#Intestinal perforation

[nakeddeparture]

Nicholas Kingston aka Drake Skull or Jenna - Suspect identified in the Nelson Street Stabbing that resulted in intestinal perforation - Barbados.

https://youtu.be/zAD0lyar2fw

Like/share/SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel - ✔️🔔/HAVE YOUR SAY/comment on YouTube (it costs you nothing). WhatsApp #2527225512.

[hayatheauthor]

10 Lethal Injuries to Add Pain to Your Writing

Prev: Non-Lethal Injury Ideas

Need some creative ways to give your characters a real fight for survival? Here are 10 ideas: 

1. Punctured Artery

A puncture to major arteries like the femoral artery (thigh), the carotid artery (neck), or radial artery (arm) can cause rapid blood loss. It starts off with a sharp pain, weakness, lightheadedness and eventually can lead to hypovolemic shock. Requires urgent medical attention.

2. Punctured Eye Socket

A punctured eye socket will cause blood vessel damage leading to internal bleeding. I would use this for non-combat characters trying to get away. The eyes are an easy weak spot + you don’t need much strength to cause a critical injury/puncture. Also good for a protag's tragic backstory.

3. Torn Achilles Tendon

A torn Achilles tendon can result in severe bleeding if nearby arteries or veins are damaged. Your character will be forced to hobble away as pain causes their foot to swell and bruise. Plus, you can easily adjust the pain levels per your scene, from swift cuts to explosive jumps. 

4. Neck Hyperextension (Hangman’s Fracture)

This injury will fracture the C2 vertebra and can lead to spinal cord damage, paralysis or sudden death. This isn’t a light injury your character can come back from, so I would suggest using it only when you’re aiming for death.

5. Pierced Lung

A punctured lung will lead to a pneumothorax where air escapes into the chest cavity, collapsing the lung. Characters with this injury may have difficulty breathing, chest pain, and a cough that produces frothy blood (all the dramatics you need). 

6. Severe Concussion

A severe concussion will lead to confusion, vomiting, immobility and memory loss. More dangerously, brain swelling, internal bleeding and damaged brain tissue. Plus, it has a long recovery period. 

7. Shattered Pelvis

If you need something severe that restricts mobility but also causes severe pain then this is perfect! Involves signs of shock, internal bleeding, numbness, swelling—really a lot of things. Can occur if OC falls from a high place, hit repeatedly, car accident, etc.  

8. Internal Bleeding from Blunt Force Trauma

I like using this when you need something subtle since it doesn't show immediate symptoms. Over time, they will feel weak, cold, nauseous, and intense pain. Perfect if you want that 'everyone made it out then suddenly someone collapses' moment. 

9. Intestinal Perforation

A sharp blow or penetrating wound can cause a tear in the intestines, leaking bacteria into the body cavity, then peritonitis. It can go from small stomach pain to near death pretty quickly. Without prompt medical care, sepsis can set in, causing organ failure and death.

10. Cut to the Jugular

If you need something more visibly dramatic then go with the classic cut to the jugular. A warm rush of blood will pour out, and blood would spurt with every heartbeat. Causes panic, choking, and internal bleeding too. All the blood and gore you need. 

This is a quick, brief list of ideas to provide writers inspiration. Since it is a shorter blog, I have not covered the injuries in detail. Remember the worse the injury the more likely your character is to die (so be realistic folks). Happy writing! :)

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks? 

Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!

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[endoscopybasavanagudi]

When it comes to Laparoscopic Intestinal Perforation Repair/surgery at affordable cost in Basavanagudi, Banashankari, Jayanagar, Bangalore; you can trust on HIMAS Hospital.

[bwat5-blog]

The Cost Of Humanity: The Price Caitlyn pays

**Spoilers For All Of Arcane**

The discourse around Caitlyn's fall from grace and eventual redemption continues to be all over the place. I honestly struggle to think of examples from recent media that can compare when talking about the complexity and humanity of her arc, yet people continue to paint her with their broad-stroke, virtue signaling generalizations. Things like this, are why I started doing this in the first place.

Because as much as I have come to love doing these deep dives, and these character analyses, and how I learn along the way and learn new insights from all of you, peoples determination in disrespecting such a masterfully crafted story that is so full of heart, and depth, offends me to my core. As I have said repeatedly throughout my posts like a grouchy nerdy broken record, GOOD STORIES MATTER.

This is not about ships, it is not about favorite characters, and it is not about your right to like, or dislike her character. If you feel questioned by this post, I am not questioning your opinion of a character, I am questioning your ability empathize and see the humanity in a twenty-four year old girl, who has had every pillar upon which she bases her perception of the world VIOLENTLY changed.

