dpdp: Ask and you shall receive. Jokes on me, I uploaded chapter 2 to AO3 hours ago, I completely forgot to update here. :D
We pick up right as Daniel's about to go into surgery, we're just gonna ignore that little bit where he somehow made it to base. We'll say Jack went back for him after the Jaffa left. :D
Warnings: Description of surgery, but it's not that gross.
Janet wiped Daniel's IV port with an alcohol wipe before plunging the syringe's contents into the line.
"That's going to stop the nausea, Daniel. Just relax, you'll be waking up in recovery before you know it." Daniel nodded and gave her a loopy grin, the effects of the morphine sending him sky high. Motioning to her team, she kicked the brake off the bed, and started moving down the hallway, her staff catching up to her. Halfway to the OR, Daniel whimpered quietly, then sighed.
"Daniel?" Janet questioned, examining his face. To her horror, he shifted and uncurled his lean frame.
"Meds workin' good J'net," He slurred, a small smile on his face.
"Feelin much bet'r"
A chill crept down Janet's spine. "Okay Daniel, just relax. We're going to take care of you," She said calmly, making eye contact across the bed at Beth. They both knew that the situation had just gone south.
Daniel was floating somewhere in the stratosphere by the time he arrived in the OR. Dimly, he realized that this was the first time he'd actually seen the inside of the operating room as a patient. He chuckled at the thought. Several hands pulled at the sheet under him, and he was dragged over to a different bed. Someone lifted his legs. A cool hand brushed his cheek, and something was placed over his face. It smelled like a new shower curtain, and he choked slightly.
"That's oxygen, Dr. Jackson," A voice said, sounding like it was at the end of a long tunnel. "Keep that on for me."
He breathed in the air. His stomach, which had been causing him agony for the last several hours, was now completely painless. He felt his legs being moved, but didn't have the energy to resist.
A hand rested on his forehead. "I'm putting some medicine in your IV, it might sting a little bit, and then you're going to feel nice and sleepy."
He tried to nod, but found he didn't have the energy to do so. A burning sensation spread over the back of his hand, and he felt the pull of sleep dragging him under. A light touch on his eyelashes, and he was asleep.
"He's out," Melissa said, quickly sliding the ET tube down Daniel's throat, securing it, and hooking him up to the ventilator. Janet, who was already scrubbed in, rubbed surgical prep over Daniel's exposed abdomen.
"Alright people, this is Dr. Daniel Jackson, we're doing an appendectomy, time is 1424. Any objections?" Head shakes all around. She used a surgical pen to mark the incision and then held out her hand. "Scalpel."
After deftly slicing through the skin and adipose tissue, Janet carefully opened the muscle and peritoneum to expose the large intestine. Quickly locating the offending organ, her worst fears were confirmed when she saw the small perforation on the backside of it.
"We're going to need a full washout. Ira scissors and 18 gauge suture," She ordered.
The scissors were placed in her hand, and with a few snips the tied-off organ was gone. She placed a few sutures in the colon, and then took the tube and suction hose from her surgical tech to start the tedious wash out process. Janet carefully tied off the last internal suture, before turning to her surgical nurse. "Will you finish this off? I'm going to go update his team." He nodded, and Janet stepped away from her patient, pulling off her sterile gown and gloves, removing the traces of blood from her clothing. Stripping her surgical mask into the nearest trash can, she headed out to talk to SG-1.
Jack was just about ready to slam his fist into the wall. He had tried pacing, doodling, and even humming to distract him from the fact that Daniel was in surgery for his frickin' appendix. He glanced at his watch for the hundredth time that hour. It had been almost three hours since Daniel had been wheeled away, high as a kite and in terrible pain. Just as he was thinking about trying something he would probably regret, he saw Janet walking towards him and his team.
All three of them jumped to their feet, anxiously awaiting news.
"He's not fine, but he's going to be." Janet stated simply.
"Doc?" Jack asked.
"His appendix ruptured just a few moments before surgery. I did a complete washout, which means I cleaned out his abdominal cavity as best I could. He's going to need an aggressive course of antibiotics, and it's possible for him to develop a dangerous infection."
