LGGrace

I was hoping to get this chapter posted a little earlier, but went down a rabbit hole when researching biopsies. No promises, but I will try to have chapter 9 posted Sunday night. Chapter 8 With the intense pain waking me up, I look frantically for the remote to press the call button. Taking deep shaky breaths, I find the remote in the dark and hit the call button. As I waited for the nurse, I gripped the covers so tight that my knuckles were probably white if I could see them. Each second seemed to drag on as I waited for the nurse. After the longest 2 minutes of my life, a nurse walks in and cuts on the lights. She said, “What can I do for you, Will?” Between breaths, I was able to muster out, “I need more pain medicine!” “You’re not scheduled to have another dose for another 2 hours, can you wait until then?” she said. “NO!” I almost shouted at her. She responded, “I’m going to go get the attending doctor and will be right back.” As she was walking out of the room, I heard in a groggy voice, “Will, what’s wrong?” I look to my left to see my mom tossing off a blanket and getting off the couch. She rushed to my bedside as I said, “I. Need. Pain. Meds.” “Was that the nurse that just left?” she asked. I nodded and my mom said, “Hopefully, she will be back soon.” She looked at me with concern and grabbed my hand which was clutching the sheets. I held her hand in a death grip as I stared at the ceiling tile directly above my head and kept taking deep breaths in and out to keep from screaming out in pain. Five long minutes later, the nurse rushed back into my room. “Will, I spoke with the attending doctor and he prescribed you a more powerful medicine called Dilaudid,” she said. Injecting the syringe into my I.V., I felt a rush to my head and my peripheral vision blurred for a few moments. Then relief washed over me as my hands lost their tight grip on my mom and the sheets. With a sigh, I said, “Thank you.” The nurse said, “Certainly, Dilaudid is about 10 times stronger than morphine and lasts longer too. You shouldn’t need anymore until tomorrow morning.” I said, “OK.” On that note, the nurse walked out and my mom placed a hand on my cheek and said, “Get some rest and wake me up if you need to go to the bathroom,” then kissed me on the forehead. I nodded, then turned onto my side to let sleep overtake me again. I woke up to Rosie gently shaking my shoulder, “Good morning Will, do you need any more pain medicine?” Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I shake my head yes as I can now feel my joints start to ache again. Rosie injected my I.V. with Dilaudid and another syringe of nausea medicine. She then connected the feeding bag that was already hanging from my I.V. pole to my feeding tube. Unplugging my I.V. pump, she turned to me and said, “Let’s go get you weighed and measured this morning.” I slowly got out of bed with Rosie’s helping hand. As soon as I put all of my weight onto my legs, I lost my balance and immediately grabbed Rosie to keep from collapsing onto the floor. “Will, are you alright?” Rosie asked. As she was helping hold me up, I said, “I just feel very weak.” “Are you able to walk to the nurse station?” she asked. “I should be able to with some help,” I responded. My dad stepped in and wrapped an arm around my torso to support most of my weight as I leaned against him. My mom then took the I.V. pole to push alongside me. Taking shaky steps, we all made the short trip to the nurse’s station not too far outside my room. My dad helped me step up onto the scale and kept a hand on me to keep me steady and only briefly letting go so that Rosie could get an accurate weight. Rosie said, “Will, you are 5 foot 3 and 105 pounds.” With it being Groundhog Day with that information, all my parents and I could do was just nod. We slowly made our way back to my room and halfway there I was hit with the need to poop. Looking up at my dad I said, “I need to go to the bathroom.” “Alright, we will head straight there,” he said. As all three of us walked into the bathroom, my bowels were ready to erupt. Standing in front of the I yanked my pajama bottoms down and as soon as my butt touched the toilet seat, I unleashed a torrential mudslide into the toilet bowl. I didn’t even care at the moment that I had an audience and was using the bathroom like a