Recovery: Chapter 14 - Struggle
Aug. 29th, 2009 09:32 amCHARACTERS: Ianto, Owen, Martha; OCs-Saundra Bennett, Dr. Mason, Brigadier Hamilton
WORDS: ~ 1720
SUMMARY: Ianto prepares for surgery
If there is not struggle, there is no progress - Frederick Douglass
As Owen predicted Monday was a very tough day. As the narcotics wore off and the tests dragged on, Ianto became increasingly uncomfortable. He had difficulty holding still for some of the MRI scans which then had to be repeated. Blood tests were followed by pulmonary function tests, and hand x-rays. The worst were the injections of various dyes to get images of blood flow in his damaged hand. Ianto struggled as Owen and a radiology tech immobilized his hand in several awkward positions for imaging.
By the time the surgeon and Martha stopped by his room, Ianto was completely unglued. He pushed his cell phone at Martha before she had even said hello.
‘Martha, need meds, hurts like hell.’
“Sweetheart, I wish I could, but I can’t. Just hang in there, in 24 hours this will all be over.”
Ianto squeezed his eyes shut and slid down to lay flat on the bed. ‘This totally sucks. Wish they’d just cut the whole fuckin’ hand off and be done with it.’
The surgeon walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. He was an older man in his early sixties, with graying hair and a keenly intelligent face. Considered one of the finest hand surgeons in the UK and available to UNIT only upon request from the highest levels, Martha had gone to considerable lengths to secure Dr. Mason for Ianto’s surgery. Owen hoped like hell that Ianto would behave himself.
“Ianto, my name is Dr. Mason and I’m going to be the primary surgeon on your hand tomorrow. Son, I’d like to look at your hand if I may.”
Ianto turned away from the surgeon and pulled the sheet over his head willing the surgeon to leave. He gritted his teeth thinking, ‘I’m not your bloody son, so just fuck off will ya.’
Owen couldn’t believe Ianto was behaving so immaturely. “Hey, what the hell’s the matter with you? You sit up right now and let the doctor look at your hand.” Ianto pulled the cover more tightly over him, furious that Owen was speaking to him like a child. ‘And you’re not my Tad either,’ he raged silently, ‘so bugger off!’
Owen turned to apologize to Dr. Mason who motioned him not to speak. “Dr. Harper, why don’t you and Dr. Jones wait outside while Ianto and I have a chat, OK?” Owen wanted to protest, to warn the surgeon that Ianto could go off like an atomic bomb at any moment. The surgeon smiled at Owen, nodded his understanding and cocked his head toward the door. Reluctantly Owen and Martha left the room.
Dr. Mason sighed and reached over to pull the sheet off Ianto’s head. “Hurts like a son-of-a bitch, doesn’t it?” Ianto nodded. “You’re probably thinking that you’d rather have the hand removed, am I right?” He slowly pulled the sheet down to free Ianto’s hand from the covers. “Am I right?” he repeated. Ianto nodded. “I hear that a lot…before surgery that it. Rarely after surgery though.”
The surgeon continued to speak softly to Ianto examining his hand while he explained what the first surgery was supposed to accomplish. “First thing is we need is to get rid of any remaining bone fragments; they’re just getting in the way and creating a lot of the inflammation and pain. We’ll be able to get a much better look at the extent of nerve and tendon damage and see what we can fix. You’re actually pretty lucky; you had minimal vascular damage so the blood flow to the hand has been good and we’re not expecting to find any major tissue necrosis. Some of this we’ll just have to see as we go. At some point we will also be replacing a few of the joints that are damaged beyond repair but I think that will most likely occur during a subsequent surgery.”
Ianto wasn’t sure he understood half of what the Dr. Mason was telling him, but he felt calmed by the man’s soft soothing voice. Dr. Mason kept speaking softly to Ianto until he saw his eyes closing. He chuckled got up from the bed and left the room.
Martha and Owen were worried at how quiet Ianto’s room had become. As Dr. Mason came out of the room, they bombarded him with questions.
“Its way too quiet in there, what’s going on?” Martha asked.
The surgeon smiled. “I’m quite used to the type of behavior Ianto’s exhibiting this evening. Hand crush injuries are often excruciatingly painful and the removal of pain medicine prior to surgery often leaves patients feeling overwhelmed. And general hospitals often manage pain by overusing narcotics so you have an issue with irritability from withdrawal along with pain from the injury. It’s not an attractive combination. All things considered, he’s doing pretty well. I’ve seen patients so out of control that they’ve had to be restrained the night before surgery.
