changing our colors || chaelisa & jensoo

twenty

Two weeks later Jisoo brought Jennie back to see the surgeon for her follow up visit. Jennie had become quite adept at using her crutches and moved as quickly as Jisoo walked. They signed in and sat and waited to be called back.

"Agent Kim," the nurse called out as she opened up the door. Jennie and Jisoo followed her into the examination room. She weighed Jennie and took her blood pressure and temperature then asked her about her medications and marked it all in the chart. She told her that the doctor would be in shortly. A few minutes later Dr. Choi came into the room.

"Good afternoon, Agent Kim," she said smiling, "It's good to see you again. Jisoo." They all shook hands. The surgeon took a couple of minutes to review the chart before speaking again.

"Ok, so it looks like you have moved off all of the prescription pain pills to just Ibruprofen and Acetaminophen," she said, "I'm glad to see that."

"Yep, the constant pain has lessened a lot," Jennie answered, "It still gets pretty bad when I do the physical therapy or when I do some specific movements."

"That's to be expected," Dr. Choi answered.

"What bothers me more is that I have a lot of spots on my leg that I can't feel at all, even all the way to my toes, but those same spots are the ones that feel like they are on fire if I make certain movements," Jennie said.

"There was damage to the nerves in your leg, Jennie," Dr. Choi explained, "you are experiencing neuropathy from your injury. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to repair nerve damage. Generally speaking, it usually takes months for the nerves to heal and this is the most difficult part of the process."

"What do you mean, generally speaking?" Jennie asked, "Might it heal quicker than expected?"

"Healing times vary by each person," Dr. Choi said, "although I would not expect your neuropathy to suddenly go away. That's just not how it works. Unfortunately, for some people it never goes away entirely."

Jennie looked like her concern was growing so Jisoo decided to chime in, "What is the best course of treatment for Jennie?" she asked.

"For now, we need to continue with the physical therapy," Dr. Choi said, "If the neuropathy becomes too painful there are a number of medications we can use to treat it. The problem is that none of the medications are curative, they only serve to help with the pain caused by nerve damage. Really, it is mostly a matter of time and of regaining strength in your leg through therapy."

"I don't think it's bad enough that I need any more medication right now," Jennie said, "It's just really frustrating."

"Let me take a look at you," Dr. Choi said, motioning for Jennie to lie down on the table. She took a few minutes examining the actual site of the gunshot wound. The home health nurses had instructed Jennie that she no longer needed to cover the area a couple of days before.

"The wound site has healed up very nicely," Dr. Choi said, "I think that the risk of infection is pretty much gone at this point."

"That's good," Jisoo said with a sigh of relief.

"Yep, you are free to shower or bathe again," Dr. Choi said, "as well as use any lotions or perfumes. Basically, you don't need to worry about the wound site with those sorts of things. That being said, you still need to limit activities and weight bearing for a bit longer. I've talked to the physical therapist and they are going to see you three times a week for the next month. Instead of coming to your place you will need to go to their clinic where they have more machines and equipment to work with. They will be able to guide you more specifically than I can on what you should and should not be doing. I'll be seeing you again in a month and my hope is that by that point you will be coming off the crutches and moving to a cane."