge.
"I hope we get him back with us", Nodoka nodded. "Dear, could you maybe call the ward and ask how he is doing?"
"Yes", the man said, grabbed his phone and called the hospital. "Hello, this is Genma Saotome. My son Ranma is there in your ward... What do you mean not? ...Where then?" And Genma went all quiet. "A-are you kidding...? That cannot be! I-I... W-We'll be there... right away!"
Genma placed the phone on the table. He said nothing, just stared at the floor with huge eyes.
"What is it, dear? Is something wrong?" Nodoka asked, worried.
"Ranma is in the ICU."
Everyone got quiet.
"R-Ranma... ICU?" Akane stammered. "Can we go see him?"
"Yes... We'll be leaving right away", Genma nodded.
"My son... Sepsis..." Genma mumbled, sitting in the car. They were on their way to the hospital, him, Soun, Akane and Nodoka. The lady was clearly holding back tears.
They parked the car and walked in from the main doors. Soun saw the hospital map on the wall, and they saw where the ICU was. Second floor. There it was, a metallic door with letters ICU. They walked in... There were no rooms, just a long corridor with beds seperated by curtains.
"Excuse me. We are looking for my son Ranma. He's 16, a long, black braid... And they told me he's got sepsis. Where is he?" Genma asked a nurse.
"Follow me", she said and took the lead. Finally they found Ranma. They all stopped when they saw the boy, laying on his bed, in tubes and an oxygen mask.
"Is he unconcious?" Genma whispered in the nurses ear.
"No, just asleep", she answered. "You should let him sleep. We can call you when he wakes up, so that you can come here."
"Right..." Genma rubbed his neck. "Shall we go to the café?"
Everyone nodded. They left the ICU with slow steps, Saotomes sorry to leave their son behind.
"...My Ranma..." Nodoka sobbed. Genma placed his arm over her shoulders and hugged her.
At the café the adults took just coffees and Akane took an ice tea. They sat down and started drinking... all silent. Nobody said a word. When suddenly:
"I want to buy something for him", Akane said. She got up from her chair and walked away. There was a small giftshop just next to the café. She looked around and finally found a nice Winnie the Pooh -card. Then she saw a nice, little bouquet of flowers. She took them and went to the counter, paid... but one thing!
"Would you have a pen? I want this card to be signed", Akane asked. The lady behind the counter gave the girl a ballpoint pen. The girl signed "Get well soon" and her name. Now just the parents.
"I'll be back in a minute!" the girl said and jogged back to the café. "Dad! Here, I want you to sign this", she smiled as she handed over the card and the pen to his father. When he was done, he gave the card to Genma, who also signed it. He handed over the card to his wife. She took it and just stared at it. Her hands started shaking, and she burst in tears. But she managed to sign it.
For a while they just sat there. Should they just go home? If Ranma wouldn't wake up from his sleep before evening? Just when they started to get up and about to leave the whole hospital, Genma's cellphone rang.
"Genma Saotome", he answered. For a while we was all quiet. When finally:
"Okay. Thank you." And shut the phone.
"Hm? Well?" Soun wondered.
"Ranma is awake."