#chest x-ray urine and blood samples came back clean

[brain-rot-hour]

I spent a good portion of yesterday in the hospital and was a tad delirious when I was finally sent home

I'm fine though. Just a p-ssy that can't handle a virus *hair flip*

[rejectedusername-trashfics]

New Life With the Mad King- Part 2

Summary: Mad King goes to the bar with his younger brother, Rimmy Tim, in their civilian identities. A drunken MK gets intimate with a man who looks like his guilty crush. Turns out the man actually was his crush, and their actions lead to unforeseen consequences. Perhaps the consequences will be what permanently defeats the Mad King.

Part: 2 of ?

Word Count: 2,433

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Life went on for Vav as though nothing happened. As the weeks went by though, Gavin felt like he was starting to come down with something. Ten or so weeks after that night, X-Ray and Vav were doing their nightly patrols when they discovered a robbery going down on the main street of town. X-Ray ran up to the robber, a man twice as large as a normal man, while Vav slowly caught up.

“Freeze!” X-Ray yelled as he reached the thief. “You’re no match for X-Ray and…” he turned to see that Vav had not caught up to him yet.

The giant man laughed manically. “X-Ray and who?” the thief asked, sounding like two people were talking.

X-Ray turned around. “Vav, hurry up!” he shouted. Vav rolled his eyes and sighed. He sprinted to X-Ray and was out of breath when he finally caught up with him. “Dude, what the hell!?! You’re supposed to shoot slow motion, not live in slow motion!”

Vav sighed and rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m so bloody sor-RY that I don’t have as much energy to fight right now!” Vav replied with a scowl.

The thief laughed. “We can use that to our advantage. We knew that you were no match for Alfreyco!” he said as he began running at Vav.

“Vav! NOW!” X-Ray shouted. Vav nodded and shot his slow-motion at Alfreyco. The thief began running in slow motion at Vav. “Great. Now let me just melt their shoes with…” Suddenly, Vav began to gag. He lifted his hands to cover his mouth, stopping the slow motion. Alfreyco got back to regular motion and ran up to Vav. They grabbed Vav and lifted him in the air. “Shit, Vav!” X-Ray called out in alarm.

Alfreyco laughed manically again. “Any last words?” they taunted. Vav gagged a few more times before he finally threw up on the thief. The thief turned into a glowing light and Alfreyco separated into two men. “Ew, this is gross!” one of the men said.

“Don’t be a bitch about it, Alfredo!” the other man responded.

“Trevor, we just got vomited on! That can’t be sanitary!” Alfredo yelled.

“You’re a criminal! Who cares about sanitation!” Trevor yelled back.

X-Ray couldn’t take much more of their arguing, and lasered their feet to the ground. The cops arrived soon after to collect the two thieves. X-Ray looked around to try and find Vav and found that he was laying next to a pool of his own vomit. He stomped over to Vav. “What the fuck was that?!” he demanded.

“A bloody embarrassment is what it was,” Vav replied with a groan.

“What the hell been up with you, lately?! You’ve been sleepy, moody, peeing 24/7, complaining about chest and back pain…”

“I already freakin’ told you I’m sick with something and I need to see a bloody doctor!”

X-Ray scoffed. “You don’t need to see a doctor. I can x-ray you to figure out what the problem is,” he said as he began to X-ray Vav.

“X-raying me is not going to diagnose…”

X-Ray finished x-raying Vav and sighed. “Welp, the x-ray in here is busted. We gotta go to Hilda to fix it,” he said with a sigh.

“Alright, you go ahead. Just leave me here to die,” Vav said as he closed his eyes.

“No, asshole, you’re coming, too.”

Vav groaned and got up. They made it back to Hilda’s makeshift lab in X-Ray’s basement. “All I’m saying is that putting siracha in miso soup would make it spicy and really good!” Vav said as he walked in.

“Vav, that’s disgusting.” X-Ray replied with a sigh.

