This choice: I had returned to normal. • Go Back... Regaining consciousness was a struggle for me as everything, inside and out was in torturous pain. It felt as if my body had been thrown into a giant blender and reduced to a pasty mess. I heard myself moan, which hurt my throat.
I think he's starting to come around." I hear one voice say.
"Already?" asked another, lower voice. "I guess you were right about him being tough."
I felt something cold touch my chest, causing me to moan again as even the slightest touch seemed to hurt me. "Sorry." said the low voice. "You are going to be very sensitive for a while." he paused then the cold object was lifted. "His heart rate has returned to normal, the worst is over."
I heard sighs of relief around me and then a 'beep beep beep' somewhere nearby. By this time, I was conscious enough to realize that it was a vitals monitoring machine which meant I was in the hospital. I tried to shift positions as I was very uncomfortable but it hurt too much to move and i moaned again. "He's starting to stir." I heard Grace say. "Garth, can you hear me, open your eyes."
I did my best to do so but the light of the room stabbed my eyes, causing another moan to escape my lips as I snapped them shut again. A moment later, I felt the lights dim and I made a second attempt. This time I was able to keep them open and my eyes soon focused to see my family looking over me, smiling with tear stained faces. "Welcome back to the world of the living, bro." said Grace.
"You gave us all a real scare, son." said dad. "How do you feel?"
I wanted to answer but it hurt to even moan. Still, I managed to quietly say two words. "All hurts."
Dad did not hear me and asked me to repeat it but mom cut him off. "He said everything hurts, Ted." she told him.
"You heard that from the other side of the bed?" asked dad, surprised.
Mom smiled. "When you work with children, sent to the ER for ten years like I have, you too will develop a good ear." she said. "I'm not surprised that everything hurts, he went from a size twelve to a size sixty and back in less than four hours." she managed a small grin. "Talk about a crash diet."
I weakly laughed at that but it came out sounding like a raspy cough, though I had a grin on my face. Seeing it, Grace smiled. "I'm glad that you can still laugh, bro." she said. "I know everything hurts so, for now, just listen." she turned to a person out of my line of sight. "Doctor Hagen..."
A man in hospital scrubs walked into my sight and looked me in the eye. "Yes, well you condition was caused by an unusual tumor that had grown onto your adrenal gland, causing it to constantly secrete both adrenaline and testosterone into your system." he explained. "Normally, such a condition would have killed a man in less than an hour but your body somehow adapted rather than falling into shock."
Hagen suddenly smiled as he took up a chair and continued to look me in the eye. "You see, we found evidence that your pituitary gland, responsible for bodily growth, had mysteriously gone into overdrive." he said, sounding enthused. "Also, we found evidence that your muscles had gone through intense hypertrophic adaptation..."
"You sound excited by all of this, doctor." said dad, unimpressed. "I'm more worried about the pain my son in right now."
"Of course, Mr. Jones." replied Hagen, standing up. "I will order another run of morphine immediately."
With that, he walked out of the room with mom following. "I'll make sure he gets it in quickly." she said, looking at me. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Once she was gone, chasing after Hagen, dad shook his head. "You find a new medical mystery and the leading doctor is more worried about writing a paper about it than the patient who is suffering." he muttered. "Unbelievable!"
"I'll take first watch." offered Grace. "Mom is a wreck and you have to be back on duty in four hours, you should both go home and get some rest."
Dad shook his head. "I took my two weeks vacation early." he said. "But I will take mom home for some rest."
Twenty minutes later, I was injected with the morphine IV while mom and dad said their goodbyes, promising that Grace would stay with me. "We'll be back first thing tomorrow morning, honey." said mom."
"Take care, Garth." said dad. "We'll see you in a few hours."
With that said, they left the hospital for home to get some sleep.
"Gr... Grace?" I managed to say.
"Hush." said my sister, gently. "You need to rest."
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