Chapter 27
Alyssa and Kelly sat in Dr. Leary's office.
Dr. Leary was the orthopedic surgeon who had repaired Lyssa's arm all those years before...when she had had it broken in about four places.
The doctor had already examined her...and now they were waiting to hear what he had to say.
"Well...it's definitely worse than the last time you were here, Alyssa." he said. "I'm not surprised you've been having some pretty significant pain."
He tapped a few keys on the keyboard, and then turned the screen so Alyssa and Kelly could see.
"You can see here, the joint space is diminished. She's pretty much down to bone on bone. What you can't see...is there's a big mess of scar tissue encapsulating the joint."
"So what do we do about it?" Kelly asked.
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Dr. Leary slowly took off his glasses and studied the couple before him.
"There are a couple different options." he said carefully. "Both surgical...one would be a total joint replacement...but Alyssa's still very young. It would likely have to be done again at least once in her lifetime...possibly twice."
Alyssa gripped Kelly's hand in hers.
"What I'd recommend we try first..." the doctor continued. "Is to manually break up the joint adhesions."
"And how do you do that?"
"We'd put Alyssa under general anesthetic...then forcibly dislocate the shoulder...both anteriorly and posteriorly."
Severide felt the blood draining from his face. That sounded absolutely barbaric. He'd had his shoulder forcibly dislocated...when he was grappling with Darren Chesnick in the fire that almost took his life. That was one of the few things he remembered perfectly.
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"That's it?" he asked.
Dr. Leary shook his head slowly.
"Not quite. We still might have to go in arthroscopically and lyse any remaining adhesions, and debride any torn or frayed cartilage. Unfortunately we don't have complete diagnostic information going in. Alyssa still has the humeral rod...and the rest of the hardware in...so we can't get an MRI."
"Why can't you just do the whole thing that way?" Kelly wanted to know.
It sounded a lot more humane than ripping her arm off.
"With the extent of the scar tissue...that could take hours to do it that way." the doctor explained. "That's a lot of time under anesthesia."
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Again, Alyssa squeezed Kelly's hand.
He knew she was scared. She had a problem with anesthesia once before. When they had set her jaw, something went wrong and her blood pressure bottomed out. She nearly died.
Kelly hadn't been there when it happened...and he still kicked himself sometimes for being such an idiot...such a coward...that he had very nearly walked away from the best thing he'd ever had in his whole life.
But that was in the past. Right now the important thing was that Alyssa get taken care of.
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They left the doctor's office with their arms wrapped around one another. It was a lot to think about...a lot to talk about. Kelly wanted to talk to Shay...and maybe Google the procedure. They'd prob'ly discuss it with Alyssa's brothers too.
But in the end...really what other choice was there?
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Severide collapsed into his favorite chair in the common room.
It had been a long night...researching the procedures Dr. Leary had talked about again...trying to understand all the implications and what to expect in terms of recovery and rehab. Kelly knew it would be different from his own rehab, because Alyssa was starting out with about a twenty-five percent deficit to begin with...not to mention the function she had lost over the past several months. And there were other things to consider. The anesthetic...Alyssa had lost weight since going back on her pain meds, and she was down to under a hundred pounds again. There were potential complications...she always seemed to develop anemia after a surgical procedure, necessitating a transfusion. It had happened when the twins were born, after Maggie's birth...and it was a scary thing.
It was a lot to think about. It was a lot to worry about.
"Hey..." Shay said quietly as she slid into a seat beside her best friend. "How'd it go yesterday?"
Kelly looked at her with tired eyes.
"Lyssa's definitely gonna need surgery. There's no way around it."
He didn't have to add 'and I'm scared shitless...'.
Leslie knew.
"You know I'm here for you..." she told him. "I've got time to take...whatever you need...just say it."
He nodded.
The whole team would pitch in...that was a given.
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Before anything more could be said...the bells went off.
"Engine 51...Truck 81...Ambulance 61...Squad 3...traffic accident..."
"Time to go to work..." Kelly said under his breath.
"Thank God it's Friday..." Shay replied.
Monday...Wednesday...Friday...Sunday...it didn't make any difference.
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What a mess.
An old Crown Victoria had jumped the curb and hit a hydrant. Water was spurting in every direction, making it rain all over the scene.
