The Disability Chat

Dr Doe
"Ah... your case is quite a bit... trickier, Mr Namechov" I hid the doubt on my face and from my voice "Surgery will definitely be the first step, and after that, physical therapy... but physical therapy may only be able to get you so far, in this instance, depending on how much of your spine was injured and a wide variety of other factors..." I tried to avoid getting too technical.

T.Mor:

...oh.

So... ...So... I'm kinda... stuck.

...alright.

"...But... ...how... come...?" I asked... trying not to sound...uhm...

Dr.Mencha:

"Look, I'll give it to you now, since you feel you need it, but I think it's in your best interests to come down here once a day and talk to me so we can try to start getting you onto something less... intense. Like seriously. This crap could down an elephant." I stated, jotting some stuff down on my clipboard.

...OH YEAH. "Marley, would you be at all interested in sacrificing some genetic material so we can try to grow you a new tongue?"

Dr Doe
"I could get into the complicated medical details, but... basically, rebuilding an ear is totally different than rebuilding a spine. There are certain steps we can take, like I said... but... I'm not sure how successful they'll be" I would do anything to help every patient that I wish I could help.

But you learn, after decades in this job, that wishes and prayers weren't a legitimate form of medical treatment.


Marley
I give a tiny nod at the tongue comment. Yes, that would probably... help... some way... I mean, why not? Maybe no to the daily meetings, though. Not that I was going to mention that.

T.Mor:

"... ... ...oh."

Well.

...Is... is it bad that that... that made me feel all... bad inside? ...I mean, I... I didn't even know that... before today... that fixing it was....possible... so... why did I feel like... I lost...so.. much?

I mean... uhm. "... ...how... how do you...find out if... if... it will... ... ...uhm...work...or not...?"

Dr.Mencha:

"Fantastic, I'll give the guys at the genetics labs a call, and we'll set up an appointment for later this week." I told her, glad I could get her to agree with me about something treatment-wise. "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me while you're here at the moment? Because, I'm going to print off your schedule for you for the rest of the week and we have a few minutes while my printer decides whether or not it wants to have ink in it today or not."

TIMEWARP~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cricket

The rest of the odd meeting with Doe went by in a sort of blur. On one hand, I might be able to hear again. On the other . . . T.Mor. A while later we were in yet another ridiculously clean room, and I was trying to grasp what everyone was saying yet again.

T.Mor:

...we were now in another scary clean room, with like... something that looked like a sacrificing table in it, and a guy... and a whole bunch of implements and stuff... I didn't really like it... But he was apparently in charge of like... sorting out what was wrong with...with...yeah.

Maybe he could fix it. Fix...me. I mean... the lady seemed to think I was screwed... which... .I... I didn't really... ...want to... believe... uhm.

"Good morning... the two of you." He said. He didn't sound as scary as his room looked like but that didn't mean...it didn't mean anything really.

"... ...hi..." I mumbled.

He looked at the both of us. He was kinda tallish, I guess...but....everyone seemed a bit tall from this angle...so...yeah.

"Hello. ...You must be..." He glanced down at a big stack of papers. "Mr.Namechov? Is that right...?"

"... ..T.Mor is... ...is fine... uhm... And...and that's Cricket... uhm..." I explained awkwardly. He shuffled through some papers and then nodded at me. After another minute of shuffling though things he handed Cricket an empty sheet of paper.

"Cricket... you're probably going to want to be watching the paper for this." He said calmly, and I watched as those words appeared on Cricket's paper. ...That was still so weird. ...Like... so weird. "I'm Dr. Stein, the head surgeon here. You're both here to discuss what exactly your possibilities are from here on out, and what you can expect procedure wise in the next few weeks. You're also probably going to want to think about whether you even want to take this route...which I can completely understand. You're both in a bit of a rough spot, and I know it's hard." He explained...and I felt kind of nervous suddenly. ...Understanding if we wanted to avoid whatever surgery was? ... ...Was it that bad...?

I glanced over at Cricket and his magic paper after he said that... What was I getting myself into...?

Cricket

He put a piece of paper into my hand, and--

OI MY MY I could read again. Like magic. It was interesting.

I tried to get over the fact that I could understand what was on the paper so that I could focus on what the words were actually saying. . . . Surgery. Oi my my. That thought still made me a small bit nervous, the thought of someone cutting into me, and T.Mor . . . I didn't know this guy. Why should I trust him?

