Doctor Moria Alexander walked to the Intensive Care Unit's waiting room with measured steps while looking over the forms on her tablet again.
The test results were not as good for Monica Yuletide as she hoped they would be, but they were far better than she feared they might be.
Considering it was nearly ten that night and all concerned about her patient had been at San Diego General for hours now, Moria slowly opened the door so as not to suddenly disturb the waiting room's occupants.
Inside Alexander found the scene pretty much as she expected it to be. One man, sitting in his chair alert with a woman on either side of him about as asleep as one could be under the present circumstances.
The lady on Peter Talbot's right was Joanne Howard, Monica's fiance, which was a surprise to the visitors from Moon Lake. The girl on his left was Peter's fiance Karen Yuletide, which was an ironic balance considering neither Yuletide knew the other was engaged.
Being a werelion, Peter's protecting his "pride", thought Alexander, a weretigress herself, as he looked up and nodded to acknowledge Alexander's presence as a friendly acquaintance and not a potential threat. Both anthropomorphic beings were currently in their human forms, although that did raise a few questions Moria needed to ask Peter privately with the others still being regular normal humans.
"Ahem," said the Doctor, clearing her throat.
Despite the tiring stress of everything they had been through since Friday night, Karen and Joanne immediately roused themselves to full consciousness upon realizing Monica's attending physician was with them.
"Monica..." began Joanne, looking hopeful, while Karen took Peter's hand in hers for support.
"Miss Yuletide is resting comfortably at the moment. She's on a nutrient IV to start rebuilding her strength and will probably sleep through the night at this point," announced Alexander.
"And the test results?" asked Karen nervously.
Doctor Alexander sat down before addressing Monica Yuletide's immediate family.
"There is no sign of brain damage at this time," she began. "Hopefully Monica is out of the woods on that front, but the brain is a delicate organ so we will be monitoring it for the remainder of her stay with us."
"You mean something could still happen to her?" Joanne asked, greatly concerned about the woman she loved.
"Because the brain suffered such a traumatic event along with the rest of her body, internal bleeding after the fact has been known to happen. Other than the apparent short term memory loss of the traffic accident itself, there doesn't seem to be any actual damage physically or mentally though, so maintaining monitoring is more of a precautionary procedure at this point. But you know the old saying, better safe than sorry," added Alexander.
"How long are we looking at?" Joanne wanted to know.
"She may be weak in some areas for a while, especially considering she has two broken arms that need to heal, but Monica should regain full use of the upper half of her body by around Valentine's Day next year."
Considering that they were still a couple of weeks away from Thanksgiving at this point...
"What about the fact mom couldn't feel anything below her waist, let alone wiggle her toes," asked Karen.
"That is another matter," admitted the Doctor. "On one hand, just about every major leg bone was broken to some extent because of being trapped within her crushed vehicle. So just from that perspective alone, it will literally be months before Monica is to the point where we can start thinking about physical therapy to regain the ability to walk."
"We loved taking long walks along the park, just the two of us," said Joanne, as a tear started to form in the corner of her eye.
"And hopefully you will have them again," said Alexander, looking at Miss Howard. "Right now there is too much fluid built up along the lower spine to get an accurate reading of any potential damage in that area."
"How?" asked Joanne.
"Think of it like a shock absorber. Everyone has some to an extent, but in this case Monica's body produced more at the time of the accident in an attempt to protect itself. If necessary, we're prepared to go in and artificially remove the excess to reduce the swelling in that area but, like her waking up from the medically induced coma she was in, we would prefer the reduction to happen naturally as the body realizes the emergency is over and internally restores spinal fluid levels on its own."
"How long will that take?" asked Karen.
"If there's no indication of a natural reduction by tomorrow afternoon, we'll do so manually tomorrow night," announced Alexander. "Then we'll be able to take a closer look at the overall spinal chord and determine a course of action from there."
"And then mom will regain sensation in her legs again, let alone eventually be able to walk once more?"
Doctor Moria Alexander was hesitant to reply at first, but then gave the most truthful answer she could.
"Only time will tell."
TO BE CONTINUED...