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she-karev · 2 months ago

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Deaf (Jolex and Luna Angst with a Happy Ending Imagine)

Previous Chapter Here

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: Two of Three

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Ship: Alex Karev and Jo Wilson/ Jo Karev

Canon Episode: Season 19 Episode 16

AN: I will forever be angry at Shonda Rhimes for breaking up such a beautiful and loving couple in such an awful way that destroyed over 10 years of Alex’s character development. But I can correct that mistake even if it’s head canon here on Tumblr. I want to show our appreciation for the dads out there that put our wellbeing above their own and guide us through the roughest times.

Summary: Alex and Jo get a diagnosis from Jackson Avery who came at their request with April and is the only one outside the family who knows about Luna’s prognosis and supports them through this.

Words: 2298

February 2nd, 2023

Alex paces the attendings lounge back and forth anxiously waiting for his special visitor to walk through that door.

The door opens and Alex is relieved to see the person he was expecting. Jackson Avery is in a business suit, looking more like a board member than a surgeon. He grins at the sight of his good friend outside in his casual clothes and steps out to greet him.

“Hey man.” Jackson keeps his tone neutral knowing his friend needs him more as his daughter’s doctor than as a fun friend. They shake hands, “It’s good to see you, I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“You and me both.” Alex shares tensely, “Jo and Luna are already in an exam room.”

“Good I called ahead, and I got a nurse to set up an audiometer and don’t worry outside of my mom and Richard nobody knows I’m here and as far as they are concerned, I’m here for medical pitches.” Jackson says to Alex’s relief, “I figured this private visit should stay private until we get a diagnosis.”

“Thank you for that. I wouldn’t normally ask that of you but Jo is…” Alex sighs rubbing his tired eyes, “She’s going to worst case scenario after worst case scenario and I’m trying to be supportive. And as someone who’s been at my field for 10 years, I know too well how much a diagnosis can ruin a child and their family.”

“Okay I’m gonna be a doctor right now, not your friend and tell you to relax so that we take this one step at a time.” Alex exhales to relax, “First step is to have Luna take a BAER test and if hearing loss is indicated then we run more tests to confirm if it’s progressive hearing loss or an underlying condition that’s causing hearing loss.”

“Yeah, I know all of that it’s just…it’s hard being on the other side of this.”

“Believe me I understand that more than you think.” Jackson sympathizes before motioning to the door, “Shall we?”

Later

Jo bounces Luna against her hip as she walks around the tiny exam room trying to keep her mind from exploding. So far she is failing as her worry for her child grows with every second. It’s not Luna is going deaf it’s what could have caused it. Jo knows that it could be a malignant acoustic neuroma and the thought of her baby having cancer fills her with dread. Luna is the one person she loves more than Alex and she can’t bear to see her in pain.

The door opens and she pauses to see Jackson entering the room with Alex who goes to them with a smile at Luna. He strokes her fine blonde hair causing Jo to grin slightly before turning to Jackson who is clad in a business suit.

“Hi Jo.”

“Hi.” Jo gives a slight grin to Jackson grateful to have him here as Luna’s doctor, “I’m sorry if were pulling you away from foundation stuff but we wanted someone who’s a skilled ENT and make sure all of the bases are covered.”

Jackson shakes his head, “You don’t have to apologize, I’m more than happy to do this for Luna. But I have to warn you I’m gonna use my doctor voice instead of my good friend voice. So, Alex says there have been signs of hearing loss at daycare, have either of you noticed any at home recently?”

Alex steps in first, “I call out her name but she doesn’t respond. I have to wave my hand to get her attention. And she hasn’t said her first words yet.”

“Could this hearing loss be caused by an underlying condition like encephalitis or CMV?” Jo asks worriedly.

“Well, she hasn’t been vomiting or had a fever, has she?”

“No.” Alex confirms.

“Then it’s neither but we’ll run labs just to be sure. Until then we have to first confirm that she has hearing loss.” Jo inhales at this as Jackson continues, “We’ll do a BAER test that’s the-”

“Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response we know.” Alex informs him worried as well.

Jackson nods seeing that it’s best to do this quick and get the results fast, “Okay you two can be in the room to hold Luna while I do the test. I’ll get the equipment out now.”

Jo swallows before turning to Alex who rubs her back in comfort as they wait for Jackson to set up so they can get a diagnosis that could change their lives forever.

An Hour Later

Jackson looks at the BAER results on his tablet in agony as the results confirm that Luna Karev does indeed have progressive hearing loss. He paces the Imaging Room trying to figure out a way to give this devastating news to Alex and Jo and he can’t come up with one idea that ends good. But then again there’s no way to spin your only child going deaf. The door opens stopping his thoughts as he sees his wife, April Kepner, come in.

“Hey.” April greets him with a grin before closing the door, “Your mom took Harriet and Mark to Marios after her meeting. I swear those kids have a better wardrobe than me.”

Jackson grins at hearing how their daughter and baby son are spending their day with their grandma. He would take that over holding his good friend’s baby’s diagnosis in his hands right now. He sits in a chair while April looks at him inquisitively.