preschooler. At that moment I just felt relief. My parents quickly exited the bathroom to give me privacy. On the way out my dad said, “Will, let me know when you are done and I will help you to bed,” as he left the door slightly ajar. After a couple more waves of poop were evicted from my body, I wiped and flushed the toilet. I called out, “I’m done.” My dad walked back into the bathroom, placed his hands under my armpits, and lifted me to my feet as I pulled up my underwear and pajama bottoms. Wrapping one arm around me and taking my I.V. pole with the other, we stopped by the sink to wash my hands, then made our way back to my bed for me to collapse into it. Already exhausted, it didn’t take me long to fall back to sleep. I woke up to Rosie flushing my feeding tube and replacing my bag of fluids. She then said, “Will, someone will be here in a few minutes to take you to get your x-rays, CT scan, and MRI scan.” I nodded and a minute later an orderly came into my room pushing a wheelchair. He asked, “William Gauss?” I nodded yes and he said, “I'm going to be taking you downstairs to radiology.” My dad walked over and helped me out of bed and in the wheelchair. The orderly took my I.V. pump and bag of fluids and placed them on the I.V. pole that was attached to the back of the wheelchair. A few minutes later, I was left outside of radiology for an x-ray. The technician took me back into the room and after 15 minutes of getting a full body x-ray, I was sitting back in the wheelchair outside of the room to get my CT scan. Another technician wheeled me into the room and I had full body scans taken with and without contrast. The process took about 45 minutes and I found myself falling asleep then being awakened by the technician over the intercom instructing me to hold my breath during certain aspects of the scan. After the CT scan was complete, I, again, found myself waiting outside of a different room to get my MRI. After a few minutes of waiting, a technician walked out and asked, “Are you William Gauss?” Looking up, I see a man of average height and build with short brown hair and blue eyes wearing light gray scrubs. I responded, “Yes.” “My name is Chuck and I will be taking your MRI today, have you ever had an MRI before?” he asked. Shaking my head, I said, “No.” He said, “That’s OK, we use a strong magnet to help take an internal picture of you. It can be very loud.” “Yeah, the strong magnet causes all of the dipoles of the nuclei in the atoms of my body to align with the magnetic field. Based on how long it takes for the nuclei to return to their original orientation after the magnet is turned off, it tells the detectors what type of tissue it is. The reason why the boundaries between different types of tissue are blurry is because of the Gibbs effect and is a natural consequence of the solution along the boundaries of the partial differential equation used to construct the image.” Pausing for a second, I then sheepishly said, “Sorry, I'm kind of a big nerd and sometimes can’t help myself.” Smiling, he said, “That’s OK, it’s nice to know a patient who has a good understanding of what I do.” After verifying my medical history to make sure that I didn’t have any magnetic material in my body, he disconnected my I.V. and helped me into a pushchair that was nonmagnetic to wheel me into the room. Chuck helped me onto the sliding table of the MRI machine and connected my I.V. to a line while explaining, “This is so I can inject you with contrast during the MRI.” Before placing headphones on me, he said, “This is to protect your hearing from the loud noises and so that I can give you instructions from the control room. Since this will take a while, we usually play music to help keep you calm while being in such a tight space. Do you have anything in particular that you would like to listen to?” Thinking for a second and deciding to keep it simple, I said, “90s alternative rock would be fine.” After spending nearly an hour in the small tube of the MRI while listening to the loud blaring music of Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Mazzy Star, Gin Blossoms, 4 Nonblondes, Local H, and the periodic loud mechanical whirring and banging of the MRI machine; Chuck had finished all the imaging and brought me back out into the hallway to wait for an orderly to bring me back