A Little Extra

Now that I'm out of serious danger I can tell you what's been going on with me the last several days. It's almost funny that with the Exiles letting their true colors shine again, the New Breed ramping up the rate at which they gather together even as we try to keep their numbers down, and the other threats we face, the simplest ones are what catch us off guard.

I had Aaron post the other day because I was incapable of it. It was a lucky thing I managed to get in touch with him, communications being what they are. His ability to check in here at home has been spotty at best, but I was terrified that if anyone knew that our medical staff were pretty much all busy during that day, we'd be at risk for an attack. The Exiles aren't the only opportunists out there, after all.

See, my appendix almost burst.

In the old world that would have been cause for concern but not all that dangerous compared to most other health problems. I woke up Saturday morning with a sharp pain in my side and decided after a few hours that it wasn't gonna go away on its own. So I went to the clinic. Evans and Phil asked me a lot of questions, but what it boiled down to was guesswork. Damned well-informed guesswork, but still. No tests to confirm, no scans to make sure. They (and Gabby) both thought I had appendicitis, so they did what all good surgeons do and convinced me to let them cut my belly open.

Phil decided to pepper his conversation with explanations about how easy this surgery would have been before The Fall. How he could have done laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive, and had me up and about in no time.

Instead, I have this gaping wound on my tummy, and a lot of pain, and I'm down for a while. I'm told the surgery went as well as could be expected, but given our circumstances that's not saying great things. I've refused pain medicine (which I regret every time I breathe) for the sake of those who may need it in a much worse way later. That's about half altruism and half practicality--I might be the one who breaks an arm or something, which hurts a lot more than this does.

I'm here in the clinic until further notice. I can work on stuff from my bed, but no duties that involve me having to move around much. With luck I won't develop any infections, though the antibiotics we have at hand are much appreciated.

Okay, I'm not making much sense at the moment. I think Evans might have slipped me some pain medicine, that tricky fucker. I'll be back (and hopefully more coherent) tomorrow.

Weird to think that little extra bit inside me caused so much trouble. An organ I didn't even need almost killed me. I wonder what they did with it?

Ugh, there are hungry zombies penned up not far away. I've decided I just don't want to know.