Severide jumped down off the Squad and ran to the first vehicle he came up on...a ten year old Chevy SUV.
The driver and the passenger were conscious and alert...nobody appeared to be in life threatening danger.
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"Kelly!" Shay hollered. "Get over here!"
He ran over to the Crown Victoria where Shay was trying to control the front seat passenger. The big man was cussing and fighting and trying to get out of the vehicle.
"T!" he yelled at the unconscious driver. "T! Why da fuck did we stop?! I gotta get to da hospital...Drive, you motherfucker!"
Severide reached in to add a little muscle to the restraint effort while Shay tried to assess the patient.
"Sir! You were in an accident" she said loudly over the string of four letter words the man had just let loose.
"Accident?" the man said. "Naw...I wasn't in no accident! I got shot! I gotta get to da fuckin' hospital! C'mon, T! Drive!"
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Dawson was on the other side of the vehicle...trying to assess the driver. He had a gaping head wound...and a bullet hole through his neck.
She shook her head.
The driver was gone.
The passenger was still cursing and fighting Kelly's grip on him. He managed to pop the door latch and shove the passenger side door open part way.
"You motherfuckers! I take da goddamn bus to da hospital!"
Then there was a voice from the back seat.
"Daddy?" the little voice called out. "Daddy...I'm bleeding!"
Jeez...there was a kid back there! A little girl!
This was getting better by the minute.
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They had to get the passenger out in order to get to the little girl.
Shay was trying to get a collar on the passenger, but he was fighting her.
"Get dat shit away from me! I gotta go! I'm bleedin'!"
"Shay, let him out..." Kelly said.
It was obvious from the way the guy was fighting and thrashing that his spinal column was intact. They could board and collar him outside the vehicle.
"Clarke! Mills!" he called out. "Get over here!"
Between the three firefighters, they managed to get the victim onto a gurney and strap him down. And he must have figured out he was gonna get to a hospital, cause he stopped fighting.
He didn't, however, stop cursing.
"Jesus...dey shot me!" his voice was getting weaker. "Da motherfuckers done shot me!"
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In the meantime Dawson had come around and crawled in the backseat with the little girl.
She couldn't have been more than six or seven...and she was bleeding from a GSW to the abdomen.
Kelly turned back to the car to see what he could do. Obviously Dawson was where she needed to be.
"Mills..." he said. "Go with Shay! Grab Otis or Hermann to drive the ambo!"
"Roger that!" Mills responded.
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Severide turned to Dawson.
"Second in company'll be here any minute."
"The other side of the car looks like target practice." Dawson told him. "Grab a pediatric collar from the jump bag!"
He hustled around to the other side, splashing through the water in the gutter and grabbed the jump bag.
Gabby wasn't kidding about the car. If Kelly had to guess he'd say there were thirty holes from the front quarter panel to the rear one. Maybe more.
He pulled out the collar and handed it in to Dawson, then got down to find the lever that would pull the seat forward.
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"Severide!" Chief called out. "We need you over here!"
"You got this?" he said to Dawson.
"Yeah, go..." she said. "Make sure that second in gets over here ASAP!"
Kelly hurried off to see what Chief needed him to do.
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The next morning he let himself in through the back door...and was pleasantly surprised to find the kitchen empty and the house quiet.
That only happened once in a blue moon.
He dropped his bag and climbed the stairs. Maggie and Lexi's door was shut...so was Andy and Jesse's.
He silently opened Maggie's door and when he did he heard the little 'slurp-slurp' noise she made when she sucked her thumb. Then easing the door shut again he went across the hall to the twins' room.
He opened that door as silently as he had the girls'...and he could hear the rhythmic breathing that let him know his sons were still fast asleep.
He went down the hall to his own room and found the door half open.
Kelly quietly slipped inside and saw his wife sound asleep and Lexi beside her in their double bed.
He crossed the room and slid out of his shoes...then carefully crawled into bed.
Alyssa stirred.
"Shhh..." he whispered. "It's just me. Go back to sleep."
"Mmmmm..." Lyssa sighed.
She must be really exhausted...he thought.
Then he threw his arm over both her and Lexi and closed his eyes.