"Nice work, everything clean on your end I take it" Eric said greeting them on their return to the plane
"Yes sir, everything was clean on our end" Jason said confidentiality
"Jess was able to help with your little problem I take it" Eric asked quietly after making sure no one else was around
"Not exactly sir, more like Jay did" Ray responded, the look on Eric's face suddenly changed to concern realising that they hadn't talked to Jess at all
"He trained her after all, and we only had one shot at the call, he's wiped the log from her phone, she won't even know we called, I didn't think it was a problem" Critter said explaining why he had spoken to Jay instead
"He say anything else" Eric asked
"Only that he'll see us when we get back" Critter responded
"Sir, Jay knows the rules, that us contacting Jess was not SOP and complete off the record" Metal said
"I'm not worried about Jay Turner's ability to keep a mission secret, he done 35 years playing this game, he probably has more secrets he's keeping than the rest of us combined about his time in the field" Eric said now sounding irritated by Metal's comment, he knew Jay would take a secret to his grave if required
"If you are worried about why Tinkerbell didn't answer her phone, she was in the head freshening up, and Luca was probably helping her" Critter said to Eric
"You were hoping for an update weren't you sir" Trent asked sensing the real reason for Eric's irritation over the whole situation might have been an ulterior motive
"Last update I received is at least 48 hours old, I thought at least if you could see her face, you'd be able to tell me how she's coping" Eric said coming clean on the reason for his irritation
"What did the update say" Brock asked eager to find out what he could in case Laura had contacted him, he didn't want to be completely in the dark
"She was being booked in for surgery to correct a blockage in her bile duct, and to do the mastectomy surgery that was planned for after our next deployment was completed, that she's got a bout of mono as well and potentially pancreatitis, and that her kidneys were starting to struggle with everything that was going on, and they're still waiting for more test results to come back" Eric said giving them the shortened version of the update
"So they couldn't find any tumours" Clay asked
"They found a small mass in her right breast, they were taking care of it with the mastectomy surgery however" Eric said responding to Clay's questions
"Wasn't that the surgery where they were going to cut Bookworm's boobs off" Sonny asked curiously, he never understood all the fancy medical terminology that was used at times
"Yes Sonny, that's what the surgery was" Trent said not surprised by Sonny's question
"So Bookworm gonna have fake ones instead" Sonny asked looking at Trent for the answer
"No Sonny, she's not, Jess had chosen to remain flat chested after the surgery because artificial implants can cause a lot of problems with developing leaks or getting damaged, and to take a muscle graft would leave the risk of cancer still developing in the area, and she probably wouldn't have had the skin left to handle a reconstruction, however she hasn't ruled out using a lightweight prosthesis for formal occasions, it wouldn't be for everyday use on the base or in the field. They probably removed her gallbladder as well, I know that Doctor Masterson had raised that as being an option Luca told me, Jess's dietary restrictions were going to put her at increased risk of developing stones that could possibly cause a blockage, which could easily lead to infection, and if to much bile was being released at once it can cause upsets, now the gallbladder isn't there to hold the bile till it's needed by the stomach to help break down the food she's eating, it flows straight in in smaller amounts, it should be easier on her body to handle" Trent said explaining what he knew about Jess's preference after she had had the mastectomy surgery, and what was going on with her gallbladder
"That's all you know" Eric asked looking at Trent
"If I knew anything else then I'd tell you sir, let's just hope we get another update in flight" Trent said hopefully looking around the group
"How long before we're wheels up Blackburn" Jason asked sensing that everyone was now eager to get moving
"1 hour if everything is ready" Eric said looking around the group, support were already going through the process of loading everything up, all the others had to do was shower and get on the plane
"We'll be ready to go" Jason said firmly, they would all be ready if everyone pitched in to help
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"Any further update yet Blackburn" Clay asked eager to find out, Eric had been called to the cockpit by a member of the planes crew, he'd just emerged and was walking back to his seat where the operators were all sitting
"She had the surgery, that all went fine, they're predicting a 6-8 week recovery from the surgery and return to full duty" Eric said as he sat down in the empty seat
"That's not too bad then" Jason said optimistically