“Are you okay?” April stands in front of him with kind eyes that always make him feel safe to share his turmoil, “What’s wrong?”

Jackson sighs before handing her the tablet, “I just got Luna Karev’s BAER results.”

April’s face falls as she reads the chart, “Oh no, do they know?”

“Not yet I’m just…” Jackson pinches the bridge of his nose, “I’m trying to figure out how to tell them this piece of news. I swear this is so much easier when I don’t know the parents.”

April looks at Jackson in pity squeezing his shoulder, “I know.”

Jackson shakes his head at this, “I knew what I came here for but a part of me, a huge part of me was hoping that it was nothing that there was nothing to tell. But there is and now I have to give them the worst news of their lives.”

“Kids like Luna can be deaf and live their best lives.” April points out, “I mean that CODA movie we saw won three freaking Oscars and Tony Kotsur is actually deaf and he gave his winning speech in ASL. If it wasn’t for Will Smith slapping Chris that would have made the awards memorable.”

Jackson chuckles lightly at that couple’s night of theirs remembering how shocked they were and how funny they found that memeable moment.

“Thanks, I needed a laugh.”

April strokes Jackson’s cheek, “There’s not gonna be a nice way to tell them, you just tell them the way you normally would with a patients family and guide them to resources so they can learn how to live with this along with their child. It’s horrible but knowing Alex and Jo they will be fine as long as they know their daughter is alive and healthy.”

Jackson looks at his wife in awe before nodding, “Your right.”

“I usually am.” April smugly grins causing her husband to chuckle and kiss her before leaving the room. He walks down the hall as slowly as he can while he recites his diagnosis in his head, so he doesn’t fumble and mess up. He stands outside the exam room for a good five seconds before going in seeing Alex and Jo with Luna sitting on the exam table playing with her stuffed unicorn.

He closes the door behind him before standing in front of them with a stoic face as the couple look at him anxious for the diagnosis, “The BAER test confirms that Luna has progressive hearing loss, I’m sorry guys.”

Alex and Jo look at each other in worry before Jo turns to Jackson with heartbroken eyes, “…What’s next?”

“We need to do an OAE to get a more accurate auditory read. She’ll be asleep for that and you two will be with her while I run the test it’s noninvasive and she won’t feel any pain.”

Alex clears his throat to get the lump in his throat out as he processes this news, “What about an MRI? To rule out underlying conditions and tumors?”

“And a genetic test. She’s adopted we don’t know what’s in her blood, it could be a genetic cause.” Jo adds causing Alex to nod in agreement.

“I will do both after the OAE. Now we can do the test today but the scan and bloodwork is gonna have to wait until tomorrow.” Jackson tells the Karev’s, “I will get someone to put a rush on the results but the latest we can get the full results back is tomorrow night. I’m sorry but this is the best I can do right now.”

Jo sniffles with her tears glistening her eyes, “Could this be…could it be something fatal?”

Jackson looks at the couple in pity before answering, “We don’t know, we won’t know anything until we go over all of our tests.”

Alex nods understanding, “You’ll cover all the bases, right?”

“I always do. Now I’m gonna give Luna a light sedation before we get started. You two can hold her while I give her the oral administration. We should start now so we can get the results much faster, are you ready Luna?” Jo and Alex nod before holding Luna still as Jackson fills a mouth syringe with the medicine for their baby.

Later That Night

Alex looks over the brochure he got from the auditory floor while walking out of the hospital with Jo who is pushing Luna forward in her stroller. The test Avery ran for Luna revealed a lack of OAE in both of her ears that further confirms isolated hearing loss.

Now they are looking to go home and try to sleep before Luna has her MRI and genetic tests tomorrow that will tell them if this is a result of an underlying condition or not. Alex can see the worry forming in Jo’s eyes and tries to comfort her once again.

“Avery is the best ENT we could ask for; he goes to the bat for all of his patients not just the ones related to his friends.” Jo nods but still has a frown, “Most of these cases it’s just progressive hearing loss with no genetic conditions or tumors. And technology has come a long way, hearing aids are state of the art or we can use a cochlear implant.”

Jo sighs, “Can you…can you just not?”

Alex can see he’s upsetting Jo and wants to mend his mistake, “I’m just trying to let you know that this isn’t as scary as it seems.”

“Yes it is Alex.” Jo stops to face him with a frustrated face and tears in her eyes, “It’s extremely scary!”

Alex is taken back by this and looks at Luna who is sleeping in her stroller absent of the yelling. He stands back up and inhales and exhales to keep his mind at ease over this recent diagnosis. He thought that Jo needed reassurance, but he can see now that all she wants is someone who understands her pain, and he is the only other person who can. So he decides to make it known instead of shoving it down for his family’s sake.

“Your right.” Jo sniffles at Alex’s confirmation wiping a tear away, “It is scary, this scares me as much as it scares you. I’m scared of what this diagnosis could be a result of and even if it’s just progressive hearing loss I’m scared of what will happen after. I’m scared of Luna becoming an outcast and not having the advantages we had growing up. I’m scared of screwing up sign language and being one of those parents that doesn’t communicate with their child. I’m…I’m scared that I won’t be able to help Luna through this transition in her life.”

