Monday, October 21st Pt. 4

“Well done Cole. First thing I want to establish is what it is you understand about what’s going on.” He nods slowly.
“Dr. Nelson explained what he was here for and the procedure for placing the epidural. It wasn’t until he started the shots that I got a bad feeling about it. It’s going to hurt me. No matter how many shots he gives. It’s going to hurt badly.” He pleads with a light whine.
“I know you’re in a terrifying situation right now. I’m here. Promise I will help you.”
“I can’t do this. Not again.”
He whispers quietly as he attempts to bury his face into my arm. I adjust my left arm so I’m still holding his hand but he has access to my wrist as Dr. Nelson begins to speak.
“That’s the part that’s confusing me.” He admits.
“Can you go through your interactions with him leading up to this?” I ask him.
“I was paged to a meeting three hours ago in Dr. Hamilton’s office. He explained the history that he had on Cole as well as what recently happened. He ended his conversation with an inquiry into what I felt would be the best way to transport him to the hospital. I recommended giving him an epidural as the catheter that stays in the epidural space would allow him to receive medication directly into his spine giving him a much better chance of responding and ultimately reversing the paralysis. He agreed and even indicated that was what Dr. Leroux had asked for. I explained that I was a member of the pack and had easy access to the medical wing. It wouldn’t be an issue for me to stop here before returning home. I brought everything I would need plus extras, explained to Colton exactly what I was going to do and what I needed from him. He seemed to understand what was going on until I started with the shots. That’s when he lost his composure. I had intended on pushing through his protestations until you commanded me to stop.”
“When talking with Dr. Hamilton did he explain that Cole was a special needs patient?” Deven asks before I can speak.
“Yes sir. It’s part of the reason he wanted me over the other anesthesiologist there today. I have a good history of being able to work with people like Cole. I would have the epidural in already if I wasn’t trying to alleviate his fears. I have reassured him repeatedly that the shots will keep him from feeling the needle going into his back but he kept insisting that I was wrong. Additional questions revealed that he believes he’s had one before but couldn’t remember exactly what happened which has me confused. I would be done if I wasn’t trying so hard to convince him it won’t hurt him.”
“But it will.” I state in a whisper loud enough to keep everyone from speaking.
“While I can’t tell you the circumstances under which you had both blood and silver poisoning as the council needs you to remember that on your own, I can tell you that I had to put you in the ICU at Crimson General because of it. Jessa, being an empath, was the one to diagnose you with both and as a precaution she recommended you undergo a spinal tap to verify that your sepsis didn’t turn into meningitis. Considering we knew you were suffering from severe malnutrition and she diagnosed you with a nearly absent immune system I felt that it was appropriate. They numbed your back just like Dr. Nelson did which has triggered the instinct that it’s happened before. Your amnesia keeps you from remembering details but you do remember that it hurt because it did. The area that they used was in the thickest area of scarring on your back. They underestimated the level of damage in that area and it rendered the lidocaine ineffective. Instead of stopping the test when they discovered that you could feel it they continued. It took three large alpha male doctors to hold you down and that was while heavily sedated on Valium and Vicodin. I wasn’t there but I have had several long conversations with Dr. Christiansen, who supervised the procedure. What other ways are there to place the epidural without traumatizing him?”
My end aims a question towards Dr. Nelson.
“Although we never utilize this method on pregnant women, if he had that much difficulty then I could get it done in a twilight sleep instead of relying solely upon the lidocaine.” I nod as I listen.
“Do you have ketamine?” I ask, looking at Deven.
“Yes sir and its reversal.” I nod again.
“He comes out of twilight better with Ketamine than he does with Valium.”
“I wish we had that information when we had to fix his wrist.” Deven mumbles absentmindedly.
“Would you be open to using an olive oil spray that would illuminate the scar on his back?” Dr. Nelson asks.
“Explain that a little better, please .” I request as Cole tenses at the thought of more being done than what was planned.
“You said that the spinal tap he went through was very painful as the scarring on his back prevented the lidocaine from numbing him properly.”
“Yes sir.” I confirm.
“Well, it would help me to visualize the scar if we can turn him onto his stomach. It’s been found that extra virgin olive oil can be sprayed onto a scar and it will illuminate it in various intensities based on the thickness of scarring. The brightest shade is normal skin, areas that don’t illuminate under the black light are really thick scar tissue and there are levels in between both.”
“Cole?” I attempt to include him.
“Will it hurt?”
“No. There is a chemical that we use but someone discovered that aerosol extra virgin olive oil does the same thing without causing pain. At least it illuminates scaring in werewolves. To the best of my knowledge it doesn’t work out as well in humans. Alpha Cassius, do you have a can in the kitchen?”
His voice is uniquely jovial for the situation but at least there isn’t much that can go wrong. He quickly leaves the room, following Cassius to the kitchen leaving three of us with Cole.
“Hey bud, I think we need to roll you onto your stomach.” I speak quietly near his ear as Tina comes closer.
“What’s guardian ad litem?” Cole asks as he continues to come out of his panic.
“Guardian ad litem is assigned when a child is in a situation where they need an adult, outside of their parents, to make important decisions on their behalf. It also happens when an adult with mental health issues cannot make appropriate adult decisions. Normally, in the case of an adult, it defaults to their parents.”
“I don’t want them making decisions for me.” He whimpers as the three of us roll him gently from his side to his stomach.
“No, no, no. Not again.” He suddenly cries out. “Why won’t the spasms stop?”
The intensity is obvious as he immediately breaks down, gripping the sheet on his bed tight enough that his hand shakes.
“Demetri, I need you to do whatever you can to offer him comfort. This hurt him last time I did it but it’s the fastest way to get him relief.”
“No. I don’t want it. I can’t handle it again.” He frantically cries.
“I am going to do this slightly differently now that you’re flat but I do need to touch you.”
Deven tries again to calm him but it seems to fall upon deaf ears. I sit on the stool at the head of the bed as the pain drives him back into an intense fight or flight. I stop his attempts at pulling his body towards me, away from Deven, with a gentle embrace.
“I know you’re scared. Goddess knows you have every right to be but I promise you, everything is okay.”
I speak calmly as I play with his hair. I glance up in time to see Deven place a sheet over Cole’s body. It’s only as he lays his hand over Cole’s left hip, applying slow pressure that Cole cries out again.
“No. It’s not okay. Nothing is okay.”
It’s only as he breaks down from the pain again that a new nurse walks in.
“Margo, it’s a pleasure to see you. I have Cole’s next dose of Vicodin on the counter. I need you to put it on his IV feeder so he receives it over a three minute time frame.”
“It takes that long to give it to him?” Tina is as surprised as I am.
“He’s on the highest dose that we can give in the wing which is why I set up getting him transferred to University. The next step higher than this is morphine. Unfortunately, this level of codeine has been giving him some nasty side effects. It took a day of experimenting but this slowed rate has reduced those side effects considerably.”