Hidden in the Blood: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 5)

Chapter Thirty-Three: Al, Thursday

Today the doctors unwrapped his head. They'd probably done it on other days while he wasn't aware of it, or at least the nurses might have done it to change his dressings and prevent infection at the site of the wound, but this was moment of truth time. They wanted to send him home soon, they said, and the state of his stitch site would inform them how close he was to leaving.

"Remarkable," the first one said as the other made notes. "You can barely tell there was ever an injury aside from the hair stubble. These stitches are ready to come out."

"Would you say I've been healing faster than normal, doctor?" He could never remember the doctors' names, so he just went with their title.

"Everyone has their own speed," he replied. "You're in good health, so your recovery has been speedier than some."

How to ask what he wanted to ask without sounding like a conspiracy theorist? "When you've been doing tests on me, like the MRI, the blood tests and so on, have you ever discovered anything... concerning?"

"Concerning? How so?" the second doctor asked as he opened the chart at the foot of his bed and had a look through it.

"I mean, did you find anything you wouldn't have expected to find?"

"Like what?"

"Like... I don't know... metal?"

The second doctor's brow furrowed, and he looked at the first, who shrugged. "You never had any symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. You were in a car accident."

"I know. So, the level of metal in my blood is normal?"

"Well, if you're talking about iron, it's in every molecule of hemoglobin. You couldn't live without it, because it's what's responsible for the capture of oxygen from your lungs and for that oxygen's release to the cells throughout your body." He scanned the chart a little further and said, "I mean, your iron levels are a little higher than normal, but that's not concerning. Do you eat a lot of red meat?"

Al shrugged. "No more than the next guy, I guess. I don't eat steak every day, but beef ends up in a lot of the dishes I make, even if it's just a pasta sauce."

"Do you eat broccoli, pumpkin seeds?"

"Broccoli, about as much as the average person. I don't eat pumpkin seeds."

"Do you donate a lot of blood?"

"I try to donate when there's a clinic near me."

"They probably love you. I bet you're a good clotter, too. Your healing has been free of complications. The only thing I might recommend is lowering the amount of iron rich foods you eat if you suffer from constipation."

"Actually, I'm pretty regular. So, the other metals, they're okay, too?"

The first doctor read the chart too and nodded. "Sodium, potassium, magnesium, copper, nickel and zinc levels are all within the acceptable range. What's this about, Al?"

He hadn't even considered that sodium, potassium and magnesium were metals. "Sorry," he said. "I guess I'm just worried something happened to me after the accident that might have affected my quality of life in the future."

"The injury to your head was what nearly killed you, Al," the second doctor said. "You've almost completely recovered from that, and very soon we can send you home to finish your recovery. I'd take that as a win."

Al knew there was no way he could keep interrogating them without appearing like a lunatic. "You're right. I will. Thank you, doctors."

They completed their examination of him, repeating the process they went through before. The first doctor then removed the stitches, which made Al feel like a turkey being de-trussed for Thanksgiving dinner. It felt nice not having that feeling of pressure at the site anymore, though, and nice not to itch so bad that he often had to rub the site through his gauze just to relieve it.