Jo has another tear down her cheek and she moves to hug Alex who hugs her back so they can comfort each other. For a moment they stand there in the hospital entryway holding each other with their baby sleeping inside her stroller. They share the pain that is coming from this scary diagnosis from their child who they love more than anything. Jo pulls back and wipes her wet cheeks as Alex grips her upper arms to keep her from breaking down completely.

“But just because we’re scared of that happening doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” Alex states positively knowing it’s what Jo needs to hear as well, “Is it gonna be hard? Yes. Are we gonna know everything we need to do from now on? No. Even if it is just progressive hearing loss it’s gonna be hard for all of us. I know that but I also know that we can get through this and come out stronger than ever. We did it when you got out of treatment and we did it with Luna after she was born. If we can do that then we can do this, I know we can you have to know that too.”

Jo sniffles looking at Alex with awe and love before kissing his cheek, “I do know that.”

Alex nods before putting his arm around his wife, “Let’s go home.” Jo pushes Luna forward in her stroller with Alex by her side as they leave to go home as a family.

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yorkshireword · 4 months ago

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Mel Bochner "Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art" 1966

Mel Bochner, Christophe Cherix, Laurent Jenny, James Meyer, Carl Andre, Anonymous, A. Babakhanian, Jo Baer, John Cage, M. Carsiodes, Tom Clancy, Dan Flavin, Jim Freed, Milton Glaser, Dan Graham, Eva Hesse, Alfred Jensen, Donald Judd, Michael Kirby, William Kolakoski, Robert Lepper, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Robert Moskowitz, Tom Russell, Robert Smithson, Kenneth Snelson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton

In 1966, Mel Bochner, then-young instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York was asked to organize a “Christmas show on drawings,” to run from December 2–23, 1966. Bochner asked artist he liked (such as Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, Dan Graham, Jo Baer, Robert Moskowitz, Robert Smithson, Al Jensen, to name a few) for drawings that weren’t necessarily “work[s] of art.”1 The gallery, upon seeing the drawings, dismissed them, claiming “we don’t have enough money to frame them.” They had unlimited access to a large Xerox machine to photocopy the drawings, making them able to go about reducing and enlarging them to a uniform size. Presenting photocopies within a gallery setting was not yet common in 1966. To increase the sheet counts, Bochner sought other materials.2 He compiled the sheets into four bound books and mounted each on a white wooden pedestal.

Working Drawings exposed minimal art’s dependency on the readymade, and its “flirtation” with the mechanisms of mass production and consumption.3 Bochner’s installation reconfigures minimal shapes into “furniture,” metaphorically supporting an analysis of its own construction. Alluding to Marcel Duchamp, Bochner placed the books on pedestals, sites of art’s elevation and display, replacing the “cult value” or reproducibility of the Xerox.4Working Drawings was not about the work, but rather it was a conceptual art of process located in the development of ideas.5 Gaps between language and things occur as thought-activity occurrence. In conceptual art, Sol LeWitt explains that ideas or concepts are the most important aspect of the work.6 LeWitt furthers states that when an artist uses a conceptual form of art, all the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is only a perfunctory affair. Working Drawings opposed materialist processes, making selection and process based on material and financial aspirations — it was not planned or decided beforehand.7Working Drawings was an “anti-form” model associated with Robert Morris (1968) who claimed that there was a disconnection between conception and realization; minimal work was hardly “irrational” but “reasonable,” and “well-built.”8 To remedy this problem, Morris argues for directly manipulating a given material by the artist and processes that occurred in time (such as “random piling, loose stacking, hanging”)

Anti-form became associated with artists across the entire spectrum of 1960s process work. Such artists embraced chance and other organic processes for creating minimal sculptures. They worked from the principle that form should derive from the inherent qualities of the chosen material. In such cases, artists had to relinquish control of their artwork’s final appearances. In this framework, exhibition is anti-form, and does not act as a traditional representation of physical works. Mel Bochner’s Working Drawings exhibition still occupied a space within SVA.

Cited as the first Conceptual art exhibition and responsible for spawning decades of lousy Xeroxed artists’ books, Mel Bochner’s ‘Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed as Art’ (1966) is the bedrock of mid-century Conceptual art history. Ironically, the project was the result of an innocuous Christmas exhibition at the New York School of Visual Arts that Bochner, as an art history faculty member, was asked to curate. He collected drawings from his friends, conveying to them that the offerings needn’t be ‘art’ per se. Not satisfied with Bochner’s procurement of work, the gallery’s curator refused to spend money framing the submissions, so Bochner photocopied four sets of the 100 drawings, reduced them each down to standard paper size, inserted the sets into a binder and placed each binder on a pedestal.

he Conceptual and historical weight of this piece are located in its attitude more than in its content. Like Bochner’s assessment of Minimalism at that time, the four identical black office-style archives signal a paradigm shift away ‘from the humanistic stammering of Abstract Expressionism, Happenings and Pop art’.

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