Hilda and ORF turned away from their work to acknowledge that they came in.  “Greetings! How are you functioning today?” ORF greeted.

Vav sighed. “Not very well.”

“Why? Did you not get the bad guy or whatever?” Hilda asked.

“Oh, we got the guy. Turns out he was two guys combined into one,” X-Ray answered.

“So, what’s the problem?”

“Vav didn’t rush into save the day, couldn’t keep the guy slow-moed, and when the guy caught up to him, he threw up on him.” Vav looked away and rubbed his arm, sheepishly.

“Sounds like you need to go to the doctor, Vav.”

“I know…” Vav replied with a sigh.

“Well, I tried to x-ray him to figure out what the problem is, but the x-ray feature is broken,” X-Ray explained.

“X-raying him isn’t going to figure out his sickness,” Hilda said as she rolled her eyes.

“Alright fine. But anyway, the x-ray is broken because for some reason it made strobe lights appear in his stomach.”

“Strobe lights…?” Vav asked hesitantly.

Hilda sighed and held her hand out for the glasses. X-Ray handed her the glasses. She put them on and looked at X-Ray. “Glasses appear to be functioning properly,” ORF announced.

“No, but look at Vav!” X-Ray exclaimed.

Hilda x-rayed Vav. “Yeah, that is way too small to be considered a strobe light…”

Vav’s thought about any possible sickness he may have that would lead to a strobe light. Maybe he had gotten something from his unprotected night that he had been trying to forget about. he had gotten himself tested for STIs afterwards and they confirmed that he was still clean. Then it dawned on him what his sickness might be. He knew he missed HRT about three months ago, and he had had unprotected sex with him arch-nemesis.

“Oh, bollocks,” Vav murmured quietly.

“Vav?” X-Ray asked.

“Let’s just forget about this, yah? I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow and figure out what all this sickness nonsense is, yah?” he replied quickly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, a blinking light in your abdomen is pretty concerning,” Hilda said.

“Nope, no, neither of you worry about it. I’ll take care of it in the morning!” Vav nervously exclaimed.

“Okay…” X-Ray said slowly. Vav sighed. He really hoped it wasn’t what he feared.

The next morning, Vav covered up his superhero identity for the morning and went to a walk-in clinic as Gavin. Once his appointment started, the doctor asked him about the symptoms of his illness were. Gavin described daily vomiting, sudden sleepiness, sorer than usual under his binder, random crankiness, and having to pee all of the time. The doctor asked for a urine sample and Gavin was more than happy to relieve his bladder at the moment. After the doctor read his results from the urine sample, he requested a blood sample then said Gavin could wait in the waiting room. Gavin found this very disconcerting.

After about a half an hour, the doctor called Gavin again. Gavin gulped as he went back into the examination room. He sat down on the examination table and twiddled his thumbs.

“I got surprising result back from the urine test and the results from the blood test only confirmed them. So, I’ve got to ask, are you sexually active?” the doctor started.

Gavin gulped again. He could hope that the results from his STI testing had originally been wrong, but he expected the worst. “I’m not at the moment,” he finally answered.

“When was the last time you were sexually active?”

Gavin wracked his brain for information he had been trying to forget. “Maybe two, two and a half months ago?”

“Well, we’d need an ultrasound for better confirmation, but it seems as though you are in the early stages of pregnancy,” The doctor finish. Gavin dropped his head in his hands. He was pregnant. And to make matters worse, the child was the Mad Kings. “We could give you an ultrasound to determine how far along you are.” Gavin gave a deep sigh. “Or, we could discuss options if you don’t want to keep this child.”

“I… I don’t know…”

“You could always consult the father of the child to discuss your options.”

Gavin looked up. He knew he didn’t necessarily was to give rid of the kid, but he didn’t want to be a single parent either. He had to tell the Mad King that he was pregnant. He had no idea how he’d react to that. “I… think I will talk to the dad about it…”

“Alright. Would you like an ultrasound?”

