Healing Him

Part 8

Jane and Matt monitored Donatello's progress daily and he did better with each passing day. At the end of the week, he was deemed well enough he could finally go home.

He was ordered to be on bed rest for at least another week, but he still needed to be able to stand up and walk around to avoid blood clots in his legs. His family would help him, but he was also given a crutch to use for his broken foot. His stomach still hurt too much for him to support himself on two crutches.

Donatello was more than ready to go home.

When they finally got him home, Donatello was helped to his room. He instantly wanted to be in his own bed. He had missed his room, the lair, and his bed. But with him, Donny was more a stomach sleeper, but with his stomach currently injured, he wasn't going to lay on it.

Donatello was so tired that he fell asleep almost right away when he got comfortable in his own bed. It was so good to be home again.

April came over later that evening with Irma to see how he was doing. She had told Irma of what happened and Irma wanted to see for herself.

The family and friends had a pizza dinner close to Donny's room. Donatello was awake for dinner, but he still didn't feel real well. He had been served small portions of pizza. He could hold them down, he just didn't have a lot of appetite right now.

Even Irma was astonished at what had happened to her friend. Donatello had shown her the injured areas too. She wished him well. She also took the news that he wouldn't be out on the streets for a few months.

The girls were happy to be able to do anything they could for Donatello or the family if needed.
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In the following days, Donatello slept a lot more. Splinter gave him some pain relief herbs, but he was also on antibiotics and pain pills from the doctor too. He needed a lot of rest these days. But it was also hard to sleep at times too, when he would wake up sweating and scared, scared of what had happened to him and would it happen again?

His family was woken many times to his screaming in his sleep and they often had to comfort him the best they could.

The brothers were often busy training, patrolling, or even watching TV. They kept the TV down so Donatello could sleep. But they did help him out of bed a few times a day to do the walking exercises expected of their injured brother. He was also only allowed sponge baths to get clean.

After the first week home, Donatello was allowed out of bed a lot more, but he still didn't like moving around much. By now, he was using his crutch to get out of bed, but it still hurt his stomach to put bending into it. He could also still feel the stitches in his sides and they were pulling at the skin. They were also very itchy, and it took a lot of willpower to not try to scratch them.

When he was up and about now, balancing on the crutch when he stood, but he preferred just sitting and watching TV with the others.

But also during this time, attacks from their worst arch enemy were increasing again. Donny's brothers were called out a lot more to deal with them.

It finally took one night for Raphael to call Donatello to tell them how to deal with a special technology that the Shredder was after.

Donatello told them to hold the turtle com to the machine so he could see the buttons and mechanics of it. He gave the best advice that he could and they did it to the best of their knowledge and destroyed it.
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After the last few encounters with their enemies, the Shredder did figure out that the turtles were one short. Donatello was finally out of the picture. But he had seen that the others had called for help. He was going to find out who this new help was, one way or another.
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Two weeks passed and Donatello was taken back to the doctor for a checkup on his healing progress.

The bandages were taken off of Donny's middle. The covering on the plastron would be there for a long time yet. The sides were looked at and they looked healed. Now it was time to get the stitches out. Donatello was happy to hear that.

"They've been driving me crazy itching these past few weeks." Donatello said.

"I'm sure they have." Jane said. "But now we can take them out."

Jane got some tweezers and some small scissors and began removing the stitches in Donny's sides.

When all the stitches were gone, it was definitely noticed that there were going to be scars from the wounds. Donatello was not proud to have them. They had been given to him by an evil coward.

The arm came next and the stitches in there too were removed. Then came the leg.

The cast was cut off and x-rayed again. For the brief time there was no cast on his foot, it felt good to the still healing turtle.

Jane examined the x-ray in front of Donatello. She pointed out where the worst of the fractures had been and that they were still healing. At least for another couple of weeks, the foot needed to be in a cast again.
Jane made up a new cast for the leg.

Donatello had been walking with the crutch for these past few weeks, but this time he had a cast that he could just walk on. He no longer needed the crutch. He was at a month along in recovery.

In a few weeks, Jane would see about putting a brace on the leg. Donny looked forward to that, but he was looking more forward to not wearing anything at all on his leg anymore.

Donatello left the clinic with a new cast on his leg and his middle was still kept in bandages because they wouldn't be good for awhile yet. But also before he left, he had also confessed about his bad dreams of what had happened. Jane knew he had been traumatized and the best she could advise was talking to Master Splinter. He seemed wise in his ways.
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There were continued attacks from the Shredder and company. And every time, Donny's help had to be sought through via turtle com. Eventually, there was another robot created to attack the turtles.
When Donatello was contacted about it, he said that maybe Channel Six's transmitter could reprogram it to serve them. But Donny himself would have to reprogram it.

Donatello felt he was well enough to go out of the lair now, as long as he didn't face a frontal confrontation.

April came and picked him up and drove him to Channel Six. He programmed the transmitter to fix the attacking robot while Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo kept the robot busy.

This had been April's day off, and was caught by her boss, Burne, and Vernon on her and Don's way up to the transmitter room. Donatello didn't want to be seen like this. He hid, and while April talked to the men, Donny managed to sneak around them. He limped going up the stairs. His leg hurt a little bit, but wasn't too bad from a few weeks ago.

He arranged some wires around and then April finally joined him. In just a few short minutes, the transmitter was ready and he pushed the lever and the transmitter flashed some new programming to the robot, making it turn on the Shredder and his mutants, chasing them back underground to the ocean.

April and Donatello took the elevator back downstairs and were careful to avoid watching eyes. The other turtles picked them up in the Turtle Van.
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Another two weeks went by and on the next leg exam, Jane finally let Donatello have a foot brace to wear. On the next checkup, maybe Donatello's leg would be well enough to go without anything, but this new x-ray revealed some progress, but it was still healing. That hammer had smashed the turtle's leg and ankle pretty good. The ankle bone was taking the longest to heal.