One Day At a Time ✔️

Ch. 59 Adjusting Her Recovery Plan

Drift's P.O.V.
It's easy to notice how light Jamie is. I never ask Ratchet for a number. A fraction of her weight was muscle, but no doubt she's too light even if she wasn't a warrior. Jamie struggles to stay warm. Add the air conditioners that are on around here. It's been too hot the past week not to have the air conditioners on. Sleeping has been hard. I hate having to cover Jamie like it's winter, and It's too hot for me to be under all the blankets. There's got to be something we're not doing to get her to gain weight.

Ratchet and the twins come by the room at eight after Jamie is asleep.
"How bad is her weight?" Crosshairs asks, holding on to me.
"Fifty pounds. Thirty-six pounds underweight for her height."
The four of us look at Ratchet and each other, wondering if Jamie lost all the weight she gained since we found her. How long before she's seriously ill again? She's weak, and we almost lost her twice.

Ratchet's P.O.V.
I didn't think Drift would respond to how much weight Jamie lost by passing out.
I want Jamie to eat, but this is a serious problem. If it was winter, I'd be playing with fire as the humans say, but I shouldn't be thinking Jamie won't get seriously ill in the middle of summer. You'd think almost losing her the last time she got sick would have been enough for me to think we need to get her gaining weight fast. We might need to forget having her eat food for a while, but how long before she wants the G-tube out?
"What about a pump for a long overnight feed?" Sunstreaker asks.
"We can try that."
I don't know how much longer Drift can watch Jamie struggle. How the hell Crosshairs is doing better than him is beyond me. I don't know if Drift heard us or not, but for now, I need to get him to calm down and go to bed.  The twins are not liking I tell them to go to bed. 

Crosshairs didn't contact me overnight. He texts me at eight that Drift and Jamie are still asleep. I have time now to get what I need from the hospital. This won't take long. I tell Jolt to tell Crosshairs and Drift to bring Jamie to the medbay. Before breakfast would be better.

I'm back in twenty minutes. Neither Crosshairs nor Drift has responded to my text, telling them to bring Jamie to the medbay before the cafeteria.
"Should we tell her now?" Jolt asks..
"I fear she'll be frightened hearing we're looking to do surgery. We need to prepare for that day."
Both of us hating how terrified Jamie is, and we'll need to be careful.

The two mechs walk in at ten. Drift carrying Jamie. She rests her head on Drift's shoulder.
Both mechs aren't sure if they should have Jamie here. I tell them we're going to add overnight feeding. Showing the pump and explaining this is going to run for ten hours.
I want Jamie eating food, so hopefully, this will be enough to get her to gain weight without having to cut back on how much she's eating.
They tell me the stoma is looking fine. With that, I let them leave.
"I don't know what else we can do," I sigh, "she's severely underweight. I'm not detecting her body cannot absorb nutrients. How long before she's seriously ill?" I ask Jolt.
"We need to be careful, though. Unfortunately, I think it's wise to prepare for Jamie getting sick."
We basically have an in-patient room for Jamie. I hate it, and can't wait to put the room back to the way it was, waiting for the next patient. I put the feeding pump on the table for Crosshairs or Drift to get later.

Drift's P.O.V.
I'm not sure what to think about Ratchet now, deciding we should use a feeding pump. I know Jamie is severely underweight, but now he's saying we should use it? 
"Take her," I hear Crosshairs, "she's been eating pancakes and bacon."
I realize the twins are taking Jamie into the cafeteria. Crosshairs leads me into the conference room.

"She'll be ok," Crosshairs says as he hugs me, "Ratchet is trying to help her."
"Something is wrong for him to make this decision now."
"You heard what Ratchet said. Jamie needs help to gain weight. You know how easily she can get sick because of her weight and she struggles to stay warm. I hate what she's been through and still needs a lot of care, but she's recovering."

I worried Jamie would worry about me, and not eat, but I see she's eating even while wondering where Crosshairs and I are.
We'll talk to the twins later. Crosshairs makes breakfast for both of us, and a small cup of tea for Jamie. She's already not liking the small cup.

Crosshairs' P.O.V.
The day is the same as the days before taking Jamie to the pool. I'm worried about tonight. Not sure how Jamie will respond to finding out Ratchet wants her on a feeding pump, and Drift isn't liking that. This shouldn't keep him up all night, but I worry I'm wrong. When will this end?

Some nights, Jamie is asleep before we get back to our room. We were hoping tonight wouldn't be one of those nights. Even if we waited for Jamie to wake up in the morning. It's the concern she'll wake up before we can take care of the equipment and she will not be happy with what Ratchet has us doing. There's also still the concern she'll run out in the middle of the night, but we can't have her sleeping by the wall with the tubing.  I doubt Drift is going to sleep for days.

I meant to stay up all night but fell asleep.  Drift and Jamie are still asleep when I wake up. The pump has finished. I clean everything up before the two wake up.
Sunstreaker texts asking how the night went. I don't like telling him I think Drift was exhausted from stress. There's not much we can do to help him. We're hoping we've figured out the rest of Jamie's recovery.