One Day At a Time ✔️

Ch. 65 What Now?

Drift’s P.O.V.
Sideswipe hasn’t been by since the day Jamie had to be rushed to the medbay. I don’t know what’s going on with him. I know he worries about Jamie, but for him not to come by once in the week that Jamie has been here is unlike him. Even Jamie is wondering where he is. I know Sunstreaker tells him this, yet Sideswipe refuses to come to visit. He’d be a big help keeping her busy when she’s awake. I’m waiting for Jamie to rip the IV and G-tube out. I shouldn’t be thinking it’s good that while she’s in bed, she’s still getting tired and sleeping a lot.

“Now you’re being ridiculous!” I argue with Sideswipe, “I’ll drag you down to the medbay if I have to.”
Sideswipe grabs his Nintendo switch and comes with me.

Jamie is asleep when we walk into the room.
“Sit!” Sunstreaker demands before Sideswipe leaves, “she needs you to distract her. Before she rips the tubes out. Art isn’t doing it.”
Sideswipe looks at the tubes from the IV, feeding pump, and oxygen tube.
“And she cannot leave to watch T.V. Ratchet won’t let us even though Crosshairs and I can handle the equipment.”
“We’re starting over, aren’t we?” Sideswipe asks, worried.
“With her physical therapy, which she was getting frustrated with,” Sunstreaker explains, “I’m not sure if the pool will be enough. She wasn’t close to being ready for physical therapy to be treated like training.”
I think we’re at the point Jolt and Ratchet see often; an Autobot used to fighting needing to take time to recover, and the bot hates how long it’s taking to be cleared for battle. As for Jamie, I worry she’s also thinking about finding Megatron.
Ratchet gives in and lets Sideswipe bring a TV in Jamie’s room. Sideswipe isn’t sure if this will help distract Jamie better than watching T.V. on her tablet, but we’re giving this a try.

Ratchet isn’t sure when to discharge Jamie. Whether to wait until she’s over pneumonia or until she has a stronger immune system.
“You know she will not like that,” Sunstreaker argues, “I know she’s not liking any of this, but I think she’ll be less agitated if Crosshairs and Drift take care of everything in their room.”
“I’m not sure if once a day is enough,” Ratchet sighs.
“We’ll figure something out to keep her busy for an hour, twice a day,” Sunstreaker adds.
Things just keep getting challenging.

Ratchet’s P.O.V.
I believe we’ve reached the point in Jamie’s recovery where she’s annoyed with her health and recovery. This is something common Jolt and I deal with. Jamie might be on the difficult end of trying to encourage patients to keep going, but Jamie won’t give up. I fear she’s going to look for Megatron in her current health.

“Ratchet?” Sunstreaker asks as he walks into my office, “how good is the pool for Jamie’s therapy?”
“Hard to say until she gains weight. The pool will make it easier for her to get therapy and won’t be annoyed... hopefully. I’m keeping her here until she’s off oxygen. I know Crosshairs and Drift can handle that as well, but they’ll have enough to deal with.”
We know Jamie is not liking the G-tube, and now with the immune boost infusions.

Jamie is not liking the plan. I wasn’t expecting her to cry rather than be angry. I think this is frustration crying. Not something I like to see, but not great while Jamie is sick.
Crosshairs, Drift, and Sunstreaker try to get her to calm down. Her heart rate is going up.
Drift carefully picks her up. Hoping holding her will help.
“Is there anything we can do?” Jolt asks.
“Other than relaxant, no.”

Drift finally gets Jamie to calm down. We hear her breathing as he sits on the recliner. The only thing I can do is explain to her she’s recovering, but she’s not ready to go back to training. Sunstreaker adds she can play in the pool and it’ll be good therapy. I don’t think this is helping much, but it’s all we can do in terms of how agitated she is.
She lets me put her on a nebulizer treatment.

Drift’s P.O.V.
I’m not sure what we’re going to do. This isn’t something easy to deal with even with friends helping Crosshairs and me. I’m still holding Jamie while she’s getting the nebulizer treatment. Hoping watching T.V. will keep her occupied. Jamie is getting stronger, but now she’s not liking how slow her recovery is going. She will not like it if we do only tube feeding. I don’t know if I can say Ratchet should have decided that’s the plan while we were working on getting to where we could remove the trach.
Jamie is ready for a nap when the treatment finishes. Knowing she’ll be asleep for at least two hours, Ratchet wants the feeding pump going. Once everything is going, I sit on the recliner, trying to figure out something.

I don’t think five minutes passed before I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder. I should have known it was Crosshairs. Looking at me, worried.
“I’m fine, I just don’t know what we’re going to do about how much Jamie hates this,” I tell him.
“I don’t think this is new. She’s just able to say something.”
He sits on the other chair. I don’t think he’ll leave if I tell him even though we’re just watching Jamie sleep. I hope the pool will help Jamie. She still has several months before she’s fully recovered, but she’s made a lot of progress.