"Well, how is he?" Kirsten pounced on the doctor as soon as he came back to the waiting room.
"He's doing okay, it doesn't look like he'll need surgery. We're going to make sure the bone is properly set and gave him a brace to help it stay in place, but it should heal fine on its own. He's going to be feeling some discomfort in the weeks ahead, so we'll give you some medication to keep him comfortable and in a few weeks, we'll be able to start physical therapy. Aside from the tibial plateau fractures, there's also a partial tear of the MCL, but that should heal just fine on its own."
"Thank you Doctor," Kirsten felt her knees going weak with gratitude. "Wait, fractures?"
"Yes, there are several fractures that appeared on the MRI, however as there's minimal bone displacement, they should heal. He's lucky, the injury could have been much worse."
"I don't know how can call a 16- year old with a broken knee 'lucky' but I appreciate the sentiment." Kirsten muttered.
The doctor ignored the comment, "Would you like to see him? We're just about to brace on, I think he would appreciate your being there."
"Of course," Kirsten followed the doctor into the back, and found Ryan in a private room. He looked so pale, lying against the white sheets, and there were dark circles under his eye. A nurse stood nearby holding what Kirsten guessed was probably the knee brace, but looked like some sort of medieval torture device.
"They gave me something for the pain," He smiled vaguely when he saw Kirsten.
"Morphine," A nurse whispered to her.
"Can we go home?" He pleaded.
"Soon baby," She went over and gently stroked his blonde hair, noticing that it was rather oily. She realized it had probably been awhile since he had a shower. Just how were they going to accomplish that one?
"Alright Ryan, your knee is very swollen, it's called an edema, and in order to get this brace on you properly, we're going to need to drain some of the swelling." Ryan nodded, not sure he liked the sound of that, sure enough the doctor produced a rather large needle. "This is just some localized anesthetic, it will make sure you don't feel any pain while we're draining it." Ryan nodded and buried his face against Kirsten, and gripped her hand tightly as the needle plunged into his knee with a white burning heat, and then his leg seemed to go to sleep.
"Don't look Ryan," Kirsten whispered, as the biggest needle she had ever seen hovered above Ryan's leg and then was plunged downward. She watched, sickened and yet fascinated, as the needle quickly filled with Ryan's blood. After a few moments, they pulled it out, and quickly put a piece of guaze over the pin- prick hole. She looked at his knee, it did look much less swollen.
" Are you ready Ryan?" The doctor asked, watch us okay? We'll show you how to take this on and off, but that doesn't mean I want you taking it off alright? Except to take a shower, this needs to stay on, okay?"
"Alright…" Ryan sighed, and then gasped slightly as several orderlies raised his leg, trying to keep his knee stabilized and put the brace under him and then the nurse carefully showed Ryan how to fasten the complex series of Velcro fasteners.
"How does that feel?" She asked when he was done.
"Heavy," He said, testing the leg.
"You'll get used to it, and when you start healing, we can let you start moving around a little by changing this," She showed him the dials on the side, marked out with angles, "But for right now, we want it to stay completely straight."
"Alright Ryan, you're all set. We're going to schedule a follow- up for a week from today. No walking or any weight bearing, I don't think you're going to want to, but just don't get any ideas. Okay?"
"Sure," Ryan nodded, he would have promised to just about anything to escape from the hospital.
"Alrighty then, let's get in a wheel chair and then we can get you on your way. Do you have crutches?"
"They're out the house,"
"Well, make sure someone meets you in the driveway with them, okay? I don't want you hopping around, we don't want to risk you falling and hurting yourself worse." Ryan almost laughed, as if that hadn't already happened… Twice!
"Someone looks happy to be going home," The nurse said, misinterpreting Ryan's slightly delirious smile.