He was transferred over to a hospital bed in the emergency department.
Two nurses tag-teamed to check on him.
They introduced themselves to him and explained that they were going to go run through a few tests on him, and he nodded and introduced himself to them.
One of them looked at his hands and smiled, "Oh, I just adore Jenny… She always remember to put in two neat and juicy I.V. lines…"
Luca smiled, "Yeah, she was really good at that stuff. I certainly couldn't have done that in a moving vehicle, while having 50 other tasks to do as well…"
"Nah, she's one of our faves." the nurse to his right nodded.
"Airways are good." The nurse on his left smiled and picked up a stethoscope, "Now, I'm just going to listen to your chest and abdomen for a bit, alright?"
The other one placed an oximeter on his right index finger.
Luca nodded.
"Okay, can you take a deep breath and hold it for a second before letting it out?" the nurse on his left asked.
He did.
She nodded and moved the end of the stethoscope, "Again…"
He repeated.
"Okay, that's good." she nodded and move the stethoscope again, "Just going to listen to your heart for a bit, then to your abdomen."
Luca nodded.
She continued moving the stethoscope around until the other nurse butted in, "16 respirations per minute. Equal frequency and depth. Does not use accessory muscles. No stridor. SpO2 98%, no signs of cyanosis."
Luca smirked, he honestly hadn't noticed the other one focusing on him.
"Side-equal sounds upon auscultation." the one on the left nodded, and the one of the right jotted something down on a sheet of paper.
Then the one on the left pressed down on various places on his abdomen, asking if there was any extra discomfort while she did so.
The answer was no. She seemed satisfied with that answer. That nurse nodded to the other one, who wrote it down on her paper.
"I'm just going to feel your neck for a second."
Luca nodded.
"Trachea is midline." she announced and moved her hand away, "Breathing is sufficient."
"You're a bit pale, and you feel a bit clammy." the nurse on his right noted and he looked at her.
"Yeah, sorry. Got injured at work. Was sweating a lot at the moment this happened."
She nodded.
"And my leg hurts beyond belief," he continued, "I tend to turn pale pretty easily when I'm in pain…"
She nodded some more. "Yeah, some people are built like that... I'm just going to press down on your chest for a little, to see how long it takes for the small blood vessels in your skin to fill back up, alright?"
Luca nodded.
"CRT is right under 3 seconds." the nurse on his right said, before writing it down.
The nurse on his left then secured a blood pressure cuff around his arm, and announced that she would measure his blood pressure. "Do you know if you have elevated, normal or low blood pressure normally?"
"Pretty normal." Luca answered, "Last mandatory checkup I had a BP of 123 over 65."
"Those are pretty great numbers."
"On the way in here I was at 116 over 79."
The nurse nodded. She started checking it manually, so Luca decided it was time to shut up once again to give the nurse some quiet while she worked.
She pumped the cuff up three times and listened as she released the air from the cuff. Meanwhile the other nurse had her fingers on the pulse on his wrist.
"BP 116 over 83" The nurse on the left noted, and the one on the right wrote it down.
"Heartrate of 86. Frequency good. A little weak." The nurse on the right informed the other one, and wrote down her own findings as well.
"Okay skin temperature, a little pale, a little clammy."
Luca knew what all that was signs of. He was bleeding a bit. Not alarmingly much yet, he would have felt much worse then, but he was almost certain that a bag of A positive was in his future.
"Circulation is sufficient." The nurse on the left said. The 'for now' hung in the air.
"A on the ACVPU." The one on the right said as she wrote it down, and the other one pulled out a pen light.
"PEARL is okay."
The one on the right marked that down. "And 15 on the GCS."
"Yeah," the one on the left agreed, before looking down at him, "Can you move one of your arms a bit for me?"
Luca did.
"Yeah, 15."
Luca smirked.
"Do you have any blood sugar related illnesses?"
"Nope."
"Okay, that's good." The nurse on the right nodded, "But I hope you don't mind us checking it anyways."
"Do what you must." Luca nodded, presenting his hand to her.
She cleaned off his finger, prepped the scanner and the lancet. Donned her gloves. "Okay, slight sting."
He nodded and she pressed the spring.
She wiped off the first tiny blood drop, and let a second one form on its own, before she let the strip soak it up. Then she placed the monitor down and handed him a cotton ball.
"127,8 mg/dL." She announced as she wrote it down.
"Isn't that really high?" Luca couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Have you fasted since yesterday?"
"No."
"When was the last thing you ate, and what was it?"
"We had a big breakfast today. Pancakes, eggs and bacon." Luca thought back, "Maple syrup, milk and coffee."
"And when was this?"
"Around 7," he shrugged, "Two and a half hours ago… -And then I had some juice, an apple and one of those small packs of raisins on the way out to the job. That's like an hour ago or so…"
"Then I wouldn't consider your blood sugar abnormally high." The nurse winked, "You're not fasting, and semi recently ate a big meal. Under 140 would be okay just on those premises. Besides physical stress, like a hip injury, can cause glucose levels to rise."
"I've always heard it should be between 72 and 108…" Luca shrugged.
"Fasting, for non-diabetics, normal values are between 70 and 110…" the nurse nodded, "But we just cleared up that you're not exactly fasting."
Luca nodded a little.
"Now," the nurse on his left started, "On a scale from 1 to 10… Where 1 is no pain, and 10 is worst im-"
"6…" Luca beat her to it, "6 when I'm laying completely still and don't have pressure on or near my hip. Spikes up to 9, maybe 9,5 if my hip or knee gets jostled. Actually, make that a 4 on the laying still part. Meds have started to kick in. Haven't been jostled around since. Not sure about the second number."