To that end, what I am discussing this evening is the cost of Caitlyn's mistakes regarding her assuming the role of Commander and what follows. This is not about how she redeems herself, although I have spoken on that and do feel they did a masterful job in achieving it. This is not a deep dive into her fall from grace, the causes, or rather or not I believe it was justified. This is solely to address the following tidbit of lunacy and all of its variations that are still floating around.

"So Caitlyn's arc is that she becomes a war criminal and gasses kids and goes full KKK and she gets to ride off into the sunset with Vi with the only consequence being an eye patch?"

Physical:

As the easiest of consequences to measure, let's take a look at the effects Caitlyn suffers to her body as a result of her mistakes. For this I will focus on the battle at the end of the show, although she is certainly wounded in various ways in the commune.

Maddie's Betrayal- We will speak more on this when I move to mental, but Maddie literally hits her in the head twice with a rifle stock. Concussions anyone? Skull Fractures?

Stabbed - Stabbed in the stomach with Ambessa's blade up to the hilt. Now I am not a doctor and freely admit that I know nothing about the severity in the wound in terms of placement. And in a world with shimmer healing and such things obviously we can't strictly hold to real world rules. But a simple google search suggested the following as possible long term complications of such a wound: " intestinal obstruction due to scar tissue adhesions, intra-abdominal abscesses, bowel perforation, delayed bleeding from damaged blood vessels, abdominal hernias, chronic pain"

Kicked- Kicked square in the midsection with a knife in her gut. Seems healthy

Head slammed into concrete- Ambessa using her skull-crusher legs sweeps Caitlyn off of her feet slamming her head into the ground (Please Note: Caitlyn is shown clearly struggling at this point tremendously to rise)

Kicked Again- Once again kicked in the midsection with a knife in her gut

Ankle- Ambessa pins Caitlyn's ankle to the ground by force and kicks her leg out from under her before backhanding her

Headbutt- After dazing her with the backhand, Ambessa full on headbutts her with her mask on

Kicked yet again- This time completely off of her feet

Loses her left eye- Her sacrifice to stop Ambessa.

Returning to the stab wound- She did all of this with the knife in her. Tearing and exacerbating that wound.

This was one fight. Don't mistake me, Caitlyn has become an absolute warrior as the show has gone on and is an amazing fighter. But she twenty four, and only a short time ago was still very much in her sheltered life. Ambessa Medarda is a LITERAL WARLORD.

Mental/Emotional:

**I'm sure there are things I'm going to leave off of this. But this is just what I am thinking of in the moment. This is NOT a bashing on her list. This is what I feel the kind and courageous woman we know she always been is going to have to work through in the aftermath.**

Violet- Thankfully she and Vi have found their way back to one another. And while I love their reuniting, I don't think its unfair to suggest there is still quite a bit of healing ahead of them. Vi was not without blame in what happened between them (not justifying what Cait did to her at all, just that neither of them are perfect and were going through a terrible time). But ultimately Caitlyn has to make peace with the fact that she left the woman she loves crying alone in that chamber, and that that heartbreak sent Vi into a spiral that very easily could have killed her. When you add to that the loss of Vander, Isha and Jinx in Vi's life these are all things a woman like Cait is going to struggle not to blame herself completely for.

Zaun- The early show does an excellent job establishing that Caitlyn does not share the classist and oppressive attitudes of others in her social circle. But at her most lost, she bears responsibility for the full military occupation of Zaun, imprisoning its citizens, and likely the death of more than a few at the hands of the Noxians who Caitlyn allowed to be there . And that is to say nothing of the actions of the strike team, or that it is Vi's home.

Maddie- The woman she invited into her bed to distract herself from the loss of Vi, came as close as someone could have to executing her right then and there. Someone she never realized was a spy, prepared to shoot her the back of the neck. I think the trauma here is obvious.

Death Toll- The deathtoll and destruction of the war are going to weigh on her. They just are. It is clearly not actually all her fault, But as I have stated, and as anyone who pays attention will have seen, Caitlyn IS A GOOD PERSON. Yes, I'm sorry, I know some of you want to pretend otherwise because you have the emotional depth of a teaspoon. But she is. And there is simply no way she does not feel the weight of the loss brought on in part by a woman she allowed to seize control.

Mental trauma from injuries- On top of the base physical component of her wounds, Caitlyn was quite nearly beaten to death. Speaking as someone who has been in a bad fight (nowhere near this obviously) it's not something you just forget. Not to mention the impact to her shooting which has been such a major part of her since she was younger.