to my room. Roughly 10 minutes later, I was back in my room and as soon as I was back in bed, exhaustion sent me back to sleep. I woke up to Rosie shaking my shoulder and asking, “It’s about time for another dose of pain medicine. Do you need any?” After a few moments of taking stock of my body, I said, “Yes, the last dose is starting to wear off.” As she was injecting the Dilaudid into my I.V., I asked, “What time is it?” “It is a little after 2:30,” she said. I asked, “Wasn’t I supposed to get fed from my feeding tube at lunch?” She responded, “You did. You slept through both, me connecting your feeding bag, and then an hour later flushing your feeding tube.” I said, “Oh, I must have been really tired.” She said, “Must have, but I say when in the hospital, it is always good to get as much rest as possible. Especially, since it is hard to get quality sleep here. One of your doctors should be here soon to perform the biosis.” I said, “OK,” and she walked back out of my room. I turned to see my mom on the couch and my dad in the recliner with the remote watching TV. Deciding to try and stay awake while waiting for the doctor, I watched reruns of The Office with my parents. About 30 minutes later, Dr. Kutner walked in holding a tray. “Good afternoon Will, how do you feel today?” he asked, as he set the tray down on the table next to me. I said, “I'm just exhausted.” “This biopsy should not take too long and you can get some rest for the rest of the day. I hear that you had a rough night; has the Dilaudid been helping?” he asked. “Yes, it seems to keep the pain at a minimum between doses,” I responded. He said, “That’s good to hear, we will do our best to keep you comfortable. I’m going to perform what is called a Synovial Biopsy on your left elbow and right knee. I will inject a numbing agent into both joints, then I will use a special needle to pull a small tissue sample from the joint. Do you have any questions?” I said, “No.” He then said, “Alright, let’s get started.” Dr. Kutner pulled back the cover that was over my right leg and pulled up the pants leg of my pajama bottoms past my knee. He took some alcohol swabs off the tray and began to wipe down both my knee and elbow. Taking a syringe off the tray, he injected it into my knee and then took another one to inject into my elbow. “We are going to need to wait a few minutes for the numbing agent to take full effect,” he said. My dad then asked, “How is this going to help in finding out what is going on with Will?” Dr. Kutner responded, “This is a useful tool in diagnosing many different types of diseases, but what Dr. Cameron and I will be looking for, in particular, is autoimmune diseases and I will also be looking for mycobacterial inflections where a Synovial Biopsy is the only way to properly diagnose them.” “Elaina and I felt a lot better after meeting y’all yesterday and this just confirms to me that y’all are doing all you can to figure this out,” my dad said. With a small smile, Dr. Kutner said, “Thank you, my passion is helping patients like Will get the proper diagnosis so that they receive the care that they need.” Turning to me he said, “Are you ready?” I nodded and said, “Yes.” Taking a large needle off of the tray, he turned to me and said, “I’m going to start with your right knee. I’m going to need you to stay as still as possible.” I nodded, then watched as Dr. Kutner plunged the needle into my knee. It was odd that I felt no pain but just pressure from the force of the needle going in. He then pulled the plunger back and I watched as the syringe filled with what looked like bloody pus. He set the needle back onto the tray and grabbed a cotton ball and tape to cover the puncher wound from the needle. He took another needle and repeated the same process on my left elbow. As he was pulling down my pajama pants leg and pulling up the covers for me, he asked, “That was too bad, was it, Will?” I said, “No, it didn’t hurt at all.” He said, “Dr. Cameron, Dr. Taub, and I will see you in the morning to go over some of the primary results from yesterday’s blood work and today’s scans. I should have the results back from today’s biopsy either Thursday or Friday.” I said, “OK.” My mom then said, “Thank you, Dr. Kutner.” Not long after Dr. Kutner left; I fell asleep. I woke back up to the intense need to vomit.