“Just curious, do you know if he was ever tested for empathic ability?” Owen was surprised by the question, but confirmed that Ianto had tested above normal in that area, and related how easily Ianto had been able to sense when he was being evasive.
“Can’t say I’m surprised. I worked as a general surgeon for Torchwood One early in my career, so I’ve seen a lot of interesting patients. He’s seems to be very sensitive to feelings emoting from others. Did you notice how he mirrored your anger back at you? I’ve seen that in a couple of other Torchwood employees; but they were highly trained empaths. Ianto doesn’t have any training to know how to control the emotions coming at him so he just blasts it back at full force.” Owen nodded. That made a lot of sense. He noticed that when he and Ianto had a disagreement it had a way of escalating exponentially.
“His pain and withdrawal were probably enhanced by your anxiety about the surgery tomorrow. So you need to try to project calmness rather than anger. His brain is a bit like a feedback loop and the angrier you get, the angrier he gets. And it’s really not his fault; he has no skills in controlling it. So it comes out looking like petulance and childishness, when it’s actually his psyche trying to deal with everyone’s emotions bombarding his brain.”
“All I did was speak softly and calmly to him; and again the more calmness I projected, the quieter he got. I also tried to think of calming images; I’m not sure how much he can actually pick-up but I’m guessing from how quickly he relaxed, quite a lot.”
***
The surgery on Tuesday went surprisingly well, if not a bit longer than expected. Owen and Martha and Saundra waited patiently for the surgery to be completed. The four hour surgery stretched to five hours and then six. The Brigadier called in twice, Jack called once, and Tosh and Gwen each called once as well. Finally, after six and a half hours, they were told that Ianto was in recovery.
Dr. Mason came out to speak to them. His surgical team had been able to make more progress than expected. The small device Owen had brought from Torchwood had minimized bleeding allowing the team to work much quicker. They had been able to clean out all the loose bone fragments, repair torn tendons and ligaments and replace three finger joints. They had stabilized the remaining bones and were hopeful that Ianto would end up with a reasonable amount of movement in the hand.
Owen wasn’t sure as a practical matter what all this meant. “What do you mean by reasonable? Will he able to write or cut his own food?”
“More than likely he will have enough strength to pull open drawers and yes, cut up his own food. If he learns to use his left hand a bit more, he should have enough dexterity to button clothes and tie shoes. Writing is more complex and I can’t really give you a good answer to that now. He’ll need at least one more surgery and extensive physical therapy but I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Ianto spent several hours in recovery before he was brought back to his room. He was heavily sedated and drifted in and out of consciousness. Just as Martha, Saundra and Owen were getting ready to leave, the Brigadier stopped by. He stood by Ianto’s bed for a while and just watched him sleep.
Jack called in and Owen updated him on Ianto’s condition. The Brigadier motioned that he wanted to talk to Jack. He took the phone from Owen and stepped outside the room. Fortunately, the Brigadier was not a soft-spoken man and the doctors and the attaché got a pretty good idea of what was going on between UNIT and Torchwood Three.
“They’re very happy with the reports that have been coming in. Yes, I think they know how you felt about Yvonne Hartmann, but some of UNIT’s bureaucrats are looking for a little payback for Torchwood One’s stepping on their toes….no don’t think there’s going to be any disciplinary action taken against you or your staff. In fact, there’s been some talk of a special commendation for Dr. Harper….Ianto Jones; he looks like hell, actually. Funny about him, sometimes he looks like he’s 15 years old, other times he looks like he’s 115. Yeah, poor bugger isn’t the half of it… Ok, keep in touch.”
The Brigadier came back into Ianto’s room, and returned Owen’s cell phone. He stood a few more minutes by Ianto’s bed and to everyone’s amazement, leaned over and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He nodded to the others and left the room.
Saundra was the next to leave. She tucked the covers around Ianto and stroked his cheek. She told Owen and Martha that she’d see them both tomorrow.
Martha and Owen looked at each other and smiled. Martha went over and sat on the bed. She leaned over and whispered something to Ianto and kissed his cheek. Owen rolled his eyes. “Your turn,” quipped Martha.
Owen sat down next to Ianto. “You did really fantastic today Ianto. I’m so proud of you. We’re all so proud of you. I’ll be back in the morning. Dream of green-eyed redheads, OK?”
Chapter 15 is here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/6119.html