I could go farther with all of this but you get the idea. Caitlyn is so.... so young. I and so many others have gone on at length detailing her arc, her grief, her trauma and all of the other components that make up this part of her story. I encourage you to read them if you are interested. This list of her suffering and of the suffering she will feel guilt for is not about what she does or does not deserve. As stated, that's not why I wrote this. I wrote this because as I stated in a much shorter look at this topic, you literally have to try to miss the consequences of Caitlyn's actions. You have to blind yourself in the name of being able to place whatever hashtag makes you feel righteous in condemning her character. If you want to say the reparations to Zaun were not fully addressed in the course of the show, okay I can give you that. But I would remind of you two things:

Caitlyn surrenders her family seat on the council to Sevika. For the first time as we understand it, the undercity now has a voice.

This show is not the end of the story. From the beginning Arcane has been our door into this universe, not out of it.

Listen folks, I'm not actually crazy. I understand it's a tv show. But as I have and will always continue to say, good stories matter. There is a reason fables and epics stretch back throughout our history as a species. Yes, of course for entertainment, yes of course to impart lessons or wisdom. But that belief that we can conquer our own darkness, that we can stand in the breach against those who would bring death to the innocent, and that can find redemption, these beliefs and many more have guided the best and worst parts of us for all time.

As always, thank you so much to any of you who take the time to read the rantings of a lunatic. I cannot express to you all the joy I have felt engaging in this community and celebrating this epic tale. I can't wait to see what they have for us next. Until next time, keep standing up for the stories that stay with us.

[enriquemzn262]

I have a pet emergency: My fiancé Lusana’s dog, Amy, had a miscarriage last week, in which a piece of placenta was left stuck inside her, it started to rot so she had to undergo surgery to remove it last Monday alongside her reproductive system, the vet told us it was already infected and almost compromised her intestines, as the damage had begun to perforate her womb.

That was fully paid by the both of us, and she was on her way to recovery, but just a couple of hours ago she started to bleed profusely from her vagina, right after we discovered her stitches had become infected yesterday, hence a visit to the vet earlier in the day in which he said we needed to up her antibiotics and clean her more frequently to avoid any further spread.

So basically we were both blindsided and caught completely broke, as the surgery costs us 200 dollars, we contacted the vet and he, knowing of our financial situation, recommended we use cold compresses and buy her a pill meant for blood coagulation, both of which we did and so for now the bleeding has stopped.

Nevertheless, he advised that if she starts to bleed profusely again, we have to take her to the ER ASAP, and since he doesn’t have one, it needs to be in a different vet and out of pocket, and if that doesn’t happen, we still need to take her to him in the morning, to find what happened and what can be done, and as long as its not another surgery, it will be free of charge.

So, an ER visit will set us back 100 dollars give or take, and a new surgery somewhere around 150, we just spend 200 and so are very short right now, but if we need to head to an ER at 2 am, we will, because Amy had been with my fiancé since 2018, she loves her so much she hates my guts since I took her “daughter” away, and I want my Luisana to have her for as long as I had Pacho, my old 18-year old pooch who passed away at the end of 2023.

So please, help us help her, anything will be of great assistance, and if she doesn’t need an ER visit, nor a new surgery, whatever we get will be used for a new round of tests, just to ensure this doesn’t happen again, to ensure she also gets to live 18 years!

This is the second time attempting to make a post about it, we just had a scare that was thankfully nothing serious, and the app deleted everything I had typed after it decided to refresh.

Anyway, thank you for the attention, sorry for the inconvenience, and if you can’t help financially, please keep Amy in your thoughts and prayers, she’s a great dog and basically lives to be petted by Luisana, and I want her to stay that way or years to come!

[maykitz]

my uncle just called and told us my cousin almost died. he got surgery to fix a not life-threatening umbilical hernia and they perforated his intestines without realising. then spent several days shrugging off his bedridden-level of intense pain and deteriorating health as him being a drama queen about normal surgery recovery. finally opened him up again this evening and found his abdomen full of blood and half digested food that had been leaking out of the injury they gave him. another successful game of chicken played with a patient's life by dismissing symptoms for as long as they can possibly dare for no reason whatsoever, it's their favourite activity

[copingcatholic]

Please say a prayer for my dad.

The last 2 things I asked prayers for were my dad being unemployed since May and he had emergency surgery back in February for perforated intestine, infection, had a colostomy then in May had surgery again to have it reversed. He went to the hospital earlier this week because he was having nausea and headaches since starting a new medicine about 6 weeks ago.

He called to make an appointment with his doctor and the system wouldn't even let her schedule something because he had headache and nausea. It just told her to tell him to go to the ER. They did a CT scan and found a brain tumor a little bigger than a golf ball. Neurosurgeon and oncologist wanted to operate ASAP so they didn't even want him to leave the hospital. They had surgery yesterday so now he's recovering from brain surgery.

