Speechless | Spencer Reid FanFiction ✔️

Chapter 61: Recovery

It's been 4 days since I was brought into the hospital now, and every fucking thirty minutes somebody needs something from me, whether it's blood, vitals, medicine, to go to the bathroom, to walk around, anything and everything. I just want to sleep. I know Spencer is frustrated, too, but he would never let it show. I'm sure this has happened the past few nights, but I've been so high I don't remember the past few nights for the most part. By the time it's about 8 am, Priya comes back into my room. She smiles and says "I have good news. Dr. Jeffries is going to do one final evaluation of you and then he's going to see if he can remove the chest tube so he can discharge you to recover at home. You will have to come in to get the chest tube incision checked out in a few days, so don't go back to DC just yet, though."
Spencer and I grin at each other and nod to Priya in understanding. Spencer stands and says "okay...um...I'll start packing up our things!" Priya nods with an excited expression as well. She tells me "he will go over everything with you, but again I want to reiterate, don't lift anything heavy, take it easy, but you still need to try to move regularly." I nod in response as she continues. "We are going to send some pain killers home with you, but hopefully you can wean off of those and onto ibuprofen starting sometime this week depending on your healing process. Because this is a very unique situation, we don't have a certain timeline of what to expect when in your healing process." I nod, makes sense. The painkillers may be a problem for Spencer, though. I'll ask him when we are alone so I don't embarrass him in front of Priya.
Priya asks a few more questions before leaving the room and shutting the door. I stand up by myself, bracing against the bed, and slowly make my way over to my bag. Spencer notices I'm up and rushes to make sure I don't need extra support. He asks "hey, do you need me to get anything?" I shake my head and say "I just want to wear leggings and a sweatshirt so I can look like a normal human when I leave." Spencer chuckles and nods, helping me get my stuff together. I look at the door and then back to him before hesitantly asking "Spence?" He hums with a questioning tone in response "hmm?" I clear my throat a couple of times before saying "will you be uncomfortable if I come home with painkillers because of your...history?" Spencer readjusts his stance, looking uncomfortable with the question I just asked. He says after a second "I'll be fine, you need them."
        I nod, continuing to busy myself, not happy with the frigid vibes in the room now. We silently pack things together and I notice Spencer trying to create more space between us. I gulp and get up the nerve to ask him "Spence, did I upset you?" He sighs and looks down before trying to articulate his question. He says "it-it's just..um...do you...ugh do you not trust me to be around your painkillers while you recover?" My eyes widen as I realize where his genius mind took him on that dangerous train of thought. I shake my head and tell him "no, Spence I trust you 100%. I just don't want to add unnecessary stress to you right now. We are still grieving the loss of Emily and working through whatever the hell happened to me, so seeing a bottle of painkillers by the bed or in the bathroom might just be too much for you to feel comfortable around during this difficult time. I'm not saying I think you would steal my painkillers, I just don't want them to cause intrusive thoughts or unwanted stress if you think their presence can cause that."
       His shoulders relax with relief as he nods in response. He tells me "I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions. I was just concerned that you thought I had so little self control that I would steal painkillers, painkillers that you actually need to recover somewhat comfortably." I give him a soft smile and shake my head "nope, I trust you with painkillers more than I trust myself with chocolate." Spencer chuckles and I continue "there's the smile I've been missing. Let's continue getting ready so we can get out of here and get back to our fur child." Spencer chuckles "he will be so excited to see you."
We get ready to go and Priya comes in with a new paper gown. I eye it, confused, and she tells me, reading my thoughts "Dr. Jeffries will need to do a total evaluation of your incisions and wounds. He said you can keep bottoms on because he doesn't need to inspect any injuries below your spleen removal incision." I nod, it would be easier to do that than to constantly navigate around a shirt and it's not that different from the breast exam at my yearly physical appointments. Spencer pulls a chair up by the bed and holds my hand, giving me an encouraging smile. Priya leaves to tell the doctor we are ready and Spencer gently caresses my thumb with his hand while we wait quietly.