Great chapter. The suspense is killing me on waiting to find out what Beth wasn't willing to tell Carly about her parents until they get to Amanda's house. I can see either Carly staying in the diaper dimension to be with Beth if she is unable to repotty train because of her mom's experience the first 5 years back home or Beth going with Carly to her home dimension if Carly can repotty train to avoid the issues of being a mid.

I agree. She could be what Sarah Silverman was for normalizing childhood and adolescents bed wetting.

I did the same thing in middle and high-school too. Since I lived in a household of 7 with no privacy, I could only do it for 5 to 10 minutes before or after getting out the shower. I was too scared to go down the aisle by myself. I had an fear that people would think I needed diapers for some reason by just walking down it. It also didn't help that my Dad threatened to put me in goodnites for my bedwetting and I didn't want anyone to find out. Thinking back, I wet the enough to justify needing them until I was at least 11.

I'm partial to the early 2000s since that was when I was old enough to pay attention to the diaper brands and is probably why I like cloth back diapers even though I got out diapers right before they became popular. I am a twin myself and me and my twin were not daytime potty trained until right before we turned 4. This was the reason we didn't go to 3k. If the twins are born very premature(2 lbs 1 oz) like myself then out growing size 6 would not be a problem. I could have fit in them until at least middle school and could probably still fit in them until high school. I started HS at 67lbs.

As must as I hate that Wattpad may do a blanket ban on ABDL content, they need to do something. The sheer amount of underage sexual content on that site is sickening. Also it seems that over 50% of the ABDL content was written by a 5th grader and is unreadable. This why I'm not even bothering to post my current story on that site. I'm mainly writing it for myself anyway and the ABDL community.

I remember when they came out with them about 15 years ago. Goodnites made them to look like boxers. It was pretty much just a regular pull up but the outer layer was cut to look like shorts.

Maddy walking down the diaper aisle was a play by play of my own childhood memories. I remember being overwhelmed by all the smells and bright colors. Luckily for me the baby stuff was on one side and paper goods were on the other, so I got to go down that aisle all the time when I was shopping with my mom. I was always nervous that my mom would catch me looking.

You are correct. I spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties in and out of the hospital and was only labeled a fall risk once. They didn't tell me, but the bed had an alarm that would go off at the nurse's station. It took me a few times getting out of bed and a nurse barging in a minute later to realize it.

I do have another show in mind when Will eventually goes home, but I don't want to ruin the fun of the Easter egg hunt.😁

Thanks! Thank you. I was wondering how long I could get away with naming doctors from House MD (Wilson, Cameron, Taub, Kutner) before someone noticed. Sadly, House will not make an appearance. It is my favorite medical drama TV show and is a big influence on the first 1/3 of this story. I do plan on hiding more pop culture Easter eggs throughout the story.

Carly pooping her diaper in the middle of a test is one of the biggest reasons I would never voluntarily unpotty train myself/ go 24/7. It gives me empathy for the incontinent who have no choice. I guess on the bright side, it is expected for a little to have a poopy diapee.

