You're Losing Me-Grey's Anatomy AU Book Nine

Chapter Twelve

"Patients who undergo an amputation often feel a sensation where the missing limb was as if it's still there. The syndrome is called phantom limb. It's as if the body can't accept that a terrible trauma has occurred. The mind is trying to make the body complete again. Patients who experience phantom limb report many different sensations but by far the most common is pain. The body can be stubborn when it comes to accepting change. The mind holds out hope that the body can be whole again and the mind will always fight for hope, tooth and nail, until it finds a way of understanding its new reality and accepts that what is gone is gone forever"

"don't stop, just keep going on"

Derek, Lucy and Callie were walking down the hall in the hospital. "An acoustic neuroma?" Callie questioned him. "Oh, boy", he muttered. "A long, difficult surgery with a stupid-high post-excision mortality/morbidity? That's what you want to start my hand with?" "It's my hand", Derek corrected. "And thanks for making it sound so fun"

"You can't try something with a little margin for error?"

"I was supposed to operate on Jimmy months ago, but then the plane crashed. It has to be today"

"Well, if you can do this, I guess my hand can do anything"

"Still my hand"

They made their way to the nurses station where all the attendings were gathered and Owen came out. "Okay, folks. Let's just start", he said, going up the stairs and standing a few steps up. "As many of you know, Seattle Grace Mercy West has suffered a financial setback. The administration is working hard to keep the impact of that setback as small as possible. To that end, we're gonna have to initiate some cost-cutting measures. The board has hired a physician advisor to help". "What's a physician advisor?" Lucy asked.

"Well, she consults on maximising efficiency, streamlining processes, assessing where we can trim our budgets"

"Who to fire and when to fire them?" Bailey said.

"She's here to advise and to help. I was hoping to introduce her in person, but she seems to be late"

"On her first day?" Cristina said. "Not very efficient"

"You can expect to see her in the halls, in your labs, in the OR"

"So we're gonna have an accountant following us around in the ORs?" Derek said.

"She's not an accountant. She is a trained surgeon. Frankly, she is here to try to help us. Thank you for cooperation"

Arizona, Aurora, Alex and Cristina were in Nyah's room. "Everyone at Namboze was so worried when we heard the program might move to UCLA, myself included", Makena said. "You make the kids feel so at home here". "Well, we were never gonna let that happen", Alex replied. "No, I was away, but now I'm back", Arizona added. "And as long as Dr Karev and I are here, then the program stays here". "Okay, Nyah's pericarditis is quite severe", Cristina explained. "The pericardial sac around her heart is inflamed and starting to adhere to the heart itself. So I'll perform what's called pericardial stripping. So I'll remove the sac, and her heart will start beating on its own again". "What shall I tell her?" Makena asked. "Tell her we're gonna fix her heart, and she'll breathe much better", Alex said. Makena started translating for her as Alex, Aurora and Cristina left the room. "Nice program. Shame to see it go", Cristina commented. "Thanks. Wait. What?" Alex said. "What are you talking about?" Aurora asked. "We're getting a visit from the efficiency fairy", Cristina answered. "You think she's not gonna make this disappear?" "Look, shut up. We just got it back", Alex said.

"She's trimming fat. You're flying kids across the world for a pro bono surgery. That's pretty fatty"

"Yeah, they're orphans", Aurora pointed out.