Chapter 91

“I’m struggling toprehend his medical care right now but obviously that’s no

all there is . ”

“No. That’s just what we found out happens when he’s at General for one of these attacks. When I got him to the hospital wing I personally restrained him to get the IV into his arm. My technique had enough of aforting effect that he wanted me to stay and I ended up falling asleep with him . When Ang and Lilly woke me around ten, Ang told me that despite leaving him with me for two hours bis body temperature had dropped twice and wasing dangerously close to ny–nine degrees so she wanted to try heated pillows with him instead. He had an extreme fear response to us rolling him off of me and when we needed to ce heart monitoring stickers on his chest, he curled his body into the fetal position.”

“What was he afraid of?”

“The catheter being ced is extremely painful for him and every time they monitor his heart the cath and feeding tubee next. Ang cut off his shirt and concerns about his back came up but it was only when his shirt camepletely off him that we saw his chest and abdomen. We immediately did an ultrasound showing his liver is erged and inmed but there were no signs of bleeding so we’ve left it be,”

“Okay, that’s appropriate for his abdomen being badly bruised but you mentioned his chest. What’s going on there? ”

“It’s littered with cuts and bruises. Here’s the pictures I took of that. If you follow the cuts with your fingers it appears he’s been hit exceptionally hard with

a belt about an inch wide.”

“Only the worst infractions allow an alpha to physically punish an individual caught in the act of the crime. This is what he got for being used, not caught?”

“There’s more to it. Like I said, I don’t know if we’ve even found all of it yet.”

“Keep going Demetri.”

“When I checked on him before lunch he was in a bad nightmare. Despite his desperately weakened state he fought my restraint of him. I barely touched his neck and he ended up screaming in terror, partially shifting and tearing up the bed. Once I got him calmed down, he started apologizing and begging me not to hurt him. Ang was ready to cath him when he asked for it but I discovered that he just simply can’t goying down. We did end up doing the feeding tube because we ran into several issues. He’s extremely suspicious of anyone giving him food or drink that he doesn’t see prepared, he bes nauseous when highly stressed and he cramps up badly when his stomach is bruised. So far we’ve been able to get him to drink warm soup that we add nutrients to and get warm form down the tube without an issue.”

“So you were able to figure out that the food needs to be warmed or it causes problems. Interesting but not overly rate. Has the other doctor figured this

out?”

“I don’t think so. He said he doesn’t normally eat even though he always gets a feeding tube put in. He’s gone up to five days without eating.”

“That’s really bad for a werewolf, especially an alpha. Going that long without eating messes up the individual’s metabolism which makes everything medical even more difficult and in some cases, dangerous.”

“Yes, I don’t think I’vee across a wolf that’s gone that long without eating repeatedly. Going two or three days when you’re sick, once or twice during childhood, won’t affect them much but repeated exposure to starvation as an adult will and from what he’s managed to tell me, his home hospital either doesn’t get the tube in correctly or they don’t warm it and causes his stomach to cramp so eating in the hospital is always painful. We are also giving him anti nausea medicine in the form every four hours which was never mentioned by his home hospital either.”

“It does indeed sound like they haven’t taken the time to figure out how to keep him eating. How long did it take you ? ”

“An hour or two. My first attempt was around noon. That’s when Ang put the feeding tube in. He also indicated that today was the first time he’s had the numbing spray before having it ced.”

“Wow, that’s a rough way to go.”

“He handled the cement better than we thought.”

“Good.”

“But he actually became fearful of us using it. Majority of the time at General, the use of the tube is very painful for him . ”