Sorry for the delay again. I guess I should not write checks that I can't cash when it comes to self-imposed deadlines on posting chapters that I have not even begun to write yet. I probably should have said in my first post for this story that there will be some strong language in this story at times. If I had to give this story a TV rating overall, it would be TV-M for language. Other than that, I would consider it SFW. Chapter 7 I woke the next morning to Rachael asking if I needed more morphine. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I nod yes. Rachael injected me with the syringe of morphine, and another syringe of the nausea medicine, and started my feeding tube. I turn to my left to see that both my parents are already here. My attention snaps back to Rachael saying, “Will, you have a busy day ahead of you, let’s go ahead and get you weighed and measured.” “OK,” I said. I started to slowly get out of bed and my dad was already by my side to get my I.V. situated and helped me to my feet. I felt a weakness in my legs and was struggling to move this morning more than in the past few days. My mom, seeing me struggle, asked, “Will, how do you feel this morning?” I said, “I just feel really tired and weak.” “I'm sorry you feel so bad, hopefully, the doctors at the Mayo Clinic will help you get better soon,” my Mom said. “I hope so too,” I said. We made our way to the nurse station and Rachael weighed and measured me. Before my dad could ask Rachael said, “Alright Will, you weigh a 112 pounds and are 5 foot 4 and ½ inches tall this morning;” pausing for a second, she said, “We should be getting you ready for transport in the next hour or two. I will come check on you in a little bit to flush your feeding tube and get you ready.” I slowly make it to my room with my parents on either side of me. I gingerly get back into bed as my mom plugs my I.V. pump back in for me. My mom turned to me and asked, “I was going to pack up all your belongings to bring to the Mayo Clinic with us so you don’t have to worry about it while being transported there. Is there anything other than your backpack and toiletries that I am missing?” “Besides my stuff on the table, that is everything,” I said. She said, “OK, I will make sure I have everything to bring to the other hospital for you.” I said, “Thanks, I'm going to go ahead and brush my teeth before you pack everything up.” I got back out of bed as my mom unplugged the I.V. pump again for me and slowly made my way into the bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and as I was brushing my teeth, I noticed that my nails were very long. Looking in my toiletry bag, I found my nail clippers and was able to get my nails down to a manageable length. I sat on the toilet seat, pulled my socks out, and saw that my toenails were in need of trimming too, and decided to trim them while I was at it. I came back out of the bathroom to my mom waiting to help me back into bed. Once getting settled in bed I watched as my mom started packing all my belongings up. My dad then spoke up saying, “Will, is there anything in particular that you want to watch on TV?” “No, not really,” I said. My dad then said, “Sports Center it is then.” I lay in bed half-heartedly watching TV and dozing in and out of consciousness. Sometime later, I was alerted to Rachael walking into the room. “Alright Will, I’m going to flush your feeding tube and disconnect your I.V. to make it easier for being transported to the Mayo Clinic,” Rachael said. I nodded and watched her flush my feeding tube, disconnect my I.V., and throw everything away. Rachael then said, “Someone should be here soon to bring you downstairs to an ambulance for transport.” I said, “OK” “Will, I hope they find out what is going on and you get better soon,” Rachael said. “Me too, sorry about the whole bathroom and pain medicine incident the other day,” I said. In a serious voice, Rachael said, “Will, that was nothing to be embarrassed about, I have to deal with a lot worse and would not be a nurse if I could not handle it.” I said, “OK, thanks for looking after me.” “Certainly Will,” Rachael said with a smile. My mom then chimed in, ”Thank you, Rachael.” “No problem, I hope you all have a better week this week than last,” Rachael said. Around 15 minutes after Rachael left, an orderly came into my room pushing a wheelchair. He asked, “Are you William Gauss?” I said, “Yes.” “OK, I’m here to bring you downstairs for transport,” he said. I nodded and slowly started getting out of bed. My parents were already up and by my side. My dad hugged me and said, “We should be at the Mayo Clinic shortly after you get there. I love you.” My mom then hugged me and with a kiss on the cheek said, “I love you, sweetheart, we will see you in a little bit.” As I was sitting down in the wheelchair I said, “I love y’all too.” My parents both waved to me as I was being wheeled out of the room. The orderly wheeled to the elevator and we rode it down to the ground floor. He then pushed through the back of the emergency department to what looked like an exit. Waiting for me at the exit was a stretcher and a tall paramedic wearing a dark blue uniform with EMS patches on the shoulders of his sleeves. As the wheelchair came to a stop he said, “You must be William Gauss, my name is Matt and I will be your ride to the Mayo Clinic.” I nodded and he and the orderly helped me out of the wheelchair and onto the stretcher. As the orderly was leaving, Matt turned to me and said, “I’m going to strap you down so we don’t have to worry about you falling off the stretcher during transport.” I nodded and Matt processed to run a strap over my sternum, my waist, and then my thighs. Matt then said, “You're all set, let's get you loaded up for transport.” He pushed