Dr. Jeffries walks in a few minutes later with Priya and he washes his hands and gloves up before he walks around the hospital bed to inspect the drainage from the chest tube. He looks at it briefly and says "there's definitely less than 200 CC's of drainage and there's no pus or anything, so I think we are good to remove it." I sigh in relief, looking over to Spencer who is excited for me as well. Dr. Jeffries continues his exam "your incision from your surgery is healing nicely, do you still have a lot of pain from that?" I respond "uh, mainly when I sneeze or laugh. Sometimes getting up or readjusting in bed can make it hurt a bit but not every time." Dr. Jeffries nods "that's normal, that pain might also be attributed to your broken rib that's still healing. What about your arm?"
I take my left arm out of the sling and move it around with a fairly good range of motion. Dr. Jeffries nods "looks good. You don't have to wear the sling anymore unless you have pain after you remove it. I want you to get physical therapy back home. Once you get a clinic figured out then I'll send the orders there. The physical therapy is a bit of an extra precaution to ensure it doesn't cause any long term damage." I nod, understanding and appreciating how thorough he is. He then asks me "okay, let's check the wounds on your back and then we can remove the chest tube." I nod, moving as directed.
He checks it, gently touching in different spots. He asks me "any residual pain from these?" I answer "not as much now, but it was really difficult to sleep or lie here comfortably in the beginning without my back hurting. Now my biggest complaint is it's itchy." Dr. Jeffries nods "good, that means it's healing. Everything looks good, as long as you continue to follow orders you should make a fully recovery. Now, let's get started on that chest tube removal." Spencer and I both smile and thank him, relieved at the news. Dr. Jeffries and Priya mill around the room a bit, gathering things and ensuring a sterile field. They leave the room a few times and other people bring things in, I'm honestly in shock at how much prep this is requiring.
There is a rolling table with a sterile field set up and Priya gets gloved and gowned and masked and even goggled before preparing the sterile field and gathering the materials needed. After Dr. Jeffries gets his PPE materials on as well, he walks over to the sterile field and begins preparing things, like tearing pieces of tape and certain lengths of gauze. I'm honestly getting scared and I have no idea what to expect, I should've reviewed the procedure or something before.
Dr. Jeffries approaches me after everything is set up and says "first I'm going to remove the sutures around your chest tube and then we will remove the tube. Removing the sutures will probably hurt, removing the tube doesn't usually hurt, based on what I've heard, it just feels a bit strange. I need you to stay calm and still for all of this, that will help us the most. At one point I'm going to ask you to hold your breath and bear down to increase your intra thoracic pressure and keep air from getting into the lungs when I remove the tube. Removing the sutures will take the longest, but applying the dressing won't take long at all. Any questions?"
I shake my head "no, I don't think so. I just didn't know how much goes in to removing this, really." Dr. Jeffries nods "we have to create a sterile field because we definitely do not want this getting infected and we don't want any excess air or anything else finding it's way through the hole where the tube was. You're gonna do great, you've been a model patient this whole time." I chuckle and smile, nodding "okay, I'm ready if you guys are." They nod and begin their work. The removal of the sutures hurts like a bitch and I'm gripping the sheets for dear life, trying to stay still and not mess up their process. He tries to go fast, but not so fast that he's compromising the quality of his work. Once all but one of the sutures are removed, the pain finally dissipates.
Dr. Jeffries readies the new dressing and has it ready to apply near the tube. He tells me "okay now I need you to hold your breath and bear down." I nod, doing as instructed and before I know it, the tube has been removed and he's pressed the dressing down on my chest and is adding pieces of tape to seal it down. When he's done sealing it I finally release my breath and relax. Dr. Jeffries nods and says "great job, Miss Winters. Okay keep that on there for at least 48 hours. If you need to shower, cover it with occlusive dressings, like plastic. After the 48 hours is over you can cover it with a bandaid until it's fully healed. I do want to see you before you go back to DC in a few days, just to make sure everything is okay before I send you home. Give it a couple of hours and then hopefully all the paperwork will be pushed through and you guys can get out of here."
We smile and thank him as they dispose properly of the equipment they used and then leave the room. I take a deep breath and it feels weird, but better than before. I turn to Spencer and say with glee "I can finally wear a sweatshirt without any tubes or needles sticking out of me!" Spencer chuckles in response "you're right, that is something to be happy about." I smile at him, finally feeling a bit like things can start to get back to normal now. I have closure in more ways than one.