Challenge #02618-G061: Adjusting the Recovery Plan
Their legs were broken, their lower back was damaged, and they were bruised all to hell. Still, havenworlders were safe, so while uncomfortable, they were not too upset about the situation. A scaffold some workers has been on had given way and they'd shoved the havenworlders out of the way quickly just as it collapsed pinning them beneath. Security had to come rescue them as the havenworlders were too small to get them out. Still, being stuck in the chair, in casts and braces, knowing they were going to be like this for a while, and then in physical therapy for ages, got old fast. Sitting in the park alone, it was also getting rather depressing. They were used to going to the gym and being active. As it was, they'd just be happy with having someone to talk to right now. -- DaniAndShali
The accident could have been worse. It could have killed someone. Unfortunately, "no fatalities" is not the same as "no casualties". Only one casualty leads to erroneous conclusions, too. It never said how bad the casualties were. Human Tyr was the one casualty of the accident and they had managed to obtain all the injuries that the others missed out on. The good news was that the Havenworlders they saved were only mildly traumatised.
Human Tyr, on the other hand, was in a rather bad place. Broken bones, immobilised limbs whilst the shattered skeleton set in the proper configuration. Wrenched, torn, or nearly shredded muscles, ruined ligaments, and all sorts of debilitating injuries had them trapped in forced stillness. Human Tyr was not made for stillness. They had a reputation for constant motion. Even the one hand they maintained control over was tapping fingers on the blank space near the control panel for their mobility frame.
Green time - time near growing plants - was meant to soothe agitation in patients, but this patient had no patience. They were, to use the Human Parlance, going slowly nuts. There were only so many physiotherapeutic games a being could play, the body did need its rest to recuperate, after all. Alas, rest was not in Tyr's lexicon. They wanted action. Or at minimum, something to do.
Human Tyr, left alone to achieve calm for half an hour, was not achieving calm. They had, after ten minutes, started singing the I'm Bored song. Now, after five further minutes, they were bored even of that.
A small and curious child, usually the bane of adults everywhere, had found Tyr and began generating questions.
"'T 'cha doin?"
"I am sitting and waiting," said Tyr. "It's allegedly therapy."
"Why?"
"I broke a whole lot of my bones saving some people," Tyr decided not to go into all the internal injuries. "They have to hold me still while I heal up."
"Why?"
"Well I don't want wonky bones. That'd mean I'd never be able to run around and play again."
"Do you wanna play?"
"Like anything. I was so good at Low-g Whackaball, I would be all over the court. I just wanna run around and bounce and jump and skip... but..." his one mobile hand made a brief, yet expressive gesture. "I'm stuck."
"Does your butt get sore?"
"Every day."
"How do you go to the toilet?"
"With help from nice people who look after me."
It wasn't exactly the most coherent conversation, since the child couldn't hang on to one idea for longer than a handful of seconds, but it was a conversation. Something to help keep Tyr's mind of their woes. Well, most of their woes.
The Medik team caring for Tyr's recovery took some time to figure out simple conversation was what helped improve their mood.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / pohreen]
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