Hello darlings, it's valentines day.
And therefore it is Alex and Kim's birthday. Better write something then. (And try to post it before the end of Feb.14th.)
Cutting open that knee felt like opening a can of worms. The scans had looked bad, but he still hadn't expected the old scar tissues to look this bad on such a young man. Nor had he expected the tear of the patella tendon and the Sartorius muscle to be as frayed.
"This kid's just a few steps away from a total knee replacement…" Pete frowned as he looked up at one of the other doctors on his team, Eugene. "Without these new injuries, this thing's gotta hurt constantly…"
"Just look at the wear on the backside of this patella…" Eugene West noted as he lifted the kneecap using forceps. "A such young knee shouldn't look this bad…"
"No. It shouldn't…" Pete nodded, "We patch him up. As best as we can. And then when he's awake, I can ask if he would like a knee replacement soon. It's not sure he'll go for that surgery yet. I've known a few knuckleheads in my time…"
"One of them being our very own Jack Dalton?"
"Yeah, one of them." Pete nodded, "Still don't understand how someone put themselves through this though…"
Dr. West nodded, "I'm just grateful that this is not my leg. Can you imagine all that pain?"
Pete sighed and stared at Eugene with a glare that simply asked 'how dense are you?' before he looked down at his prosthetic. "You're asking the wrong man…"
"Shit, sorry. Forgot." Eugene West grimaced behind his mask.
"Don't worry, it's usually not that bad anymore. But when I got injured in the first place, oh man…"
"Can I get the graft for the PCL?" Pete requested as he looked over at one of the nurses that had prepared the graft for him.
MACGYVERxLAB
"How do you think it's going?" Kim asked as he tapped his right hand on his thigh, he never really got used to this part of the job. When you're helplessly sidelined and unable to make a difference for someone. And it was even worse when it was your brother you couldn't help.
"It's going just fine…" Jack drawled. He stopped to inhale slowly and reposition the ice bag that was draped over his shoulder. "Pete's a great doctor."
Mac nodded to confirm it.
"Yeah, but…" Kim shook his head a little bit, "I'm just worried. I mean, how many times can a knee be wrecked before it can't be fixed again?"
Mac shrugged, "Depends on the injury, and genes I guess. We're all different when it comes to how fast and well we heal. Age also makes a difference."
"I don't think Thing 2 needed a lesson…" Jack shot in, "He's a smart kid. You just need someone to tell you it'll be alright huh?"
Letting out a shy laugh, Kim nodded. "Sure as hell don't mind you just telling me that…"
"See?" Jack nodded towards Mac while he gestured to Kim, then he looked back at Kim, "It'll be alright kid, your brother will be fine. He's just gonna have to take it easy for some time."
"Alex? Taking it easy?" Kim chuckled, "I'm still waiting for that to actually happen."
Jack smirked.
"How about you?" Kim changed the subject, "How are you feeling about the surgery you'll have later?"
Jack looked down at his shoulder and frowned. "I'm not looking forward to it. But I'm looking forward to being done with it…"
"Makes sense…" Kim nodded, "How is the pain now? Is that bag helping?"
"It's dulling it down…" Jack tilted his head to look at the cold pack.
"And the pain level…?"
"About a 4…" Jack answered before his lips formed a thin line over his teeth.
"So…" Kim looked at Mac, "How do I read that number? Do I double it or do you have some crazy kind of algorithm to put it through?"
"Doubling it will work…" Mac chuckled and nodded.
"Okay, so 8-ish…" Kim smirked and looked over at Jack, who didn't protest.
The door to the room opened, and Riley walked in carrying a tray of coffees, she handed a cup to Kim, one to Mac and took one herself. Then she looked apologetically towards Jack and shrugged slightly. "Sorry, you can't have any before your surgery…"
Jack nodded, "Yeah, I know…"
MACGYVERxLAB
"That took a lot more time than expected…" Eugene said as he helped Pete close up the last of the incisions.
Pete nodded, "Kid's gonna be in a lot of pain the next few weeks. We'll put him in a hinged knee brace, that will allow him to slowly start his exercises."
"Locked in extension?"
"Yeah, of course." Pete nodded as he placed another suture, "After about two weeks we'll let him unlock it a few times a day to go through simple exercises to avoid that he loses all of his flexion, but he's not allowed to work active extension before at least 6 weeks have passed. But, given that his knee suffered extensive trauma, I would like to maybe postpone that a little bit. Have him come in for a consult before you allow him to do active extension."
Eugene nodded.
"It might be that his leg is ready for it by then, but given all the different injuries, his recovery time might pack up on itself…"
Eugene nodded again, "Hey, Pete…?"
"Yeah…?"
"Do you think this guy knows how bad his knee really is?"
Piercing blue eyes met Pete's brown ones for a second, Pete nodded.
"He probably does…"
"But why doesn't he do something about it? Why haven't he quit? Or even though it could be considered unreasonable early, why haven't he had a full knee replacement? Why go through all this pain?"
Pete shrugged, "I'm not a mind reader, and I'm not a shrink, but I guess he's just not done yet."
"Done? The kid is going to lose his job due to stupidity if he keeps on going like this!"
"We don't know that." Pete pulled on his shoulders before he secured another stitch, "For all we know he won't have a job if he goes through with the replacement. Maybe that's the final straw…?"
"It's stupid."
"I can't argue with you there." Pete sighed, "I'll talk to him tomorrow, ask him about his thoughts on getting a full knee replacement in the future."
Eugene nodded.
"Okay, last stitch is in. We're done here."
"Over to the next one…"
"Yeah, but lunch first." Pete said as he started placing bandages over the incisions. "I'm hungry, and it's high time for some lunch."
Okay, hope you had fun. I'll try to keep this going slowly but steadily.