Belly Literary Universe (part 2)

Camilla's Clothes Part 11: Changes

Camilla locked up her shop. She set up an automated feeder for Muzi, and arranged for a neighborhood teenager to check in on her while she was gone. Her recent deal with Cozca and their Secret Advisor was coming to consummation. What was already a miraculous but invasive procedure, was being complicated by genetic modification. Though clearly what was being done was tested and benign done by experts, she couldn't help but think of monster movies from the first few decades of movies and TV.

She checked into one of the hospitals in Aspera Medical center. The facility in question was new. Modern. Spacious. And the staff were friendly, or at least confident. In her years dealing with doctors and nurses, some of them had proven to be less than helpful, and so having everyone in a good mood while she checked in put her at ease. Most of the rooms she passed were empty. Must be slow for the ward. Huh. she thought to herself.

Before long she was in a hospital gown, with her vitals tracked, resting in a private room, awaiting contact from her doctors.

In the almost two weeks of preparation, Doctor Logus, with his pale blue eyes and greying sideburns, expressed concerns about the genetic modification. But he quieted down and guided through the process. His reluctance actually made her feel safer once he led the small parade of doctors into her hospital room.

"Horatio Mendez - I'll be your head surgeon today," The buff Latino doctor said.

"And I'm Ebla Schwartz - pathologist - geneticist - I'll be taking care of your recipe today," The tan skinned doctor said with a smirk.

Doctor Logus smiled and asked how Camilla was doing.

"I'm fine. Nervous as all heck of course. But I'm fine."

"You're in good hands," Doctor Logus assured.

Dr Mendez continued, "So looks like the schedule is to have you go through resequencing, then let things sit for a few hours, then go through with the implantation."

"Why the delay?" Camilla asked.

"A simple precaution," Doctor Shwartz said. "So, the process of changing your genetic structure is relatively straight forward at this point. The hard work has been done in the lab already. We will use a very selective virus -"

"A virus. But I'm having major surgery. What about infection..." She interrupted.

Dr Shwartz put on a comforting smile. "In a normal transplant surgery that would be a serious risk, but this situation is different in a couple important ways. This isn't a cold virus that will run amok, this is a very selective - specially designed virus. It does a specific task, editing genes, and self destructs. An immune response would be bad, yes, but the virus should do it's work in hours. Faster than any real immune response. On the other hand, normal transplants require anti rejection and immunosuppressant medications - a regular virus could wreak havoc with your body. The benefit of this transplant is that rejection is not a concern. These tissues are made of your own cells. Your own DNA. They're a part of you - even if they're not inside you yet. So no chance things get out of control."

Camilla looked to Dr Logus, who gave her an approving nod.

"To speed things up, and to prevent any small possibility of an immune response, we have an advanced method of delivery. Have you ever had acupuncture, Camilla?"

Camilla shrugged. "Isn't that the stuff with the needles and placebo effect?"

Dr Shwartz chuckled. "Indeed. It's like that, in some ways. We could just let the 'virus' run its course through your body. That is slow and risks side effects. With this procedure, our goal is to 'infect' you with the dna altering virus as quick as possible. The virus is programmed to replicate only so much, as I said before. The infection will spread and die out very quickly. To make sure it reaches all your tissues we will be making many small injections all at once all over your body. Hundreds of them to varying depths..."

Camilla swallowed hard. "Oh."

"You'll be mildly sedated for it, of course. It will be like getting a tooth pulled. But having so many entry points will ensure that the virus spreads throughout you and has time to reach all your tissues."

Dr Mendez stepped in. "And once that's done, we'll be implanting your new reproductive organs. Surgery is messy on the body. Clots form and tissues heal - it would make it difficult for this process to happen. So we do it beforehand. Your new tissues have already undergone the changes, so no worries there."

Camilla laughed nervously. The doctors did admirably at calming her concerns, and describing the order of events and the risks.

It felt like a bolt of lightning. The doctor came in, explained everything, and left. At every stage they let her ask questions, and answered them. But once they were gone it felt like she had forgotten to ask them anything of value.

The nitrous oxide gave her a nice break from anxiety and reality. It didn't matter that an infinite legged spider like machine was looming above her with needles for feet. Being skewered so many times tickled. She laughed as her whole body felt like it had fallen asleep. Hahaha I'm on pins and needles. The joke wouldn't get out of her mind and the machine mounted syringes dispensed their gene altering venom.

Recovery wasn't pleasant. The nurse checked her temperature every 10 minutes to make sure she didn't develop a fever or other complication. She'd been through worse procedures. But getting stabbed deep with needles a hundred times at once didn't leave her feeling all that great. Everything was sore.

The break between procedures, gave her time to think. To dread. To hope. She wished she could still be on the nitrous. She wondered if she made the right choice - if changing the genes of herself and her children was worth it. Surely they ask her about it. In her selfish desire to have kids, was it right to change them all so drastically?"

"You're not the only person to have second guesses," An elderly nurse responded to Camilla's worries. "I was a nurse for the original trials of this treatment back in the 80s. They had just as many fears. More even. And more justified. A lot of them died."

"Dear, you're not helping." Camilla grimaced out the window.

"Nonsense. What I mean is that this isn't new. Some died yes, but others went on to live healthy lives and have healthy kids."

"Fat kids." Camilla commented and scolded herself mentally for being so rude.

"Some of them, yeah. Maybe that was a bad example. But honey, your children will not resent you for doing what you had to do to bring them around. Love them and they will love you back. It won't matter what else happened before."

Camilla smiled and hugged a spare pillow. "Thanks."

She was wheeled to an operating room soon after.

***

The pain killers kept her loopy, but the doctors assured her the surgery went exactly as planned. She slept and dreamed of chubby babies.