Obscurity

Chapter 10: Broken

Sierra

The nurse directs me to the examination room, and I sit on the bed.

"Lean forward and hold this towel under your nose." She instructs as she leaves the room. "It keeps the blood from draining down your throat."

It feels like my head is going to explode. In addition to the pain in my face, my head has begun to throb. I close my eyes and rest my back against the raised end of the bed. Tears are trailing down my cheeks, but I'm not crying. I can't remember a time my face hurt so much.

The doctor comes into the room, and I open my eyes when I hear him.

"What do we have here?" he says. He pulls the towel from my hand and removes it from my face. He looks at my nose and sighs. "I'm going to touch your nose, and it'll probably hurt but just bear with me." He says as he presses on either side of my nose with his gloved hands. He takes a little light out of his coat pocket and shines it up my nose.

"Yep. It's definitely broken." He says. "How did this happen?"

I shrug, "A door." I lie.

"Oh, a door..." he says skeptically. The nurse reenters the room, and he tells her, "I'm going to need the local anesthetic and a splint. She nods and leaves the room again.

"Go ahead and lie back, make yourself comfortable. I'm going to administer a local and manually reset your nose, Sierra." He explains.

I wince at the thought of a needle going in my nose, but I know it's got to be done. I wipe my eyes again, I'm still not crying.

"What's with this?" I ask the doctor.

"Facial trauma, specifically a broken nose, will cause your eyes to water. It'll go away when the pain and swelling go down." He informs me.

The nurse comes back in again. This time with a tray holding a syringe and some sort of bandage.

"Okay, just be still and I'll get this local administered quickly. It'll relieve some of the pain." The doctor says.

I sit still. I'm not risking jumping around and taking a needle to my eye. It stings like hell when he first pokes me. I'm sitting on my hands, so I don't grab for his. It only takes a few pokes before I don't feel any more of the needle. My head still hurts and my face feels like it was hit with a brick but I don't feel the pokes. I can tell he's still poking, though, I can see him moving around my nose and sticking it. I'm so glad I can't feel it.

When he finishes with that he looks up at me, "Okay, now for the hard part. It'll be quick. I should be able to set your nose with one fluid movement."

I nod as he positions his hands on either side of my nose. I'm scared it's going to hurt but I just sit still. I hear him count, and on three he jerks his hands to the left and I hear and feel a loud CRACK. I feel like I'm going to black out, my vision is fuzzy and cloudy. I close my eyes and reopen them, a brief feeling of nausea overcoming me. I don't throw up, but I still feel like I may.

He looks at my face. "All set. You did well." He says. He goes about putting on the splint. When he's finished, it feels like I have some huge appendage hanging off my face but he assures me it's necessary.

"Thanks, doc."

He holds out his hands pointing to each finger as he ticks off the treatments, "Ice, Tylenol for pain, leave the splint on until I tell you otherwise... Oh, and watch out for those doors." He smiles.

I try my best at a smile back but my face hurts. The nurse is cleaning up the supplies he used and says she'll be back with some Tylenol. The doctor tells me he wants to see me back in a few days to check out how the healing goes.

"No problem, doc." I say as I dangle my legs off the table waiting for the nurse to return.

"Take care." He says as he leaves.

It doesn't take long for the nurse to return with my pain medication. I take the two pills and the water she hands me.

"I'll get you back to your unit." She says. She motions for me to follow her.

As we pass through the medical unit, she stops at a large refrigerator and pulls out an ice pack. "Here, put this on your face tonight."

I take the pack and continue to follow her. We make it back to my unit and she escorts me to the nurses station. There, she hands them some papers and signs off on my transfer. I stand there as she turns and leaves.

One of the regular floor nurses, possibly the one who took me to Medical, assesses my damaged face. "Damned doors." She says with a compassionate smile.

"Yeah, damned doors." I say in agreement.

I look up at the clock in the nurses station, and it's after midnight. I am pretty tired, but I'm not really ready to go back and face Alma. I haven't thought about her this entire time at Medical, and I'm too exhausted to start thinking about her now.

I look at the nurse, "Can I rest in the day room?" I ask sincerely.

"It's not really a place to rest, Sierra. What's wrong with your room?" she asks.

"It's just, I want to be closer to the nurses station in case, something goes wrong with my nose or in case I need anything. Plus, wouldn't it be easier to check on me if you only have to walk a few paces across the hallway instead of halfway down the corridor?" I rush my sentences, giving her very little time to protest or work the pros and cons of my idea.

I see her tossing the idea around her head. "It would be a little easier..." she hesitates. "But as soon as everyone starts getting up in the morning, you're going to have to as well. You can't be lounged out in the day room during the day." She says firmly.

"Thanks." I tell her.

"I'll grab you a couple of pillows and a blanket. You can lay down over on the couch by the television." She nods in the direction of the couch.

I mosey over to it and sit down. She comes with my sleeping supplies relatively quickly.

"I'll check on you in a little while." She says as she stuffs the two pillows behind my back as I lie back and try to get comfortable.

"Thanks again." I tell her as she makes her way back to the nurses station.

I try not to think about everything that went on today. It isn't long before everything fades, the pain, the memory of Alma knocking the shit out me, everything.