“Yeah…”

The doctor gave Gavin an ultrasound. While the gel for the ultrasound was cold, Gavin was too afraid of what he’d have to do next to notice. It was determined that Gavin was ten, going on eleven, weeks pregnant. The doctor printed a copy of the ultrasound and gave it to him to keep. After the appointment was over Gavin took a taxi over to Monarch Labs.

When he got to the labs, he went into the public restroom and changed out of his civilian clothes. As Vav walked over to the receptionist in the lobby. “Excuse me miss?’ he asked to get the receptionist’s attention. She turned towards him. “I’d like to speak with the Mad King. I’m not here to fight, I just need to talk to him. You could tell him that Vav is here to offer his unconditional surrender if that will get him to know that I’m not here to fight.” The receptionist nodded and began paging the Mad King.

Gavin walked over to the waiting area and sat down. After about ten minutes, someone walked into Monarch Labs with a meatball sub for lunch. When the smell of the sandwich hit Gavin’s nose, he immediately got nauseous. He jumped up and ran over to the nearest garbage can.

As he was throwing up, Mad King entered the lobby. “So, I hear that X-Ray and Vav are unconditionally surrendering. I don’t know what the occasion was but…” Mad King paused to look around the room, but he couldn’t spot the hero. “Where is he?” he asked. the receptionist pointed to the garbage can Gavin was throwing up in.  He marched right over and waited for Gavin to finish.

When he was finished, he leaned up and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “So, that was the vom of the day…” he said to himself.

“So, I hear that X-Ray and Vav are unconditionally surrendering,” Mad King began, again. Gavin turned around to face Mad King. “I don’t know what the occasion was but…”

“No, no! You bloody dolt!” Gavin interrupted. “X-Ray’s not surrendering, It’s just me. And I’m not really surrendering. It’s just…” he paused and sighed. “I got some news this morning and I really think you should know it…”

“What new could you have gotten that makes you think you should fake your surrender just to get me to listen?!”

“It’s… rather personal. Can we go in private to discuss it?”

Mad King scoffed. “It can’t be that personal.”

Gavin sighed and shoved his hand in his over-undies to grab the ultrasound. “Here!” he shouted as he shoved it into Mad King’s hands.

Mad King looked at the piece of paper, puzzled. He knew it was an ultrasound, but he wasn’t sure what it was of. “What am I looking at.”

Gavin “It’s an ultrasound, you dunce!”

“No, I know that. But what is it an ultrasound of?”

“It’s an ultrasound of my uterus because…” Gavin paused and took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. “I’m pregnant.”

Mad King began to chuckle. “You’re in a delicate state, and you could have gone to the father of your child for care. But instead, you surrender yourself to me. How foolish.”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Well, considering you’re the first and only man I’ve shagged. You ARE the flipping father!” he exclaimed.

This caused Mad King’s brain to short circuit. “… What…?”

“Take a damn paternity test for all I bleeding care! You knocked me up and you need to be held accountable!”

“I… you know what? Fine, we will do a paternity test to prove I’m not the father!”

“FINE!” Gavin shouted.

“COME WITH ME TO THE LAB RIGHT NOW! I’LL PROVE I’M NOT THE FATHER AND PUT YOU IN CAPTIVITY!” Mad King yelled.

“PERFECT!”

Mad King grunted and led Gavin up to the lab so they could do the test. Mad King said he’d need a blood sample from Gavin and Gavin willingly gave it. He then swabbed the inside of his cheek to get his DNA. They put both DNA samples in the computer to see who the father of Gavin’s child is. The computer began computing the results.

“When this says I’m not the father of your child, you’re going straight into a holding cell.” Mad King said with a growl.

Gavin scoffed. “Bloody counting on it. To bad it’s gonna say you ARE the father.”

Mad King growled again in response.  After a few minutes, the computer dinged with the results. “SEE?!” he shouted.

Gavin looked at the results and smirked. “If you’re so sure you’re not the father, why don’t you look at the results.”