. . . Because he might let me hear again. And T.Mor might stand again.

I felt someone's eyes on me, and glanced up to see T.Mor. I was just as conflicted as he looked.

T.Mor:

"So...for the next week or so, after your morning blocks of...whatever they have you signed up for...I'm going to have you both scheduled to run some tests. Nothing really scary...Nothing invasive. We'd be doing this even if you weren't candidates for surgery. Depending on how those go, we'll make some decisions as to what kind of procedures would be most helpful to you, and hopefully sometime in the next two weeks, we can get you both into surgery, and at least start getting it out of the way." He said. ...Wait so... so...now there were tests too. ...What kind of tests...? What did that even...

"What... ...what do you mean...tests...?" I asked.

"Just.. you know, X-rays, hearing tests... MRI's... blood tests... Both of you will have a different line up, after we get through the basic ones...since it appears that neither of you have a medical record ever in your life. " He was flipping through all the papers again as if it was weird that none of us had records.

Also... I didn't really recognise...like... any of those... uhm... tests... at all. They just...sounded kinda scary.

Cricket

I continued to stare at the paper and somehow make sense of the words. It was as if the words were invading my thoughts, like I could hear the voices in my head. It was . . . odd.

The tests were what now?

I eventually placed a fingertip to my throat to make sure I was actually talking out loud. "Those tests . . . what are they?"

T.Mor:

Firstly... ...It was really really nice to hear Cricket's voice finally..Like... I mean, I know he's right there...but... he'd been so quiet all day and it was all... so... but yeah..

And secondly... he took the words right from my mouth. ...Some of those were just... ...letters.

"You guys have really never heard of any of those?" He looked between me and Cricket for a moment, when I finally shook my head. "Well... let's see. X-rays are pictures taken that you can see your bones. The blood tests involve taking blood samples and running them through to see if anything wierd is going on there, MRI's are almost like X-rays, though they only have muscles on those pictures. Cricket, Your hearing tests are going to take a few hours... probably, and they involve lots of sitting and seeing if you can hear things and answering questions." ...This was just sounding scarier and scarier. I didn't want other people taking my blood... ...It was mine... and... and... taking pictures of my bones...

I ended up looking back over at Cricket again,already kind of....freaking out about all this.

Cricket

Taking blood and seeing bones. Alright. Was is only me, or was this sounding like some cleaned-up version of the Cellblocks?

I glanced at T.Mor.

Aye, it wasn't only me. I frowned a tad. " . . . Will that 'urt?"

T.Mor:

Cricket kept on asking all the questions I was wondering... which... was good... because... like... I couldn't really... uhm, talk fast enough...so... yeah...

"Not very much, actually. Some of them are a bit uncomfortable, but really... it's nothing more than a few needles for some tests. Depending on what all we're finding, there are a few that require a local anesthetic, but I really wouldn't worry about those until the time for them comes around." He explained, and then I was wondering what anes...anis...annas- thentic? Whatever....I was wondering what that was... and... I mean....agh...

Cricket

I'd gotten tired of talking without hearing myself, so I simply looked at the doctor questioningly. Anesthetic?

T.Mor:

I noticed Cricket's questioning looking... like...uhm...face...and figured that he and I must again be having the same...kind of question... I went ahead and talked that time, because the doctor guy was looking at Cricket's look at him and looking kinda confused... and so, I figured...yeah.

"...Erm... what's... what's...a...uhm... anesthetic...thing?" I asked kind of as an explanation for why Cricket looked all questiony.

"...Oh." He looked kind of surprised we didn't know that. ..Were we suppoused to know that? "Basically, it's a drug we give you that makes it so that you don't feel pain where we're going to be working. We use it for some tests and some minor surgeries, where you don't need to be completely knocked out for the procedure. It's a lot less physically taxing than general anesthetic,and doesn't carry as many bizarre post-op side effects... so we prefer to use it where we can, for your convenience." He explained.

...Drugs that make it so you don't...feel pain...? ...That sounded awesome. ...Could I just have that...like... before work every day? "... ...That's... cool..." I mumbled.

Cricket

Drugs that took away pain. That actually sounded rather nice. I looked at T.Mor, feeling a bit more hesitantly relieved.

T.Mor:

Well, that seemed to make Cricket less...all nervous and stuff...so... that was good...