He's still unemployed and is not doing well financially. He was actually supposed to have interviews both yesterday and the day before but had to cancel.

He has been through a lot this year. 3 MAJOR surgeries, prolonged unemployment, continued health issues, such difficulty with trying to get our prototype functional enough to get investors and more.

Please say a prayer for my mom and my siblings and my wife and me as well. We've all had health issues, job and financial issues, car issues, and helping each other through crises this year.

You guys are the best and your prayers mean so much. I'm praying for you too! God bless and thank you.

[thebibliosphere]

Hope this isn't offensive (feel free to ignore if it is) but what illnesses do you have? I always see very detailed posts from you about different types of hyperspecific injuries or illnesses and I was wondering if you're just super well informed or have all of them.

Which is very helpful and cool for people who need the info, and I'm sorry if you are experiencing all those.

Oh, Christ. Right this is going to be a lot 😅

Conditions I have been diagnosed with as of 2024:

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome

Dysautonomia/POTS/autonomic failure (they all mean a similar thing. I just have them all listed in my file because no one can decide what I actually have beyond “nervous system broke”)

Chronic Migraines

Hemiplegic Migraines

Cluster Headaches

Cranial Instability (caused by my EDS + neck injuries)

Trigeminal neuralgia

Occipital Neuralgia (caused by the cranial instability)

Binocular Vision Disorder

PMDD (likely linked to the MCAS)

Probably endometriosis but it’s unconfirmed.

Interstitial cystitis (definitely caused by the MCAS)

GERD (a symptom of my MCAS)

Pernicious Anemia (likely linked to the EDS and MCAS. I don’t absorb nutrients from my food as well as I should which is common when MCAS damages the GI tract.) which lead to hemolytic anemia in 2019 aka the “Almost Died For Real” year.

ADHD.

cPTSD

Dysthymia or “double depression”

“Probable ME/CFS” is in my file, but with everything else going on chronic and debilitating fatigue is pretty much unavoidable so my doctors are like 🤷🤷‍♀️

I had an intestinal perforation a few years ago that lead to severe diverticulitis that took about a year and a half to heal, but that’s healed now save for the occasional bout of nerve pain.

Uuuh… I think that’s it… (wait and see my spouse/friends chiming in with “you forgot about x”)

So yeah.

Chances are if you see me talking about it, I have it. I do sometimes talk about other conditions that I’ve learned about over the years of navigating my own stuff, but I will always defer to the lived experiences of others when it comes to their own conditions.

It’s a lot to deal with. Most of it links back to the MCAS/EDS/Autonomic failure.

Or as we like to call it: the generic trifecta of bullshit.

[spookygibberish]

Can a throne eat bones? Cats will often just crunch up the bones of small animals and swallow them. Can a throne or headless do the same?

Yes, they can. That being said, I doubt that Thrones and Headless alike are immune to the hazards of eating cooked bones. This doesn't mean they don't do it, of course. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if "perforated intestine" wasn't a rare sort of death.

But It's just so much more civilized to cook your food, risk or no.

[howtofightwrite]

I'm trying to write a scene where someone is stitched up when there isn't a hospital around. They got a stomach cut and I'm wondering if you have to lay down for it or if you can do it sitting up?

The short answer is, having them lay down is probably for the best. When you sit up, the tissue around your abdomen tends to fold a bit, and that can make finding, and sewing up, wounds much harder.

However, having said that, gut wounds are notoriously messy, and sewing one up in a non-sterile environment is pretty risky. Granted having a gut wound in a non-sterile environment is a pretty risky situation.

Among the many things that can go wrong, perforation of the intestines can lead to septic shock, and death. Your intestines (and, really, a lot of your digestive system) are filled with symbiotic bacterial colonies. It is absolutely imperative that those bacterial colonies do not get out of your digestive system and into the rest of your body. You do, actually, need that bacteria to properly digest and process food, but, again, that bacteria getting into your stomach cavity is a very bad thing.

Similarly, a bacterial infection from the environment in that would likely prove fatal. Worth remembering that, bacterial infections can get started either from the wound itself, or the clothing pressed into the wound when it occurred, or it can occur from non-sterile dressings used to bandage the wound.

You didn't say it, but it almost sounds like this might be self administered. (This is one of the only realistic situations where you'd even try to suture the wound from a sitting position.) I'm going to phrase this carefully: That is theoretically possible. However, the amount of pain you would experience, combined with the amount of precision necessary for effective surgery, and you're talking about someone with a borderline superhuman pain threshold. I suppose it's possible if you had someone with fused nerve endings, they might be able to perform this task with minimal difficulty (not having a good angle on the wound would still be a problem), but that's a weird edge case, and I'm honestly not sure how that would shake out.