Carter spoke next. "When can we see him?"
Janet smiled. No matter who was in the infirmary, if there was even one member of SG-1 left standing, their sole mission seemed to be to stay with the others until they were back to 100%.
"We're just closing up now, it'll be at least five or six hours until he's out of recovery and you can see him then." She held up her hand in anticipation of their protests.
"You all know that there aren't any visitors allowed in PACU. He's not going to be much company, and probably won't be aware of you even if you were there. My staff and I will take good care of him."
Sam reached out and touched Janet's arm as she turned away.
"Let us know as soon as we can see him," She said.
"I will. Now, there's going to be a long wait here. All of you, go get some sleep. I know for a fact that there's enough on-base quarters for all of you tonight. I'll send someone for you as soon as there's news."
o-O-o-O-o
His throat was sore. Moving quickly. Bright lights in his face. Voices garbled and warped around him. Someone moving his feet, pulling at his nose. He coughed. Something was in his mouth, he tried to spit it out. He gagged on the feel of it, scrunched his face away.
"Grab that airway," Carlos said, gesturing to the yellow plastic device. The anesthesiologist used a square of gauze to help Dr. Jackson spit out the piece of hard plastic, wiping his lips free of bloody mucus.
Carlos shot a glance at the blank monitor, and then dug under the sheets to connect the cables to the equipment. Satisfied with the readouts, he turned back to his new patient.
"Report?" He asked the CRNA.
She smiled. "Dr. Daniel Jackson, appendectomy. Gave him standard pain and nausea in there, surgery went well. He perfed good, we've got him on antibiotics now."
Carlos pulled up the sheets on Daniel's right side, inspecting the fresh incision.
"Okay, anything else?"
"Nope, good seeing you," She said, heading back out with the surgical team. Another nurse brought a warmed blanket, which Carlos laid over his patient, stripping off the chilled one used in surgery. He quickly slipped a bag of ice onto Daniel's fresh incision, and then moved to the head of the bed to chart everything.
o-O-o-O-o
Daniel felt like he was rocking on a liferaft in a violent sea. The ground pitched and turned under him, and he scrambled to grab onto something- anything. He moaned as nausea flared.
"J'k?" He managed to choke out, the syllable sounding more like a groan than a name.
The boat started to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. He swallowed thickly, trying to hold on.
"Surgery's over, Dr. Jackson. You're in recovery," A calm voice drifted over the sea towards him. He moaned, trying to get his arms to cooperate with him so he could wrap them around his stomach. He was hurting badly, the pain came in dull, cramping waves. The boat pitched over a wave and slammed into the water causing his stomach to fly into hysterics. He struggled to sit up, about to lose the battle with relentless nausea. He groaned in pain, just as he lost his tenuous hold on consciousness.
o-O-o-O-o
"J'ck?"
The heartbreaking plea came from Carlos' only patient in the infirmary. Dr. Jackson had been awake several times, each time only asking for Jack. After a quick search on the base computer, he had quickly put together that Daniel was asking for Colonel O'Neill.
"JACK!" Daniel wailed, trying to sit up in bed, completely blindsided by the raw incision in his stomach. Carlos quickly hurried over to him, and eased him back.
"Easy, Dr. Jackson. Settle down, you're safe. You're at the SGC on Earth," He said calmly.
Daniel only gasped and panted Jack's name over and over. It had been almost two hours of his desperate pleas.
Carlos sighed and went to the phone.
A/N:
We'll let the AI decide who he's calling! Early passes of the next chapter reveal anyone from Walter to Daniel's mother. Oh boy. I'll keep running it and see which one it chooses the most- and one that I can work with.
Yes, when they're about to start a surgery, the surgical tech or circulating nurse will state the patient's information and actually be like "okay, any objections?" like we're in a freakin' wedding or something. (This is done to give someone else a chance to notice something wrong, "wait, did you say the left knee?"
I spent about a month shadowing in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit, and a week in shadowing in the OR. I've always wondered what it's like waking up from surgery; some people seem to enjoy it very much, others are in complete misery. You can see what I've chosen for Daniel here. :D
See you in the next chapter!