"Right. So now that you understand that process... I'd like to take a minute to ask you both a few questions about your injuries and to what extent they've impacted your lives... to figure out what exactly we need to do to get your situation improved as much as possible. So... if you could briefly describe your injuries and give me a full list of symptoms to start off with, that would be excellent. I know that there is a accident report summary filed in both of your files, however...Aside from a report of the incident, I don't know a whole lot about what you personally think are the most severe problems. And knowing that probability of full recovery is... iffy," He kind of just looked at me there... and so... for the second time today I felt like...like I was screwed... Like... they couldn't really do anything for me... but, maybe they'd be able to fix Cricket, and that would be good. "I want to know what your top priorities are for things that need fixed, and what you feel you need to function better. But, yeah. We'll start with a symptom list and work out from there for each of you...Alright?" He glanced between us with a bit of reassuring looking face on.

I kind of just nodded, but didn't say anything. ...Symptom list...? So... everything that is wrong now that wasn't wrong before...? ...Where... how to even start...? I mean... and...part of me didn't even want to talk about it...Especially since Cricket was all... right there...and I didn't want him to know about all the bad things because he had his own bad things to deal with and he doesn't need to hear about my bad things too... because...people shouldn't have to deal with that many bad things. And Cricket was my friend so I didn't want to make him deal with them. ...Yeah. Uhm.

I kinda just looked at my knees after that.

Cricket

Symptom list? ... I was deaf. They were going to try to fix that. Aye, it mattered very much to me personally that I was deaf. What else did they need to know?

I lowered the paper to see T.Mor once again, and he was looking ... himself, but a little more broken. I really hated seeing him in that chair.

I looked back to the paper again, waiting for someone to say something. Talking ... I didn't particularily feel like it.

T.Mor:

... ...And then nobody said anything.

...Uhm.

I noticed that Cricket was looking at me again, which eventually caused the doctor guy to look at me again... and then I was being looked at.

...Guess that meant I was suppoused to...talk...? About what all was wrong... ... erm.

"uhm. I uhm... I... ...uhm. I mean... I can't...really.... uhm, walk...so... ...that...is...uhm, bad... And...I can't really...I mean... ... there's... I'm..." So... on the one hand...it's really awkward to try and talk about yourself. On the other, he'd kinda asked...to like... know stuff... but I didn't really want to like... talk. And I mean... I just... "...Nevermind. ...No, It's... I just... nevermind." I mumbled after a minute.

"Nevermind what? ...T.Mor... well, this goes for the both of you... if something is bothering you here... if you're having trouble doing something or something... Say something. Talk to us...because, just hiding it isn't going to help you...and we'd like to help you." He told us.

That...That kind of made sense. ...I mean... I felt really weird even acknowledging that anything was wrong... because...like...at home... ...you never say anything about it if you're hurt... just...wrap it and hope it goes away... so...this was... uhm. And I didn't want to like... waste his time... but... ...I wanted to get better. So... I kinda...had to say something... uhm.

"...er... the... the uhm... walking...thing... and...uhm... things... and...I mean...I guess... it kind of hurts... uhm." I just didn't really want to talk about...specific things...because like... I don't know, it felt weird to do that...but like... I had more things to say technically...I just... saying them... was... was the problem really.

Cricket

It wasn't that I particularily enjoyed hearing how much my friend was in pain, but if he kept talking, they could help him more. Aye?

His 'voice' trailed off.

My turn, then?

" . . . Ah . . . I can't 'ear."

T.Mor:

The guy made notes on both of our files, I think. "Neither of you really like talking much do you? Guess I'll have to start asking the direct questions. That's alright." He asked us in that way like how when people don't really want you to answer the question... uhm, Rhetorically, I think. "Now, Cricket, have you had any accompanying problems as a result of the deafness? For example, have you had any ringing in your ears or...headaches...dizzyness, feelings of pressure inside your head...?" He asked Cricket. I think he wanted to write more stuff down.

I wondered if he was going to ask me stuff too...but kinda figured he'd talk to one of us at a time about this stuff...since it was all like... ...personal...and uhm, not something that one could answer for the other... so, I sat...uhm, obviously... and tried not to like...be too... intrusive to like... stuff and doctoring.

I hoped that he'd be able to say better things about me than Dr.Doe... but... I mean, I'd seen that look on his face...so... yeah...uhm...

