DuckTales: Remembrance [Lena x OC]

Chapter 1-23: Back to the Doctors

After nearly a decade, Uncle Donald brought me back to Dr. Patel, my knee doctor, after finding out what happened to my knee yesterday. Uncle Scrooge is also here, but Uncle Donald is glaring at him for letting me get hurt on his watch. Great. So happy I got to add fuel to that particular fire. The nurse calls me in and my uncles follow, the nurse taking my measurements before leading me to a room, where Uncle Donald picks me up and sets me down on the plastic-lined cot, then sits down in the chair next to the cot, and Uncle Scrooge stands on my other side.

Dr. Patel finally enters the room after a couple minutes, and says, "Hello, Izzabelle. It's been a while. Do you know what caused this recent knee dislocation?"

I respond, "I was exploring our ancestral home with my brothers and just tripped and landed directly on my knee."

Again, still not a total lie. I was also running for my life from a demon dog, but they don't need to know that, especially not Uncle Donald.

Dr. Patel frowns, saying, "It seems it's been getting even worse. I'm going to need to update your x-ray scans, but first..." She grabs a pair of crutches, handing them to me as she finishes, "You're going to need these."

I rest the crutches under my armpits, and the plastic is a bit uncomfortable, and it's a bit awkward to move with, so I have to go slow with the crutches until I can get more used to them. The four of us go to the x-ray room, and my uncles are led into the small off-room the nurses and my doctor are in, and they take x-rays of my knees. We then go back to the room, and my doctor examines the scans.

She says, "It looks like your knee is still slightly out of its socket, but I can't tell what's causing it from just these scans. It could possibly be a problem with your ligaments. We should do an MRI just to be sure."

Great more walking with these crutches. She leads me to a giant machine with a tube and cot in the center, and I start getting nervous.

Dr. Patel says, "Now, all you have to do is lay down on your back and not move your legs, alright? That's all we need to scan."

I nod nervously, trying to get on the cot, but I struggle to get my leg on it. Uncle Scrooge rushes over and helps me get my leg on the cot, then stands back again, Uncle Donald still glaring at him. Dr. Patel notices that, and looks at me, her eyebrow raised in a silent question. I just sigh, trying to convey that they're both just always like this.

She shrugs, and says, "Now, we have to make sure you don't have any metal on you before I turn on the machine, so you should probably take off any jewelry."

I frown, taking off my penny necklace and handing it to Uncle Scrooge. The chain is made of metal for reinforcement. Dr. Patel leads my uncles out of the room, then comes back in the room.

She says, "I can tell you're nervous, so would you like to listen to music while the MRI is going? It's quite loud, and the process takes around a half hour."

I just nod, and she hands me a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. I put them on, and turn the dials to connect to a radio station. The machine is activated, but I can barely hear it through the music. I lay on my back as the cot moves toward the MRI, stopping when my legs are inside. Over the next half hour, I just stare at the ceiling while listening to music and trying to drown out the constant whirring of the machine. Once it's done, the cot is slowly pulled out of the MRI machine, and Dr. Patel takes the headphones off my head.

She says, "The scans are done. Let's go back to the room so I can take a look at them."

I nod and follow her, my uncles following me.

Once she's taken a look at the scans, Dr. Patel says, "It's just as I feared. The repeated, small dislocations you've been having have slowly been stretching out your ligaments and tendons, and once they've been stretched, they can't tighten back up, which has led to this dislocation being so bad. It seems you've torn a ligament in that knee, and once that's healed, you'll need surgery to replace your ligaments and tendons and move your knee and tibia to where they should've been when you were hatched."

Uncle Scrooge asks, "How long until she's healed up?"

Uncle Donald retorts, "Why? So you can whisk her off on more adventures as soon as she's healed and get her hurt again?"

Dr. Patel sighs, saying, "Izzy should be healed from this in around 6 months, so we should schedule the surgery 7 months from now. As long as she keeps weight off of her hurt knee while walking, she should heal up fine. She should stop needing crutches in 3 months, and she'll need a new knee brace to help keep her leg straight after surgery.

She leaves the room for a moment and comes back with a large knee brace with metal hinges on the side and four elastic velcro straps along it, two on my thigh, and two on my lower leg.

She says, "You don't need this yet, but you will need it after surgery."

I nod, and she leads us out of the room so the check-up can be paid for.

Uncle Scrooge pays my medical bills, including the stuff Uncle Donald hasn't been able to pay off yet, and Uncle Donald mutters, "Finally, he does something useful with his money."

The three of us go home in uncomfortable silence, and Uncle Donald helps me into the mansion, setting me down on the couch. He makes an 'im watching you' gesture to Uncle Scrooge with his fingers to his eyes, then leaves back to the houseboat. This is going to be a long couple of months.

~1.1k words