Nurse-kun/Damaged Goods/Chapter 6

Part 6 (December 22nd)

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Hey, /b/. It's been a pretty busy couple of days, and I figured the daily updates were DO NOT WANTed, so I let yesterday go. Just as well, since, as I said, busy-ness.

Anyway, I went in to speak with her on wednesday night when my shift began, finding her still awake, as is starting to seem more common than I'd thought. I asked her what she might like for christmas, since everyone was getting presents, after all, and I needed to tell Santa what she'd like before time ran short. She responded by telling me that she didn't want anything......and, flatly, that there was no santa. Ouch. I tried not to react too viscerally to her statement, though I wasn't sure just how to respond...and after a long silence, and not sure what else to do, I fished my DS out of my pocket, and asked her if she'd like to play a bit.

She revealed that she'd had a DS of her own pre-accident, which isn't really that surprising, and when I turned on EBA, it soon came out that she'd had a copy of Ouendan; again not that surprising, particularly since she speaks and reads japanese, so wouldn't have a problem with importing...seems she'd been looking forward to playing EBA when it was released, as well. She was a little hesitant, but finally agreed to try it, and I fetched her prosthetic arm and helped her don it, a new experience in itself for me, then handed the DS over.

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The problem arose, however, when she started the first stage on normal...she'd said that she'd been playing Ouendan on Insane difficulty before the accident, with the first note of pride in her voice I'd heard yet, so normal seemed like it'd be easy for her...but...it didn't turn out that way. She'd been right-handed before the accident, you see. And while she's gotten better with her left since the accident, another aspect of her rehab...well, people with EBA that've tried playing with their off-hand know where I'm going with this.

She did...poorly. Embarassingly poorly...I know I would've been embarassed, as someone who's rather good at the game by now, too. She reacted by throwing the DS down, where it bounced off the corner of the bed, and nearly hit the floor...I was barely lucky, and fast, enough to catch it, then she turned away from me, staring at the wall, flushed. I felt pretty insensitive, not to have seen this coming; I had to try and set things right. [edit] 17700235

I put on a chagrined expression, and said that was mean of me, and that I was sorry. Then, I switched back out, into easy mode, then restarted the stage, hanging onto the DS myself this time, and...tried to play it with my own left hand. I did pretty shittily, as I'm sure you can imagine. At least as bad as her, actually, on normal. And when I failed, and lost the stage (despite really trying to win it), I smiled embarassedly as well, and offered it back to her, pointing out that I'd just been playing on this version's 'insane' mode earlier that day, and *I* sucked with my left.

She didn't accept it quickly, but I eventually convinced her to try again. And by the third try, which came after a bit more convincing, she'd managed to beat it! I congratulated her happily, and managed to beat it myself, when she passed the DS back to me, insisting that I do it too. This continued onward, and she got better with her left faster than I did; I think she has a real talent for music, following the rhythm and the beats after only hearing it once, while I failed at music class and dropped out of the band by junior high.

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I got called away by another patient around 2:30, leaving the DS with her and telling her I'd be back soon; unfortunately, it took longer than I'd anticipated, and I only managed to return around 3...whereupon I found her asleep, with the ds still on in her lap, and the headphone buds in her ears. I carefully removed both, managing not to wake her, and shifting her from a semi-sitting position to help her lay down...and, after a moment's thought, I keyed a message into the DS' message utility. 'havefun-dontplayxmasstage.'. Then I placed it on her bedside table, heading back to my station and fetching the ac adapter from my backpack, returning and plugging it in...and leaving it there. I left a note in my log about it and the night passed uneventfully, over before much longer.

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When I got up and about on thursday afternoon, I gave her social worker a call, and after filling her in on who I was, and the general situation of the previous night's DS-activity and plans for christmas gifts, I asked her what had been done with her family's possessions after the accident. I was informed that many of them had been locked up in a storage company, with that same social worker having the key. When I brought up the possibility of retrieving her DS-lite and games from inside, the worker kind of hemmed and hawed at the trouble it'd take to find it, but I kept on her politely, bringing up christmas, how she'd seemed happier than I'd seen her before when she'd been playing with mine, how I'd help search for it...and, eventually, she relented, and said she'd look into it. I thanked her for her patience and christmas spirit, and the call was over.

