The Struggles We Face (Book 1 in the Shine Bright Like a Diamond Series)

Chapter 25 - Return

A few weeks had passed since Dani had gotten out of hospital. Dani had spent a few days at the firehouse to keep her occupied whilst she rested her leg before she went back to school. Normally Dani only went to school 3 days a week but due to everything that had happened recently, Dani had been going in for extra sessions here and there as well as doing a lot of extra revision work outside of school, in order to catch up on any missed work. Due to her injury, the school had arranged for Dani to leave each lesson early to avoid the crowds in the corridor and to always have someone with. Dani had chosen to have Emma with her most of the time as they had most of their lessons together. The only time they're not together is when Dani has art as Emma has music.

"Hey, how was music?" Dani asked her friend as they met up in the canteen for lunch.
"Boring. Our teacher wasn't in so we didn't really do much. How was Art?" Emma asked, as she got some snacks out of her bag.
"Alright. I managed to finish my painting. Here" Dani explained, before she showed Emma a picture of the final product.
"Oh my god! That's awesome!" Emma exclaimed.
"Haha, thanks" Dani laughed, putting her phone away as she got her notepad out.
"Want some fries?" Emma asked her friend, getting up to get some proper food.
"I'm good, I'm leaving soon. I've got my ortho appointment this afternoon" Dani said.
"Oh right yeah. Well, I'll be back in a minute then" Emma said, walking off to go get some. Dani remained at the table and started looking at the English essay she was working on. She was nearly finished and then it was just a case of typing it up. A few minutes later, Emma returned with a container full of fries.
"She said and I quote, 'tell Dani to have some'" Emma laughed, as she had been given extra from the lunch lady. Dani laughed as they were both quite friendly with the lunch ladies. Dani took some fries, as the pair made chit-chat over their lunch hour. Soon enough it was nearing the end of lunch so the pair made their way to the office where Mike was collecting Dani to take her to her appointment. The only reason she had stayed over lunch is because Mike had a meeting meaning her couldn't pick her up any earlier.
"Thanks" Dani told the woman at the front desk as she signed out.
"I'll message you later about how it goes" Dani said to Emma.
"I'm meeting with Ryan later, so we might pop by" Emma told her friend as they walked out to Mike's car. Dani nodded and hugged her friend before she got in the car.
"Ready to go?" Mike asked the teen as she did her seatbelt up.
"Yes...I want out of this thing" Dani laughed, referring to her cast as she would hopefully be placed in a walking boot today. Mike laughed and started the short drive to the hospital, somewhere Dani had spent far too much time lately.

Within 20 minutes they had arrived at Grey Sloan and were sitting in the waiting room. It wasn't long before they were called in.
"Hi Dani, how you doing?" The ortho doctor asked.
"Good" Dani as we're smiling.
"So, plan of action today. We'll remove the cast, send you for an x-ray and then hopefully you'll be walking out of here in a boot" Be explained. Dani nodded happily. The doctor then went to get the cast cutter machine before he removed the cast. After 10 minutes it was removed and Dani's leg was cleaned. They had used dissolvable stitches after the surgery so they didn't have to be removed.
"Well this is healing really well." The doctor stated, examining the surgery site.
"We'll send you for an x-ray now. We'll get the results fairly quickly." The doctor explained. Dani nodded her head before she carefully stood up on her good leg and used her crutches to get to the x-ray department. After a short wait, Dani was called in by the radiographer. He sat her down on the bed and positioned her leg before he took the x-ray image. He re-positioned her leg a few times and took multiple x-ray images from different angles before he sent Dani back to the waiting room.

Nearly an hour later, the doctor called Dani back into the room. Alex was also in there. Dani smiled at him as she sat down on the bed like the doctor had suggested.
"So, the good news is, the break had healed really well. It's pretty much done healing. Now, it's just a case of giving it support as you start to use it again. We'll put you in a walking boot and refer you to physio where they'll help you build the strength back in it. It may take a couple of months but I expect you to be back to normal activities relatively quickly considering what happened." The doctor explained, showing off the x-rays.
"Great." Dani replied, happy with the news.
"I have somewhere to be so I'll leave Dr Karev here to put you on the boot and tell you how to use it etc. I'd like to see you again in a few months but we'll be in contact to arrange that." The doctor stated.
"Okay. Thank you." Dani smiled, shaking his hand before he left.
"Right trouble, this is your friend for the next few weeks." Alex joked, picking up the black medical walking boot from the side and showing it off.

Alex then went on to put it on the boot, showing Dani how to do it in the process. It was one with a pump so you could adjust the inside to cushion the leg more. He then adjusted the straps to the appropriate length before they he trimmed them so they wouldn't be a problem.
"So, for the first few weeks you'll need to where it whenever you're walking or using your leg. Obviously you can take it off to sleep and shower and when you're resting and all that, but otherwise leave it on." Alex started to explain to the teen as well as to Mike.
"Okay."
"Adding to this, for the first few days a least use your crutches until you're used to walking in the boot. After then you can walk without them just obviously don't over-do it. You may find that it aches more and possible swells up over the next days but that's just the adjustment from not using it to using it again" Alex explained.
"Yeah, cool." Dani replied, showing she understood. Alex then handed her some information leaflets before he booked Dani in for her first physio session. After that, Dani was free to leave. She slowly made her way out of the hospital with Mike as walking in the boot felt really weird as she hasn't walked on her leg in nearly 4 weeks. The pair then made their way back o the care-home.

When they got there, Liam was waiting outside as Dani had messaged him to say that she was done at the hospital.

"Yay! You got a boot." He said happily, greeting Dani was a hug and a kiss.
"Yeah, it feels weird but good." Dani laughed.
"I bet. When can you ditch these things?" Liam asked, pointing to the crutches.
"In a few days. I just need to get used to walking in the boot first." Dani explained, as they went inside. After saying hello to everyone, Dani and Liam went up to her room to chill as they hadn't seen each other in a few days. Dani was happy. She was finally getting back to some sort of normal and was finally actually able to spend time with Liam as she was able to walk again now.

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Hey guys! I know it's not much, but here it is. This chapter and the next are kind of like "filler" chapters before something exciting happens! I'll try to update soon. Love you guys!
Dharma x