"You've done this before…" the nurse smirked, "And it shows."
Luca shrugged a little as the nurse on the right made her notes.
"Disability is sufficient." the nurse on the left noted, the one on the right nodded.
The nurse on the right went away for a moment and came back with a wash bowl and some hospital clothes. "Okay then we have to do a visual exam of you, and we need to get you into some more practical clothes."
Luca nodded, slightly terrified from the idea of taking off his pants or putting on new underwear. -Or simply even having the splint removed.
"Let's start with your shirt…" the nurse said, and both the nurses donned their gloves. Then she told him to just relax when he started tugging his shirt upward.
The two nurses reached behind his back and pulled the shirt up behind his back and over his head.
He smiled, "Okay, that was prolly easier…"
The nurse on the left nodded, "It usually is…"
"That's a pretty nasty bruise you have there…" the nurse on the right said and pointed to his right shoulder.
"Yeah, three days old. Nothing to bother about…" Luca nodded.
"How'd you get it?"
"Sparring with one of my colleagues." Luca answered, "She got in a real high roundhouse kick on me."
"I'm impressed." the nurse on the left nodded.
Luca nodded, "She's one of the best fighters I know."
The nurse on the right walked away and filled up the water bowl. When she came back, she grabbed the cloth laying over the hospital gown. "Want to wipe your face a little on your own?"
Luca nodded and took the rag. Then he wiped his face and neck. Then he handed it back to the nurse, who dipped the cloth back in the water and wrung it up. Then handed it back to Luca.
Luca wiped over his chest, abdomen and under his arms. Then gave the cloth back to the nurse to rinse it.
Next time he got it he wiped down his arms, being careful with the butterfly strips over the cut on his arm.
Then he handed the rag back to the nurse. She wrung it up. "Just let us help you sit up a bit so that we can wipe down your back."
Luca nodded and let the women lift him a bit up.
Luca's breath hitched.
"How's your pain?"
"7,8…" Luca admitted.
And the nurses laid him back down after they were done washing his back.
Then they draped the hospital gown over his arms and down to his waist.
"Do you want us to cut your pants and underwear off, or do you want us to try to peel them off you?"
"Just cut them." Luca shrugged, "My pants are already cut up, and my work paid for them anyway…"
The nurse on the right nodded, then looked at the other nurse, "You start untying the cravats, I'll go find some more morphine for this guy."
"Nah, I don't need it…" Luca shook his head.
"You'll probably be begging for it in a minute or so…" the nurse on the left shot in, "We will jostle you a bit now."
"Alright, okay…" Luca nodded.
The nurse on the right nodded and went off to find a syringe.
SWATSWATSWAT
The new shot hadn't kicked in when they started taking off his pants. And yeah, if he hadn't already gotten the extra shot, he would have been begging for it.
They had tied his legs loose from each other, and were in the middle of clipping his pants off. He breathed hard as he tried to remain in the same position he had been laying in the whole time.
When they had clipped the entire length of both his pantlegs, the one on the left stabilized his thigh and hips, while the other one gently tugged the pants and underwear out from under him.
"Would you want to wash yourself, or?"
Luca shook his head, beads of sweat was forming at his forehead.
"Okay, I wash, you check his hip and knee closer." The one on the right said to the one on the left, and started to wash his privates. Wrung the cloth up after dipping it in the water again, and washed his right thigh, then his left thigh.
Rinse and wring out, and then she washed his legs, before she finished off washing his feet.
Then she requested the help of the other nurse to get the mesh underwear on him. They stopped when the underwear was sorta up, but still had a few inches left before being fully up. The nurse on the left picked up a pack of what could be best described as medical-grade babywipes, and placed them within reach, then the nurse on the right placed thick pillows between his legs.
"Alright, we're going to turn you towards me, so that Alexandra can wash your seat, and take your temperature." she explained it very slowly, as if that would help him understand that refusing wasn't an option.
He managed not to cry out when he was rolled over, he didn't flinch as the thermometer entered or was removed a few seconds later. And the washing was actually kind of nice. Very unusual, but also kind of nice.
Then the nurses spoke between themselves, Luca didn't really follow any more. Between the pain and the way his mind floated from the opiates in his system, it wasn't easy.
He barely noticed the new underwear was pulled all the way up in the back, and that the nurses said they would let him lay back down. He only let out a displeased grunt as something in his hip seared. He didn't notice the glove changes, or most of the other small talk between the nurses. Barely heard something about exposure and enviroment, he didn't catch what it was.
One of the nurses checked his pulse again, on his foot and behind his ankle. "All good."
The other one explained that she would check his blood pressure again. He barely paid it any attention.
The nurse on the right was suddenly above him, talking directly to him. And he had to fight to focus. "How are you feeling?"
Luca actually had to think.
Tired? Nauseous? In pain? Dizzy?
"I don't know…"
An amused smirk crept onto her lips, "You're not exactly a heavyweight when it comes to drugs, are you?"
He shook his head. He could drink like most the other guys on the team, but drugs noticeably stronger than over the counter painkillers had a way of getting to him.
"How's your pain?"
He lazily held up two fingers.
"A 2?"
He nodded.
"And when we jostled you around?"
"Five…" he shrugged, "I'm tired…"
The nurse nodded, "Try to rest some, we'll look after you."
He nodded lazily.
