Newcomers

Doctor's visit

Cody looked at himself in the mirror. He had been doing that a lot lately for some reason. He was disappointed that he had to take his braids out, but they were messy since he had had them for two days now. His hair was past his shoulders again. He sighed in exasperation, how was he gonna hide this? Especially since the roots had grown out so much from where the dye was. Eventually, he decided to put it in a ponytail and put a baseball cap backwards over his head.

Today he had a doctors appointment to check on his fractures and then the next one to see if he needed to start any medicine for his mental health. They weren’t exactly back to back. The first one was at nine and the second one was at 2:30 with about three hours in between. He had a lot to do today, but that wasn’t so bad.

He put on a grey sweatshirt and noticed that the sleeves were a little far from his wrists and it felt a little short, but he was unconcerned with that, it still fit. His jeans were tight around the ankle and a little high up, but that was fine, he could just wear high tops to cover it.

“You ready to go?” Charlie asked when they were in Chase’s cab. “Mm-hm.” Cody said with a nod. “Okay, let’s go.” Chase drove off. The car ride was a little bit tense, considering everything that happened, but Cody had expected something like that. Still, he didn’t like awkward silences. “Hey dad, can you turn on some music?” He asked. “Sure.” Charlie said.

“Ugh finally, maybe I can get this cast off. I’m so tired of hopping around everywhere. Are crutches supposed to chafe?” Cody said. Charlie chuckled. “I have no idea, Woodrow would probably know. He got into all kinds of trouble when we were kids.” He said. “So exactly like now?” Cody said. Charlie laughed heartily. “I guess so.” He replied.

“It seems like the Burns’ family is built for getting into trouble.” Chase commented. “Something happens every other week.” Charlie added. Cody smiled. “Remember all the mess I got into after the bots got here?” Cody asked. “Boy do I.” Charlie said. “What did you do to make all those building foundations so mad at you?” Charlie joked. “Don’t blame me, I was just existing.” Cody joked back. “Or you were sniffing around in places you had no concern.” Chase said. Cody chuckled sheepishly and half smiled. “That too.” He agreed. “At least luck seems to be on your side, you always come out on top.” Charlie said. Cody nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.” He said.

“Can you stand up for measurements?” The nurse asked. “Sure.” Cody said. She took his weight first, blood pressure, etcetera and they went to a different room to check his height. “5’11.” She said. Cody turned to her in surprise. “Are you sure that’s right?” Cody asked. “I’ve done this for years, and I checked. It’s definitely right.” She said. “Huh. Weird.” Cody said. “You must’ve hit a growth spurt.” Charlie said. “Yeah probably.” Cody agreed. “I guess I need some new clothes.” Charlie nodded. “We’ll start shopping this weekend.” He said. Cody cheered silently and tried his hardest not to grin.

Cody kicked his legs impatiently as he sat on the exam table, waiting for the doctor to come in. Hopefully he could get this darn cast off, he was so tired of it. With how quickly the fractures had healed before it seemed possible.

“Cody Burns?” Dr. Lee said. “Yep, that’s me!” Answered gleefully. “Everything on your chart looks good, including your new x-rays. Your ribs are completely healed and we can schedule to take your cast off as soon as saturday.” She announced. “Yes!” Cody cheered. “That’s great.” Charlie said. “Yep. We’ll have you in a boot for a couple of weeks so that you can safely practice walking again and that’s about it.” She said. “Noble.” Cody said. “Alright, you guys can sign out at the front and decide when you want your cast off. I’ll see you then.” Dr Lee said, leaving the room.

“Alright, come on Cody.” Charlie said, handing Cody his crutches. They decided to get his cast off at 4:00pm on Saturday. Finally, he wouldn’t have to hop and crawl everywhere. He’d never take having a functioning leg for granted again after this.

“So what should we do while we wait for my next appointment?” Cody asked. “Maybe we should get something to eat.” Charlie suggested. “Sounds good to me.” Cody agreed. They bought pizza and ate at the park. “Today’s been pretty good.” Cody commented. “That’s nice. I’m glad.” Charlie said. Cody nodded.

While he was eating he stared off into space absentmindedly. Thinking of absolutely nothing was a nice rarity these days. Just letting go of the world around him and letting muscle memory take over. It was nice to have a little break before he had to think about his problems again.

Cody sat on another exam table, kicking nervously and looking at the clock as the second hand moved. “You okay Cody?” Charlie asked. “Yep, just watching the clock.” He said. Charlie nodded. “Okay.”

Dr. Lee came in followed by a young man. “This is Dr. Nwigwe, he's going to talk to your father first while you take an exam and then he’ll come talk to you.” She said. He smiled and waved awkwardly. Cody waved back at him.

Cody didn’t like tests much, but it was to help him out so he was going to do it. Answering the questions about how he felt in the past few days was easy, and though he didn’t like admitting it, but once he really thought about it, he knew exactly what to say.

I’m gonna need a nap after all this.

After about thirty minutes. Dr. Nwigwe came back. “Hi Cody.” He said softly. Dr. Nwigwe was a bit awkward at first, but he was a good listener, didn’t interrupt and was easy to talk to. He helped him say the things he didn’t have words for and silently handed him tissues when he started getting upset. Overall he was pretty cool.

“Since we don’t have a diagnosis just yet I can’t prescribe you anything right now, but I can give you advice to make things a little easier on you while we wait for one. Though from everything you and your father said, it sounds like depression and ptsd. Just to be clear, a diagnosis is not your whole life, or you, it’s something you live with and need to learn how to manage. It shouldn’t stop you from living the life that you want.” He said.

“Anyway, I suggest setting your bedtime for 12:00 for one week, recording each time you go to bed and if you wake up during the night and showing it to your dad in the morning. The next week, move down to 11:00 and do the same. It’ll be an adjustment, but for now, just try to get some rest. “ Dr. Nwigwe continued and Charlie asked a lot of questions. Cody felt a lot better knowing that he was on the road to recovery.

“Maybe we should have you take a little more time off of school while we try this new thing.” Charlie suggested on the way home. Cody had been looking forward to being back in the building, but it would be hard to concentrate on anything while he was still struggling. “Yeah, we probably should.” He agreed. “Okay, I’ll talk to the school about getting your medical leave extended.” Charlie said.

Cody nodded and looked out of the window. He was less worried about the other things, but now he had something new to be nervous about. How he was going to be able to catch up on all his schoolwork.

He went home with his mood slightly dampered and laid in his bed. He decided to try and take a nap, he could handle a nightmare right now, he was super tired from today anyway. Unexpectedly, what he got out of his nap wasn’t another nightmare this time.