me through the double doors and out into the bright Arizona sun. As my eyes adjust to the harsh light, I see the ambulance parked about 30 feet from the doors and a short Latino man also wearing a paramedic uniform walking towards us. As he met up with us he said, “My name is Ernesto and I will be your driver today.” They both loaded the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and as it was pushed all the way in I could hear and feel what must have been it locking into place. As Matt was getting into the back to sit beside me, Ernesto said, “We should have you at the Mayo Clinic in about 30 minutes, if you need anything let Matt know.” He closed the back doors and a few seconds later I could hear what must have been the front driver door opening and closing. Moments later I could feel the ambulance start moving forward. Matt turned to me and said, “Do you prefer to go by William or Will?” I said, “Will is fine.” “Alright Will, just relax and we will have you there in no time,” he said. Nodding, I relaxed my body against the restraints and let my mind wander as I felt the movement of the ambulance and the sound of the tires against the road. Sometime later, I felt the one thing that I didn’t want to feel on this trip, I had to poop. Thinking to myself ‘CRAP!’ as I turned my head to Matt. I asked, “How much longer until we get to the Mayo Clinic?” Matt said, “About 10 more minutes, is there something wrong?” “I have to go to the bathroom really bad,” I said. Matt then said, “Try and hold it if you can but if you have an accident it will be OK.” I nodded but turned my full attention to holding back my bowels. The minutes seemed to drag on as I put all of my energy into clenching my butt cheeks together. I felt the ambulance turn and with that motion, some poop slipped out; moments later the battle was lost as I felt my body force the rest of my bowels out. I could feel it spread out all over my bottom, moving up my lower back, forward in my underwear covering my genitals, and down my thighs. I turned to Matt with flushed cheeks and said, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold it.” Matt gently placed his hand on my shoulder and with a look of concern and pity, he said, “It’s OK Will, as soon as we get to the hospital, we will help you get cleaned up.” I nodded but looked away in shame, as I lay in what felt like a gallon of pluff mud and smelled like a paper mill. A couple of minutes later, I felt the ambulance come to a stop, and moments later, Ernesto was opening the back doors. Matt hopped out the back and they both pulled the stretcher out of the back of the ambulance. Matt took over and quickly pushed me into what I imagine is the ambulance entrance to the emergency room at the Mayo Clinic. As we make our way through the double doors into a hallway, we are met with an average-height Latino woman with shoulder-length hair, in gray scrubs. With a smile, she approached us and said, “You must be William, my name is Rosie and I will be your nurse.” I just nodded and looked down at my lap. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Matt gesture to Rosie and they both stepped away to have a quiet conversation. A few moments later, Rosie walked back up to me and said, “OK Will, Matt, and I are going to take you straight to your room on the stretcher, once there, I will help you out of your clothes so you can take a shower.” I just nodded and continued to look at my lap. A second later, Matt was pushing the stretcher and following Rosie down the hallways. After a few turns and trying my best to avoid eye contact with passers-by, we arrived at an elevator. We got on the elevator and luckily it was only the three of us, but in the enclosed space, the smell was back with a vengeance. A minute later we were off the elevator and going down another hallway. After passing what I assume is a nurse’s station, I was wheeled into a room. Matt immediately started undoing the straps, while I saw Rosie place what looked to be a large incontinence bed pad on the floor beside the stretcher. Rosie and Matt then helped me off the stretcher to stand on top of the pad. Rosie said, “Matt, at the nurse’s station, is cleaning supplies and you can throw the fitted sheet away there.” Matt said, “OK, Will, I hope you feel better soon.” Matt rolled the stretcher back out of the room and shut the door behind him. Rosie then turned to me and said, “Will, your clothes are a lost cause so I’m going to cut them off of you and then help with a rough cleanup before letting you take a shower.” In a quiet voice, I said, “OK.” Rosie took some scissors out of her pocket and then cut the pants leg of my sweatpants from the waistband all the way down to the cuff. My pants were discarded in a pile between my legs and then she did the same with my underwear. She grabbed a bunch of large wet wipes and then began to wipe down my back, butt, legs, and embarrassingly my genitals too. She let my hospital gown fall back to my knees again and then said, “Let's go into the bathroom so that you can get into the shower.” I followed Rosie into the bathroom with flushed cheeks and she started the shower, then said, “Alright Will, there is soap and shampoo in the shower already, towels and washcloths are right here,” pointing to the towel rack beside the shower, “you can leave your gown on the floor and I will have another gown and socks for you on the counter waiting for you by the time you are done.” I nodded with my cheek still flushed from what was one of the most embarrassing moments of my adult life. Rosie walked out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. I immediately stripped out of the gown and threw it on the floor, then pulled my socks off and threw them on top of the gown. Testing the water