I headed out to the mall and picked up a copy of EBA from EB, then headed home and wrapped it up. Not much else happened, and I didn't hear back from her social worker...so I headed into work a bit early. I headed into the staff lounge first, and had a chat with her afternoon-evening shift nurse on how the DS had been recieved during the day; it seems she'd been playing with it, and took it to the rehab facility with her, most of the day, which was nice to hear! She said that her rehab nurse in charge of her arm usage had sent along a note in particular praising the idea of giving it to her, since she'd been getting more practice with her myoelectric hand by using it than she had otherwise since she'd started. Great success, party time.

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I finally headed for my station, read through the reports, etc, and checked in on her room before too much longer. She was awake, and perhaps waiting for me, looking up from the DS when I opened the door. I asked how she was doing, if she was ready to kick my butt some more, and she actually smiled a bit at that! The first one I'd seen from her so far...it was all worth it, /b/, let me tell you. I couldn't control my own grin as I moved the chair and had a seat beside her, whereupon she showed me that she'd actually finished easy mode, and had moved onto normal. I asked her if she'd gotten my message, and played the christmas stage...and she got a bit quieter, then shook her head no, and said that she'd started it and watche the introduction...but...then she'd shut it off before playing the stage, already upset by it, though she didn't admit that directly. I reached out to pat her shoulder lightly, saying that it was okay...it's a sad stage for even grown-ups, and she didn't need to play it just yet.

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Changing the subject somewhat, we started playing again, having a nice time, with her skills having improved considerably since I last saw them; she was now kicking my ass quite decisively, which seemed to please her, and that was fine by me, since her knowing she's better at something than an 'able' bodied person is a lot more important than my gaming ego. It was somewhat uneventful, really, and quite pleasent, for me certainly, for both of us hopefully...the only quirk was that she'd seemed to have memorized the songs in just a day or so, and every so often, she'd start singing along as she played, quietly, almost as if she didn't notice she was doing so.

It was incredibly cute, frankly...she really does have a great voice, and she knows how to use it...it only got a little worrisome when she started singing along to 'la-la', the Cap White stage. People that know of the song and/or have played the stage will probably get why it was a little nervewracking when she started singing it...even if she didn't quite have the, um, energy of the woman that does the cover in the game (I have no idea what the original sounds like), and even if she didn't really seem to grasp the full meaning of what she was singing, it's not quite something someone that gave her the game to play wants other people to hear her repeating. I tried to explain this to her as best I could without getting into the details of why it was an inappropriate song for someone her age to sing, and while she may not have really 'gotten' it all, she said she wouldn't sing that one in public anymore. I felt kind of bad about asking her to restrain a show of expression from her...but I wasn't sure what any other options I might have.

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Anyway, we played for an hour and a half or so, long enough for her to get to the last stage on normal with Bs (I only managed one B, mostly Cs and Ds, otherwise...I suck), before she clearly started getting tired, and a short while later, I helped tuck her in and get comfortable, giving her the minibear to hold, and I wished her a good sleep...I didn't mention anything about dreams, since I get the feeling that even wishing her sweet ones would do more harm than good, even if it was just a little. I stayed with her, sitting in the chair, until she drifted off...and began sleeping peacefully, more or less. I felt pretty good, I have to admit...and left the room shortly thereafter.

Not much else happened during my shift, a couple of other patients needing something or another, wrote up my reports, and headed home when it was my time. Since I've woken up today, nothing much has happened...but I got a message from the social worker, saying she'd have time to check out the storage company just before she got off work, so I called her back to say I'd be there. Things are going pretty well so far, I'd say...it's nice to finally have some generally good news to report on her...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it continues.