But, yeah, the short version would still be, they need to lay down, if at all possible, and the surgeon needs easy effective access to the wound. After that, this is an injury that can go very wrong depending on the available tools and the skills of the surgeon. Gut surgery isn't something you want an amateur doing, even in an emergency.

-Starke

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[jrob64]

A Love/Hate Relationship - a CS modern AU one-shot

I wrote this story because I was in need of fluff, humor and hurt/comfort after the painful experience of losing two dogs in less than a year. Zeke, who was in my story Sowing Seeds of Trust, died of cancer last June. Two months later, we adopted Winston, who was the main character in Pet for Rent. Somehow, he swallowed part of a brush (while he wasn't at home) which perforated his intestines and caused internal bleeding. He died May 23. Writing my favorite trope for my favorite couple is therapeutic for me as I deal with my heartbreak.

Many thanks to @kmomof4 and @hookedmom.

Summary: Killian Jones' neighbor, Emma Swan, has hated him since the first day they met. When she finds out he came down with the flu and attempts to nurse him back to health, he's more than a little confused.

Rating: T

Words: 2582

Also posted to ffn and Ao3

Story is under the cut

*********

Killian Jones buried his face in a pillow and pulled it up over his head in an attempt to stop the incessant pounding. After several painful moments, he realized the noise wasn’t in his head, but was coming from the front door of his apartment.

Groaning, he tossed back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed, sitting with his head in his hands for a short while. When he finally got to his feet, he swayed dizzily and stumbled into the door frame, leaning against it to try to regain his balance.

He eventually made his way across the living room, unlocked the deadbolt and threw the door open. “What?” he demanded loudly, regretting it immediately when a sharp pain shot behind his eyes. He squeezed them shut before even registering who was on the other side of the door.

“Jones, how many times do I have to tell you to…Wow! You look like hell.”

Killian cracked his eyes open enough to see his neighbor from across the hall, Emma Swan. Infuriating to the highest degree and just as beautiful, she was the last person he wanted to see while he was in his current state. The two of them had a love/hate relationship…minus the love.

They had gotten off on the wrong foot when he moved in a little over a year ago. Unaware that she was a police officer who worked the night shift, he woke her up shouting orders at the movers. Emma Swan was not a morning person, especially after working an eight hour shift on the streets of Boston, and she informed him of it in no uncertain terms.

After that day, every interaction between them was filled with tension and snarkiness. Killian wished they could go back to when they met and start over again, because he knew she was basing her hatred of him on that first impression. In all honesty, he was quite intrigued by the fierce blonde and would like to know if there was a sweet or funny side of her she kept hidden very deep inside. Very, very deep.

Now she was here, standing at his door, scrutinizing him like a bug squashed on the bottom of her shoe. “Hangover?” she smirked.

He sighed. “I have the flu, Swan. It’s been going around at the office and I wasn’t lucky enough to avoid it. Now, if you’re done yelling at me, is there something I can help you with? If not, I’d really like to go back to bed.”

She took a step forward and unexpectedly pressed her palm to his forehead, then both hands to his unshaven cheeks. “You’ve got a fever.”

“Usually accompanies the flu. Now if you’ll…”

“Do you have medicine?”

“No, I…”

“Have you eaten? Are you drinking plenty of fluids?”

“I haven’t…”

“How long have you had it? Have you seen a doctor?”

Killian rested his pounding head against the door. “Must you use your interrogation techniques on me? I haven’t committed a crime, you know.”

“I’m trying to help,” she said, clearly offended.

“I could use less help and more sleep,” he grumbled.

“Yes, good,” she said, pushing past him into his apartment. “Go back to bed and I’ll get you something to drink. Do you want water, juice or…”

“More questions, Swan? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“All you have to drink is water, Dr. Pepper Zero and beer?” she asked, peering into his refrigerator. Closing it, she straightened up and began opening cupboards. “Do you have tea bags? British people like to drink tea, don’t they?”

He knew it would hurt his head to roll his eyes, so he simply threw up his hands and trudged off to his bedroom. Behind him, he could hear Emma celebrating the fact that she’d located the tea bags.

He had just gotten back to sleep, when he was shaken awake. “What now?” he growled, flopping onto his back.

“I made some tea and found Advil in your medicine cabinet. You need to drink something and get these pills in you.”

He raised his head and blinked up at her blearily. “You went through my medicine cabinet?”

“Yeah. Did you know condoms have an expiration date? The ones you have in there expired almost two years ago. Better not use them, because they’re likely to break.”

“Ugh,” he groaned, letting his head drop back down on his pillow. “Please just let me die.”

