Surgery-time!
I hope you enjoy reading this!
He could feel everything they did to his knee, every cut, stitch and adjustment they made. Every time they drilled, sawed and clamped something. He only let out a few involuntary whimpers, the painkillers they had drugged him with was some good stuff, but it really only took the edge off it. He still felt the pounding from the edges of the surgery wound, and the cool sharp pain his knee now provided him with.
He focused on keeping his mouth shut. He focused on being quiet, not screaming at least.
It was a long surgery, he had been warned about it. Right now the surgery was in its sixth hour, and Oliver had an urge to throw up because of the pain, but he kept it down.
Finally blissful unconsciousness washed over him, and he was relieved from most of the feelings that came from his knee area.
Hours later he woke up in a hospital bed. Felicity, Diggle and Roy were by his side.
"You passed out during the surgery…" Roy explained when he saw the confused look on Oliver's face.
"Okay, that explains a lot…" Oliver said, his voice filled with hurt even though he had enough painkillers in his system to sedate a horse.
He looked down at his legs covered under a blanket. He could see the shape of his legs. His left leg was normal, but the shape where his right leg was confused him. With the cover over, it looked like some kind of greenhouse. Round shapes with some inches space between held the blanket up.
Oliver grabbed a corner of the blanket and started to reveal his leg.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Felicity said as she turned around to keep from seeing his leg, "it looks awful!"
Once he saw his leg, he understood what Felicity had meant by awful. His leg was so badly bruised that he had a hard time detecting his skin-color.
Second, it was swollen as hell! He couldn't have guessed where his kneecap should have been in the first place… His leg just looked like a log, or something!
And then there was the ilizarov brace. A metallic brace that surrounded his leg, from near hip to ankle. There was more than two dozen pins sticking into his leg from different angles, holding his knee and leg together and immobilized.
The whole thing looked like some freaky thing from a horror movie, it looked like some sick kind of torture equipment. Thick metal pins piercing his skin, holding his bones in place. It looked as painful as it was…
Oliver decided it was best to pull the blanket back over it, before he got the urge to throw up again…
"Oliver!" Thea's voice caught everyone's attention as she entered the room. It was the first time they had seen her since she had left with Malcom Merlyn. Her voice was worried as she stepped towards her older brother and hugged him softly. Careful not to in any way jostle him.
"What happened?"
"My old knee injury blew up again" Oliver hissed as a bolt of pain burned up his throbbing leg. His voice was strained and his features revealed the pain he was in, "Big time!"
He regretted his words as Thea started to tear up, "I'll be fine!"
"Don't lie!"
"I will!" Oliver almost growled, but was cut off by a lightening bolt courtesy his leg. He shut his eyes and grabbed hold of the bedsides to keep from crying again. "-eventually…"
I think I'll let you in on his day-to-day life from next chapter on... How does that sound?
The problems he might have with daily 'chores'... And last but not least how his leg can surprise him with pain!...
A HUGE THANKS to the people whom have reviewed this story so far!