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• epic amount of text hits you for 122342342359982dmg.

Well, people did complain when I posted as I typed it out, so I did it ahead of time in notepad...guess I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. Two days of events, too.

Ah, well.

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• yay, anonynurse! you said you bought a copy of a game ... got the receipt to convince all those trollfags?

As a matter of fact, I might just happen to have a picture of the reciept with sup /b/ on it, the wrapped box, and my scrubs, all in one picture...

But, lacking a digital means of photography as I do, they would be on a conventional roll of film, inside a camera, at the moment. And since I don't generally take many pictures, said photo would have to wait until I filled the roll with more pictures over christmas before I got it developed.

I suppose we'll all just have to wait until then to see if such a thing exists...

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• How do you use a DS with one arm?

She uses the myoelectric hand on her artificial right arm to hold the DS, and plays with her left. It's not that hard (well, I'm not really one to say HOW hard it is, not having had to do so myself, but she doesn't make it look particularly hard).

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• Nurse-kun, you mentioned that the psychiatrist you talked to said that it would be good if you made it clear to amputee-chan that you are giving her special treatment; that you do not really act as "close" to the other patients. Since you sat down to play DS with her, she is probably aware of it, but have you told her this yourself yet?

Yes, more or less.

• umm, what exactly is that supposed to mean?
• Such a vague answer must be bad...

No, it just means that I've filled her in, just like our resident shrink told me to; I just didn't really feel like typing out a full account of my recollection of what I actually told her.

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• Once I hear the introduction of a mother into this story, then I KNOW it will be a Bel-Air.

Her mother is dead.

Mine isn't, but I guess you'll need to wait until christmas to see me likely to mention her, probably. I'll try and surprise you at the lack of her getting scared?

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• at this point it is, sadly, myspace material.. go there and stfu until you get some pics or some sex storiez.

I'd explain why a myspace page might not be a good idea, but either willful or generic stupidity is a part of /b/, after all. That's what makes it so fun sometimes.

Sometimes, anyway. But I'm just one more anonymous member of /b/, still, more or less...I doubt I'll affect /b/ any more than any of the hundreds of camwhores or furry bullet-magnets that 'contribute', and I don't expect any more adulation than they get.

Of course, like them, I'll also keep posting to /b/, whether I'm told to GTFO or not.

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And as I've stated already, I've cleared the attention I'm giving her with the people in charge. I'm not hiding anything, because I don't really have anything to hide.

And think about this: How much stuff does a young, reasonably well-off, family with a child have, and where would it all go if, one day, they weren't coming home? I can't say I'm looking forward to digging through all of that aforementioned stuff, but I'll do it. Worse ways to spend an evening, I guess...

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• Nurse-kun, Nurse-kun! Considering that she is a poor amputee girl who likes video games, have you thought of getting some Child's Play love for her?

Oh, that penny arcade thing? Actually, no, I hadn't considered that...isn't it generally targeted at children's hospitals and such? Her rehab facility (part of a hospital) might get involved, but I don't think a nursing home with one kid would qualify. Doubtful it'll happen this holiday season, anyway, but I might look into the hospital's involvement...

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• I like how in five days she's gone from "PTSD that makes fucked up vietnam veterans look healthy" to singing along to songs on a DS game.

PTSD doesn't mean 'got turned into a rei-clone anime girl'. Considering some of the brightest minds in the mental health community are still struggling to find effective ways to treat it, let alone understand it well enough to begin trying to treat it, most expectations of behaviour should probably be discarded.

Yes, she seemed to be having fun for a brief while, and expressed herself a bit, vocally, sort of. There's a reason play therapy is one of the primary methodologies for dealing with traumatized children.

She didn't exactly make a full 'reset-button' recovery when the credits on that encounter rolled. Life doesn't work like that.

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OP here: Leaving to meet her social worker for the DS hunt. Wish me luck in finding it, since while I don't mind her using mine, if I don't find it tonight, she probably won't get hers back before christmas...and I wouldn't like that to happen.

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