“You aren’t gonna die from the flu, Jones.”

“I meant from embarrassment,” he muttered under his breath.

“Sit up,” she commanded, sliding her arm under his pillow and pushing until he did as he was told.

First, she handed him a bottle of water. After glaring at her for several seconds, he finally took it, then swiped the two pills she held in her other palm. He popped them into his mouth and downed them with the water.

“Happy now?” he asked.

“Deliriously,” she quipped. “Now drink your tea.”

He accepted the mug she offered him and held it to his lips. Cautiously taking a sip, he grimaced and spit it back into the cup. “Did you heat the water at all? It’s barely warm! And how bloody much sugar did you put in it?”

“Well, I didn’t want you to burn your mouth,” she explained haughtily. “And I put in the same amount of sugar as I put in my coffee. Four spoonfuls.”

“Four?” he questioned. “Are you trying to kill me, or just give me diabetes?”

“You’re not a very good patient, Jones. You could at least be grateful that I’m helping you.”

“If you recall, I didn’t ask for your help.”

She ignored him, fluffing his pillow and pushing at his chest to get him to lay back down. “I found a can of chicken noodle soup in your cupboard. I’m going to heat it up.”

“Don’t add any sugar to it,” he groused, as she walked out of the bedroom, taking the tepid cup of tea with her.

“I heard that,” she threw over her shoulder.

“Of course she heard that, but didn’t hear when I told her to leave me alone,” he mumbled into his pillow. He tossed and turned, knowing that if he went to sleep, the maddening woman would just wake him up again.

Sure enough, she was back at his bedside within ten minutes, carefully carrying a plate containing a steaming bowl of soup and a small stack of saltine crackers. He sat up before she could order him to, and took the plate from her.

“You didn’t add anything to this, did you?” he asked.

“Nope, I just heated it up,” she assured him.

He dipped the spoon into the soup, blew on it and put it in his mouth, then promptly choked and sputtered. “Bloody hell, Swan! Didn’t you add any water to this?”

“Why would I add water?” she asked, a confused frown forming on her face.

“Because Campbell’s soup is condensed. It’s too salty this way. Adding extra water dilutes it enough that it tastes like soup is supposed to taste, rather than tasting like…like the ocean. Haven’t you ever made soup from a can before?”

“Sure,” she said, crossing her arms across her chest petulantly. “I make Progresso soup all the time, but I never add water to it.”

“Progresso soup isn’t condensed. This is.” He took the stack of crackers, then thrust the plate back towards her. “I’ll just eat these, thanks very much. Now that you’ve tended to me, you can leave me in peace.”

“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?” she asked.

Was that concern he saw on her face? Surely not. Emma Swan would never be concerned about him. It would be more realistic if she were to try to poison him. Perhaps he should have been more careful eating and drinking what she gave him.

Shaking his head slightly to try to clear those thoughts, he said gruffly, “Yes, I’m sure. It’s not like you really helped anyway.”

This time, he thought he saw a flash of hurt cross her face, before she turned and left the room. Soon he heard the front door close.

He couldn’t have really seen Emma Swan look concerned and hurt, could he? Great. Now he was going to have to add hallucinations to his list of symptoms.

He ate the crackers, then lay down and turned onto his side, tugging the blanket up around his shoulders. He was achy and feverish, but it was the guilt over how he treated his apparently well-meaning neighbor that kept him from falling asleep.

*********

Three days later, after his fever had been broken for twenty-four hours, Killian went back to work. Upon returning home at the end of the day and getting his keys out to unlock his apartment, the door across the hall opened and Emma stepped out.

“Oh, hey Jones. Looks like you recovered, no thanks to me.”

Killian rubbed his finger behind his ear. “I owe you an apology, Swan. I was rude and should have never said what I did.”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s no big deal. I guess I’ll never be a Florence Nightingale.” Turning on her heel, she muttered, “See ya around.”

“Swan…Emma, wait,” he called out, hurrying after her.

She turned around. “What?” she huffed.

“I, uh, I truly am sorry. It was very kind of you to try to help me, but…”

“But what?”

“But why did you do that? I mean, given the fact you hate me…”

“I don’t hate you,” she interrupted.

“Really? You could have fooled me.”

Emma stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and looked down at the floor for several long moments. When she finally looked up, he was shocked to see the vulnerability on her face.

“Look… I’m not good with…people,” she said softly. “And I’m also not good at admitting when I’m wrong.”

She paused and he waited patiently, wondering where she was going with this.

“None of the people I know would be concerned enough to check on me if I called in sick to work. You’ve lived here long enough for me to realize that…that you don’t seem to have anyone like that, either. I never see anyone coming or going on a regular basis - besides the pizza delivery guy, but I don’t think he counts.”

