The Cobra's Gaze and Bite [Cobra Commander x OC]

Entry 03 : Recovery Buddies

Entry 03 : Recovery Buddies

25 | 1000 | Z | DEC | 20

Two months passed, things were progressing in the way things did in these types of situations, slowly. At least, for Rex and I things were slow. The Underground Hospital on the other hand was always bustling with activity. I was surprised at how such a busy hospital for highly paid and highly wanted criminals could remain hidden so well from the rest of the world. Well, actually, I was sure a few groups had basic knowledge of the existence of this place. They just had not proven that it, in fact, even existed.

For myself, those days had been filled with mostly staying in bed and the various treatments for my burns. My right shoulder had been left alone, since only time and minimal movement would heal it better than any technology at this point. My throat had healed the fastest and already I could hold long conversations with little to no pain in speaking. A nurse had also been taking me on trips up and down the long hall that the Burn Unit sat at one end of. Dr. Pershing had recommended it two weeks into my stay here.

"It's a good place to start your physical therapy and we do not want to add muscle atrophy to your diagnosis." He had said, and since then I've been making the trip down the hall and back once a day. I was making excellent progress according to the nurse, though I was sure that nurses are required to say encouraging prognosis' to keep a patient from giving up. Either way I was feeling better from the daily walks, despite that I would feel tired after each one but that became less so after a while, plus it got me out of the Burn Unit for a few minutes.

I don't claim that I am a terrible patient, which is true, however I cannot sit still for long periods of time. It's not ADHD, I do enjoy a lazy day once in a while, but I can only be lazy for so long before I start getting anxious with the need to do something. That's mostly why these days I was eager to get back to what I loved most in the world: Writing. Unfortunately, I was right-handed and so writing was out of the question for now. Didn't stop me from thinking of ideas, but it bothered me since I could not put them down on paper.

For my roommate, his recovery was far more trying on him both mentally and physically. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, more simply referred to as HBOT and as I learned from a friendly technician, it puts you in a full-body sealed and pressurized chamber where you are exposed to air that is one-hundred percent oxygen. You could be in there for an hour and a half to full two hours per session. This is to enhance your body's natural healing ability, and has proven very successful over the past few years.

Rex had been going to these HBOT sessions quite frequently, I believe he's been close to forty sessions by now, and it's a process for sure. What I found extremely funny was the day he tried conveying to Dr. Pershing that he wanted to start walking to the room where his sessions took place. The first three weeks or so he had to be wheeled in and lifted into the chamber, but when he wanted to start using his own two feet to get there it put shock into Dr. Pershing's usually calm expression. At first, Rex was denied his request once it was properly translated, myself frequently referred to since I had been walking around with help for two weeks at that point.

In fact, I did most of the translating since I was better at reading him than our doctor or anyone else. This, I had no answer for at the time but it would not be until much later that I figured out why I could read him then.

The next day Dr. Pershing had come in with a changed mind, Rex was allowed to start re-learning to walk. So recently he's been walking to the chamber with the aid of the HBOT technician that's been overseeing his sessions. He had been very excited to be walking again, and his stride had been getting smoother and less gangly as he continued to do so. However, Dr. Pershing warned him that odds were against him at ever regaining one-hundred percent mobility of his limbs. Rex didn't care, he was satisfied that he could walk in general.