Cricket

I took a breath, nodded, and moved my lips carefully over the words. "First few days after . . . not as much now." Wished he'd focus more on T.Mor than me. Hell knows how much more he was going through.

T.Mor:

"Okay... Well, It's good that that is fading... though, we're probably actually going to have to run scans on your head to see the full extent of the damage since the rest of that is clearing up so nicely. We'll kind of have to keep touching base you and I though the week as your test results come in to discuss the best course of action as we figure out what all is going on in there." He told Cricket calmly. "So... if today is Monday... I'll have you drop back in on Wednesday of this week so we can look at some stuff." He then kind of swivelled in his chair to look at me, while writing some stuff down about Cricket on the file that I guessed was the Cricket file.

"And now for you. ...You... I have a good many questions for, unfortunately. Can you tell me about where you start losing feeling...and how high up your spine the injury is?"

...Lots of questions... ...oh Internet. uhm... "er...ok... uhm. See...here...I kind of don't...feel anymore... " I pointed at the spot, slightly above my hip bone. "...And... I mean...It's kind of... low... I...I don't... I don't... Like kind of..." Trying to point at that was harder since I like... couldn't really move a whole lot in those directions...backwards to see my own spine. I mean... not that I could see it much normally anyway...

"I see. And, are you getting any phantom pains from those limbs? Any feeling at all there?" He continued. Writing stuff down all the time on his file.

"No... Not... not really..."

"You had mentioned feeling pain earlier... where is that...?" He kind of looked like he was just going to go find that pain place was as soon as I'd told him...

"It...uhm, where I got the whole.. uhm... thing...Mostly...It kind of goes up and down my back sometimes... uhm..."

"...Alrighty. Are you having other problems beyond those you've already brought to my attention? Bladder control issues... problems breatheing, convulsions...?"

... ...I didn't really want to answer that one... I just kind of looked at him for a minute... because...really...that...That was reaaaaally personal. He just kinda kept looking back at me too, all like... 'well?' So I kinda said something eventually. "...uhm...yes...and no..." I kind of mumbled.

He might have gotten the picture, because he kind of just nodded. "...Alright. I'll... I'll send you someone later this evening to talk to you about that all... uhm. Let's see. We're going to have to go really carefully here... What did you do with it before you came in here?" He asked.

"...Uh... I... uh... well.. we sewed it shut...with...uhm... clothespins...and...and duct tape.. ..." I mumbled. And then his face kind of fell into his hand.

"...You're kidding, right? You didn't really do that..."

"...uhm...we...we...did..."

"In the next few days you are going and having that x-rayed and having all the foreign crap removed from there, and then we'll talk more about what to do after we get that...fixed...Alright...?"

...I felt like I'd accidentally gone and done something really wrong... ...oops...erm... uh. "...yeah... ...sorry..."

Cricket

I wasn't exactly sure whether to listen in on his conversation with T.Mor or not. Bright side, I could always simply look away from the paper if I didn't think I was supposed to be eavesdropping. Which I did . . . well, then I happened to glance down and read something about clothespins and duct tape. The overly clean doctor guy didn't seem too happy about that.

Clothespins? Oi my my, T.Mor, what did you do to yourself.

Though to be fair, I might not have done much better.

T.Mor:

I noticed that Cricket didn't watch all of that on the paper... which... I was... grateful for. Uhm. I didn't want to talk about a lot of the stuff that was going on with Cricket because like... I felt... I...

...Well... like...some of it was just... ...he didn't need to know, and...it would have been weird telling him and...like...private problems are private... but also, I didn't really want to like... show how much I was...all messed up. Like... I didn't want him to... to worry... and stuff... and... he didn't need to hear about all my problems... so yeah... uhm. ...And... I didn't want him to know that I was all... concerned and stuff... and like... I'm kinda scared. ..Like... if they can't fix me... I just... I mean, work and stuff...and...Auda...and... I didn't want to think about that.

I suddenly just wanted to go lie down. "Can... ...Can we...is this... are we done...? ...Sorry...I just... uhm..." I went back to looking at my knees.

"...Oh. Uh, yeah...we're about finished here. If you'd like I can get you both an escort to lunch." He answered after a minute. ...Wait were we suppoused to eat...Again? ...How much food do we get in one day...? This was...crazy.

I looked up at Cricket for a minute because, I didn't know how to answer that one. If I was..like... alone, I'd probably just ask if I could go back to my room...but I didn't want to leave Cricket alone at lunch...