Killian chuckled dryly. “You’re very observant, Swan.” He paused for a moment, debating whether he should open up to her as she was to him. “And you’re also correct,” he added finally. “I moved here from England when I was transferred for my job, and I don’t have any close friends yet.”

She nodded. “I figured it was something like that. The day you moved in, I was…well, to put it bluntly, I was a bitch. And, as I said, I’m not good at apologizing, so I just let things go on being…uncomfortable. When I saw that you were sick the other day, I thought it was my chance to make things better between us, but I screwed that up, too. I just…I guess I wanted to let you know that you didn’t have to be alone while you were suffering - that there was someone who cared. I…I’m sorry I made things worse.”

“You didn’t make things worse,” he assured her. “I appreciate the effort. Actually, if you think about it, it was really quite comical.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“And they do say laughter is the best medicine, so your failed attempts at helping are probably what cured me so quickly.”

Seeing the grin on his face, the corners of her own mouth turned up a bit. “You’re an idiot, Jones.”

He took a step closer. “How about if we start over, Emma? It would be nice to have a friend living across the hall.”

She eyed him, chewing her lip in contemplation. Then she held her hand out to him. “Hi, I’m Emma Swan. Welcome to the neighborhood.”

He reached forward to give her hand a firm shake. “Killian Jones. Pleasure to meet you, Miss Swan.”

She smiled and he was amazed at how it transformed her already lovely face. They stood awkwardly for several moments, until Killian said, “Well, I should let you go. Were you on your way to work?”

“Oh, uh, no. I was just going to get something to eat.”

He rubbed his hand along his jaw, dropping his eyes as he asked, “Would you, um…would you like some company?” Looking back up, he saw her eyes widen and hurried to add, “Just as a friend. As you well know, I don’t have much to eat in my apartment.”

She snorted out a laugh. “You still have more than I do at my place.” Turning away from him once again, she said, “If you’re sure, you’re welcome to join me. I was just gonna go to the diner around the corner. Tonight’s special is grilled cheese and onion rings.”

“Ah, greasy diner food,” he said, beginning to follow her. “You do know if you keep eating that stuff, your arteries are going to be filled with sludge.”

She chose to ignore him as she started down the stairs. “They have the best hot chocolate, too.”

“How much sugar do you add to it?” he grinned.

She glared at him over her shoulder. “No sugar, just cinnamon.”

“Cinnamon in hot chocolate? Sounds…interesting.”

She stopped on the landing and turned to look at him. “If you’re gonna make fun of my preferences for food and drink, you’re uninvited.”

Holding his hands up in mock surrender, he said, “I meant no offense, Swan. Perhaps I’ll even give your…unique concoction a try.”

That meal led to another, and many more. Soon they added regular coffee dates. Gradually, at Killian’s urging, Emma tried and eventually acquired a taste for black coffee, no sugar. Even more gradually, at Emma’s urging, Killian acquired a taste for greasy diner food.

Six weeks after Emma’s attempt to nurse Killian back to health, they went on their first official date. Killian was very happy to discover that Emma Swan did indeed have both a sweet and funny side. They realized they had many things in common, as they talked during their dinner at one of Boston’s most renowned restaurants, then walked along the waterfront.

At the conclusion of the date, they shared a kiss outside her apartment door, which opened both of their eyes to the fact that there was a significant spark of attraction between them. As they continued to date, the spark ignited into a blazing flame. (They made sure to replace the expired condoms in Killian’s medicine cabinet, once it was obvious they were going to put them to use.)

They became each other’s ‘person’ - someone to laugh with, cry with, share everything with, and nurse back to health when the need arose. By the following winter, when the flu made its way through Killian’s office once again, he had his own live-in nurse, whose skills were much improved from the previous year.

By that time, they still had a love/hate relationship…but now, it was minus the hate.

*********

A couple of fun notes:

-Colin was drinking a Dr. Pepper Zero during the Meet & Greet I went to at GalaxyCon in Columbus last year.

-At another con several years ago, Jen admitted she never drank black coffee until Colin got her hooked on it. (No pun intended!)

*********

Thank you for reading.

Tagging:

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[mxwhore]

on tuesday, chumpis and her friend bella had an illegal feast of walnuts that almost ended perforating their intestines. my mom footed the emergency vet bill but id like to help her with the medicines. anything is truly appreciated

commissions • donate • gluttonous girl ⬇️

[ask-thearchivists]

why do your hair look edible?

The Curator: Oh yeah, that's right, this one has pica. Do you not enjoy the real food that I make for you or something?