"That's probably the best news of the lot, the mono has been confirmed, along with the pancreatitis, and they've put her back on dialysis to rest her kidneys as well as putting in what they call Nephrostomy tubes to drain the urine straight from her kidneys so they're not trying to filter it themselves" Eric said, he had briefly looked up what nephrostomy tubes are before he'd come back from the cockpit, they were basically thin catheter tubes inserted through your back and into the kidney and were attached to drainage bags, Jess wouldn't be able to lay on her back with the tubes in, she'd be laying on her side, not that that probably worried her as she was well known for being a side sleeper
"The mass they found" Brock asked
"It was malignant, they called it a leiomyosarcoma, it's a form of aggressive soft tissue sarcoma, it's what she had last time as well, apparently pathology misdiagnosed it, unfortunately the cancer has a high chance of coming back down the track, and it doesn't respond well to chemotherapy and radiation" Eric said relaying what he'd been told
"So it's terminal" Ray asked silently saying a prayer that it wasn't
"Hopefully not for a while yet, but it is in some of her lymph nodes as well, and they found cells in her left breast as well as the right, along with the small mass they found, and her leukaemia is back as well" Eric said, that feeling of being kicked in the gut he had on the last deployment when he'd been called to the infirmary to be informed that Jess had first been diagnosed was definitely back
"Okay, none of this sounds like a great outcome for Jess, highly aggressive tumours that's now in her lymph nodes, and there's also cancer in her blood and bone marrow" Jason said, he noted that Critter had remained unusually quiet after hearing the diagnosis
"Aubree has offered to do a briefing and training session for anyone in the DEVGRU family who is interested in attending as soon as we get back, chance for all of us to ask questions about Jess's condition, what we can expect to see happen, apparently Jess has had a new port set-up placed so she's willing to take us through accessing the port, setting up TPN, apparently there's a new tube formula she's using, so how to prepare it" Eric said informing them of the offer that had been made by the nurse who had been put in charge of making sure Jess had all the help and support she needed in and out of the hospital setting
"So basically how we can help pitch in" Clay asked
"Basically, from what Lindell could gather anyway" Eric said
"I asked her about potentially doing one for us anyway, obviously before all this happened, chance to talk to her and maybe Chelsea as well, I mean I normally get taken through a lot of this stuff anyway, but Aubree knows that the rest of you probably feel a bit lost and shut out at times" Trent said explaining that this session had already been planned to occur
"How'd she know that's how we've been feeling" Ray asked surprised
"She's seen it happen before, when her older brother was severely injured. He was a ranger and suffered a massive hypoxic brain injury in a chopper crash, he was left completely paralyzed down one side of his body, his other leg was so messed up with compromised blood flow they ended up amputating it just below the hip, he had the mentality of a 3 year old I think she said and he was non verbal, he required round the clock care. She saw the affect it had on her parents, tore them apart and her dad left, he wanted to put him in a nursing home, her mum wanted to bring him home and look after him, so Aubree came back from the front to help, she saw how the nurses kept shutting people out who wanted to help her brother like his teammates, she even felt left out at times she said" Trent said, Aubree had been quite open about discussing what happened to her brother, had photos of them together in her office, from both before his accident and after,
"So she decided to take on the job, doing this type of stuff" Metal asked impressed, he knew that Luca thought quite highly of the young nurse, so did Trent and even Jess spoke the same about her
"After her brother passed, she decided to use her experience to help others, especially as it's just her and her mum now she didn't want to go back to front line nursing, she says any nurse is capable of saving a life, but to have the ability to really make a difference in helping a person learn to function again after a life changing experience, it takes someone special" Trent said, he admired Aubree's dedication to her job, the authenticity she had, this wasn't just a job to her, it was a passion to make a real difference using her own experience to help
"Couldn't have said it better myself Trent, Aubree can count me in for being at the session, Lindell is driving up for it as well" Eric said, he had always wondered how Aubree had seemed familiar with the SPECOPS lifestyle, and how she'd seemed so experienced and skilled at her job the couple of times they'd spoken, she seemed to always be 2 steps ahead on identifying the support Jess needed when a problem was identified, now Eric knew how she done it
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