Winter Solstice [Log]

[vernal_miss]

Date: December 19th through 22nd
Characters: Nel, family, and anyone about in Moss Manor
Notes: Feel free to tag at any point in time through the days, including if anyone in the family takes it upon themselves to try to wake her Friday (21st)


Entering into the final week of school before winter break, Nel is full of excitement with an abundance of holiday cheer. Except, despite the weather holding relatively clear, the usually active girl has been avoiding going outside as much as possible both at home and school. When she must, she bundles up far more than any child would willingly do without their own aversion. Ever since the day the whole of Mossgate thinned the poppies, she's noticed that when she's outdoors during the times when the temperature has slipped into a chill then she starts to get drowsy. The effect comes on faster and faster as the week progresses, so that she barely makes it out the walk at the house before she's longing for her bed merely trying to walk to school in the morning. By midweek, she has to rest on the way leaning against walls or trees to close her eyes for well...what she thinks is only a minute. A gentle nudge would get her back on her way to try to hurry before she ends up late.

The second to last day is when it begins to creep into the indoors. Her teacher has to wake her several times during the lessons, and that gets a note from the teacher brought home to her mums that must be signed and returned. Worsening further still in the evening, Nel dozes off right in the middle of dinner sitting leaning on one arm and her head sagging towards her plate even as her other hand holds to her utensil stubbornly.

Come Friday morning on what should be her last day at school, Nel is lost in a sleep far deeper than anyone can reach.

Then as though nothing has happened, late in the morning on Saturday, she rouses on her own with a sudden deeper breath drawn into her chest, and a tiny note of sound in her throat as she breathes out. Brown eyes flutter open only to close against the light with a hard blink, and she reaches to rub at the lingering heaviness holding to them.

Comments

wake up thread??

[fairfeste]

Feste has been worried about Nel's fatigue along with everyone else, so when it gets to be a bit late they head into her room, sitting on the edge of her bed and gently shaking her shoulder. "Hey Nel. Come on, time to get up. You'll miss school if you keep this up."

When she doesn't stir at all, they grown and try again. "Nel...? Nel!" Why isn't this working??

Yes <3

[vernal_miss]

Any other time, that weight next to her on her bed, the soft shake of her shoulder, and the sound of a familiar urging would get some sort of reaction, but this morning...nothing. The second shake of her shoulder will make it clear that there is no muscle tone to her frame, Nel laying limp as a ragdoll half on her stomach and half on her side with her face tucked away behind an arm and one of her favorite plush toys. It’s odd that even her hand has no grasp on her toy. Usually she clings to them stubbornly from the moment she slips into sleep until she wakes. Trying to part her from one usually disturbs her.

[fairfeste]

Oooh this is worrying. Feste has the sense to check to make sure she's breathing before they jump up and lean out the bedroom door-- "Mum! Mum!!!"

[vernal_miss]

A hand to her side will reveal that she is breathing, but the rhythmic process has dwindled. Her breathing is shallow as she sleeps, which alone would be of no concern, and startlingly slow. A child her age should be breathing twice as fast at rest as each inhale starts a solid six seconds apart with delays between breaths.

The raised voice of her eldest sibling calling for their mother receives no response.

[catted]

There is no reaction only for a moment, and then the sound of quick steps can be heard outside before Mary Ann comes in.

"What is it?"

[fairfeste]

"Nel's not waking up. At all." The fact their voice is raised and nothing is changing should indicate that this is for real. "She's still breathing, but..."

Basic medical summary of what can be tested relatively fast; Mary Ann can do any or all

[vernal_miss]

Motionless on the bed, more details of her state are readily identified with a cursory examination. In addition to her slowed breathing, her skin has turned ashen and is cool to the touch. A check of her pulse finds bradycardia to match to her slow breath; the rate should be around eighty beats a minute if she were alert, perhaps in the sixties asleep, but her heart keeps a rhythm somewhere in the thirties. The pulse itself maintains some palpable strength, indicating her blood pressure is sufficient if on the low end.

Further steps might include attempting to get a response with verbal or touch stimulation, neither of which elicit any movement or change. Application of a noxious stimulus with a squeeze of a fingertip with pressure focused at her nail or a trapezius pinch similarly brings no response despite the harmless pain it should cause. Oddly enough, even though her autonomic system is slowed and her pupils are dilated and unreactive to light, she still has a positive doll’s eyes reflex, indicating her brainstem is functioning.

Effectively, Nel is comatose.

[catted]

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This is going to far.

Depite her fear and anger, she manages to go through the motions, reaction almost on instinct, letting her professional detachment separate her from the rising panic inside. Should she have contacted more doctors after all? Should she at least have tried to ask someone in private? But what if...

Her mind is reeling, guilt seeping into her thoughts and poisoning even the panic. Could she have prevented this? What if Nel doesn't wake up?

For a few minutes, she doesn't respond at all to Feste, only stepping past them and running all tests that she can think of that can be performed without equipment to ascertain Nel's state of health and general being.

"She's comatose," she finally whispers, sitting down on the side of the bed heavily.

What to do now?

[fairfeste]

Feste is trying very hard not to panic themselves, but that's really hard when Mum is clearly just as clueless as they are and possibly even more distraught. They assumed it would be something that she'd know about, but--

"Comatose?" Oh no. Oooooh no, that's not good. Feste stands by the door, almost frozen, not sure what to do. They can't really do anything about that, they don't think, though admittedly nothing about medicine ever made much sense to them. "...People can wake up from comas, right?"

They're honestly not sure.

Turning it over to Mary and Feste from here

[vernal_miss]

Regardless of when Mary Ann checks Ornella’s vital statistics or the depth of the coma, through the day and night, she remains stable. No worse, and no better.

[catted]

Mary will for sure keep a very close eye on Nel's state, with all themeans to do so that she has.

"They do, quite frequently even." More or less true - it's always a bit of a question of which kinds of comas you look at and such, but she's not going to freak Feste out more than necessary right now. "So she might well be with us again in a few hours or days. Until then we need to look after her. Could you grab the spare pillows from the top of the wardrobe in my bedroom?"

[fairfeste]

That's... that's good. She could wake up soon. She could wake up today and then just basically just slept for a long time! Feste tries to tell themself that, but... they still can't help but be incredibly anxious about it all. "I-- yeah. I can do that."

They'll go ahead and get up to grab the pillows. Maybe the sooner they do things like that, the sooner Nel will wake up.

[catted]

Mary Ann certainly hopes so. Either way, she'll try to reassure her kids and wife as much as possible over the next few days, do her best to keep Nel safe, and pray that whatever did this to her stops soon.

Curse those echoes.