The Coordinator: Curator, you know well that they have a medical condition. It is something I have been researching a solution for, so I will not have to deal with treating them for intestinal perforation or obstruction. Everyone, please make sure to keep your hair, fur, feathers, and shed away from them.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

This is an essay on why I, as someone going into the medical field, don’t believe Glen died from the gunshot inflicted by Nica in the s2 finale. I paid too much attention to the scene and now I don't get how Glen was on death's door from being shot, let alone do I believe that being shot left Glen in a comatose state. So now you all have to deal with me ranting and raving yet again.

Glen had an almost perfect combination of positive symptoms that they would've been perfectly fine as long as Glen got treatment before they lost too much blood or had any complications.

The placement looks perfect to have not hit anything in their abdomen, they were able to walk (although assisted, they were able to stand so the bullet didn’t hit their spine), they were still breathing (so it didn't cause a collapsed lung), they weren't bleeding too heavily besides entry and exit wounds (which is normal for traumatic wounds to the skin), they were conscious, pressure was presumably kept on the exit wound to slow blood loss (since Tiffany was in the back seat with him when Glenda drove to the hospital), ect.

The only things it likely could’ve hit was Glen’s large intestine and Glen’s left kidney (if the bullet went in at an angle, which it looks in the scene that it was). However the prognosis for renal wounds (kidney wounds) has a just about 91% chance of survival and large intestinal perforations have a survival outlook of 50 to 70% depending on when the perforation is taken care of, and I doubt it took more than a half hour or so to get to a hospital, especially with Glenda driving when their twin was injured.

Not to mention that this is 2024, we have the technology and methods to have been able to save Glen. I just don’t believe that it was just the gunshot that left Glen near death. There had to be something else that was at play that left them comatose.

[nightingalesandnorco]

I have a whumpee who got sliced with a knife from their right hip/abdominal area all the way to their left collarbone. So, diagonally across their abdomen/chest if that makes sense. (Villain WAS aiming to kill, not just hurt them.) Assuming there are no modern hospitals (this is fantasy), but they do have medics, what is their chance of survival? What would it take to save them? What would recovery look like?

I assume you mean something like this:

The structures from top to bottom in the path of this line are the left clavicle (collar bone), left ribs, sternum and xyphoid process (bottom tip of the sternum), left lobe of the liver, ascending and transverse large bowel, small bowel, and right iliac crest (hip bone).

The knife would likely have glanced off the bones, so the heart and lungs are probably safe. Unfortunately the liver and bowels don't take kindly to being slashed.

The liver is is extremely vascular and bleeds like crazy if it's cut. Unless you have access to magical healing in your fantasy setting, it's best just to hope that your whumpee's liver wasn't slashed. And it might not have been; only a very small portion of the liver is in the path of the line.

The bowels are also very vascular, though they don't bleed as quickly. They also have a lot of nerves, so injuries to them are incredibly painful. They're also a massive infection risk if perforated because they're filled with fecal matter and bacteria. The medics could snitch up any perforations with catgut sutures (derived from sheep intestines) and wash out the wounds with boiled and cooled water. In a modern setting, a person with a bowel perforation would be pumped full of antibiotics, but since those aren't available... It's not impossible for the whumpee to survive; plenty of people survived major wounds before the discovery of antibiotics. Honey and cloves have some natural antimicrobial properties, so maybe have whumpee eat some of those?

Aside from the liver and bowels, whumpee will just have a (likely well-approximated) deep cut. This will bleed, but not too seriously. Have the medics stitch the whumpee up with horse hair sutures and keep the wound clean.

Whumpee's odds aren't great considering the setting, but they're not completely stacked against them. Make sure whumpee gets plenty of water and easy food like soup and porridge. If they develop a fever, feverfew may help. Drinking willow bark tea may help to reduce pain. It will probably take a couple weeks for the cuts to heal, during which whumpee should get plenty of light physical activity.

[thebibliosphere]

The fact that Mothman got scolded for not being more concerned about his chest pain while you got a lecture on anxiety should be grounds to start biting people, actually.

No jury would convict you.

For real.

I will say, these happened at different hospitals and the one we go to now is far better at addressing this kind of bias (the male doctor yesterday even acknowledged it when I told him about what our phones did)

But the number of times I’ve been dismissed in the past as an “anxious patient” and been left to sit in the waiting room for hours on end (sometimes with a literal perforation in my intestine) while yesterday we walked up to the check-in desk like “hey, he has chest pains and urgent care said to come here” and got immediately walked back into emergency triage was insane.

Like I was so, so, so grateful they were taking him seriously and were immediately on it.

But I’m also going to feel my feelings about all the times I’ve presented with the same symptoms and been handed an anxiety diagnosis sheet to fill out in the waiting room.