Ryan grit his teeth and turned to look at the results. His jaw dropped in shock to learn that he was, in fact, the father of Gavin’s child. When he got to get intimate with his guilty crush, he never imagined doing this to him. He never wanted to be cruel to him in this way, even if he was his arch-nemesis. And he never imagined he’d ever be a parent, but no he was going to be thrust into parenthood. He had no idea how he should go about this. “…I…”

“So, whatcha gonna do then, hun?” Gavin taunted.

“I…”

“Gonna make me get rid of it?”

“…I,”

“Put me in a hibernation chamber while I grow your heir?”

“…I…I,”

“I’m all ears, luv.”

“I…” Mad King paused and sighed. The fate of this child shouldn’t be his decision to make, it should be Gavin’s. “It’s your body. You choose what happens to it.”

“Perfect. Then we keep it and you’re helping me raise it. And the kid will be a good one, got it?”

“Only if you’re making me do this, we do this as Ryan and Gavin, not Mad King and Vav.”

“Fine.”

Ryan rubbed his face and sighed. “Let’s go back to my penthouse. You can stay in the guest room for the time being if you desire. I wish to discuss things further, later. I need a diet coke.”

“Top,”

Ryan nodded and began to walk out of the lab. Gavin followed closely behind. The two of them had no idea what this baby would mean for them. but if they were going to do this, they had to take it one step at a time.

[themisadventuresofaspoonie-blog]

Slug Blood

themisadventuresofaspoonie.com/2018/02/07/slug-blood/ 

Now that we’re a couple of posts in, I thought it would be a good time to regale you with a tale of one of my many misadventures.  Since I’m on a biologic and methotrexate, my rheumatologist has instructed me to go to the Emergency Room for labs, blood cultures, a urine culture, and sometimes a chest x-ray any time I have a fever.  

One day this past summer, I was feeling really dizzy and had a temperature of 102.5*F.  A doctor at my local ER ordered all the tests above as well as fluids.  Since I have a medical port (which I plan to discuss further in a later post), I have cultures taken from my port and a peripheral site.  The nurse cleaned both sites before collecting the samples.  They kept me overnight for precautionary IV antibiotics and discharged me the following day.  Blood cultures take about 5 days to receive results – at least in my hospital system.  During this time – and until I got a negative culture – I was not able to take my immune suppressants.  Because of this, my pain and other symptoms increased.  

I received a call the following week letting me know my peripheral culture grew, but it could have been a contaminated sample.  They wanted me to return to the hospital to repeat both blood culture samples.  I was initially admitted, but I fought to be discharged as the culture wouldn’t be back for days and they did not have a care plan in place.  

The results for the second culture were released during an appointment with my rheumatologist, so she gave me the news.  This time, the sample from my port is the one that grew.  The bacteria were found to be Moraxella osloensis – a mutualistic symbiont of a slug parasite.  Since this was way out of my doctor’s wheelhouse, she called one of her friends who is an infectious disease doctor while she was still in the room.  Neither could figure out how this bacterium was introduced into my central line and the other doctor wasn’t able to get me on her schedule until 7 days later.  There were concerns from all ends of what would happen if it were in my blood and if my port would need to be removed.  Back to the hospital I went…

During this trip, I had one of the best nurses I’ve ever had.  She was unbelievably understanding and wanted to make sure this was the final round of my blood culture battle.  She wiped down both areas multiple times to avoid any contamination. She also used a pediatric blood culture set for my peripheral draw, as it wasn’t giving her much of a sample and she didn’t want to have to poke me again.  As I said, one of the best nurses I’ve had.  Thankfully both samples came back negative for any growth, and I was in the clear to begin taking my medication again!

Being off of my meds for about 20 days was very difficult, as I’m sure you can imagine.  When getting cultures since, I always make sure they wipe down the area thoroughly twice to avoid a repeat of this situation, and so far, it’s worked! (Fingers crossed!!)  Please learn from this, and never be afraid to speak up.  You’re your own best advocate!

And still no answer to the slug-killing-bacteria contaminated sample…