with my right hand, I stepped into the shower once the temperature was warm enough. I let the water cascade down my body as I watch as slightly brown water goes down the drain. Once the water was relatively clear, I took a washcloth and soap and scrubbed my body thoroughly from the neck down. Once the soap was rinsed off, I turned the water off and grabbed a towel to dry off. Stepping out of the shower, I see that Rosie has left the new gown and socks on the counter. I put the gown on and struggled to tie the ties in the back. After finally getting the gown on right, I sit on the toilet seat lid to put on my socks. I stepped out of the bathroom to see that my parents made it here. My dad walked up to me with a pair of folded pajama bottoms and underwear, and said, “Well, I always said you were full of crap when you were a teenager, but I never meant literally.” My mom quickly shouted, “George!” Smiling at my dad trying to make light of an embarrassing situation, I said, “I'm surprised that my eyes haven’t turned brown yet.” With a chuckle, he handed me the pajamas and underwear, and I turned back around to head into the bathroom. Closing the door, I slipped on the underwear and as I was trying to guide my feet into the pajamas, I lost my balance. Like a sack of potatoes, I landed straight on my left shoulder and yelled out in pain, “MOTHERFUCKER!” As I am lying on the floor in pain, my dad comes rushing into the bathroom. “Will, are you alright!” my dad said in a scared voice. In an angry voice, I said, “Yeah, I just lost my damn balance trying to get dressed.” “Let me help you and get you into bed,” my dad said. My dad then put a hand under each of my armpits and lifted me from the floor to my feet. He then helped me pull my pajama bottoms up to my waist. We walked out of the bathroom with my dad having one of his arms wrapped around my torso, guiding me to the bed. Looking at the bed, I see that the covers are pulled back and there is an incontinence pad lying over the fitted sheet. Thinking to myself, ‘I guess they don’t want to chance it after my grand entrance,’ I get into bed and pull the covers over me, hearing a slight crinkle from the pad as I shift around to get comfortable. I looked around the hospital room and saw that it was not much different than the room at St. Luke’s. The room is a little bigger, and there is a couch that is up against the windows to my left, a recliner directly to my left that my mom is sitting in, and a straight-back chair to my right. As my dad was taking a seat on the couch, my mom said to me, “Will, I know you are not having a good day today. I just wanted to let you know that I called the math department and spoke to someone named Amy. I let her know what was going on and that you were at the Mayo Clinic. She said that she would talk to all your professors and let them know. She also told me not to worry about your assistantship either. Depending on how long it takes for you to get better, she said that we could do a medical withdrawal and you can return either this summer or fall if need be.” With a sigh of relief, I said, “OK,” pausing for a second, I asked, “What are you doing about work?” “I’m taking PTO right now, but if I have to, I can file for FMLA and get up to 12 weeks off. But don’t worry about me and since your father retired early last year, we plan on staying here until you are better. I already got Stanley to check on the house for us and get the mail. Just worry about you right now. OK,” my mom said. “OK,” I said. A few minutes later, Rosie walked in carrying a bag of fluids, a bag for my feeding tube, and a couple of syringes. Setting everything down on a small table to my left, she said, “Will, I’m going to start your noon feeding and start you back on fluids. How are your pain levels right now?” “The morphine is starting to wear off and it probably doesn’t help that I fell on my shoulder early,” I said. With a look of concern, she said, “You fell, what were you doing to fall?” I said, “I was trying to get dressed and lost my balance.” She then said, “I will be right back,” and walked out of the room. A minute later, Rosie was walking back in. “Will, with you falling earlier, I am going to have to classify you as a fall-risk patient. Can I see your left hand?” I held out my left hand and Rosie put a bright yellow plastic bracelet around my wrist with the words ‘FALL RISK’ written boldly on it. Rosie then said, “Please make sure someone is with you anytime you need to get out of bed. If your parents are not here, please press the call button and someone will be here as soon as possible.” I said, “OK.” Rosie then turned to my parents and said, “Please make sure you help Will with getting dressed, or me or another nurse could help. We do not want him to get hurt.” My mom responded, “Of course, his father will help from now on.” Rosie turned her attention back to the table of supplies and started to hang the I.V. fluid bag and feeding bag. She hooked the fluids to my I.V. and connected the feeding bag to my feeding tube. She then took the two syringes and injected them into my I.V. After throwing the two empty syringes away, Rosie said, “Your team of doctors should be seeing you in a couple of hours. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime.” On that note she walked out of the room and with the morphine taking full effect, I fell asleep. I woke up to my mom lightly shaking my shoulder and saying, “The doctors are here to see you.” I look at the foot of my bed and see three doctors. The first one is a woman who looks to be in her late thirties with long blonde hair and blue eyes. The second doctor is a tall man in his early forties, that looks to be Indian with short black hair and brown eyes. The third doctor is a short man with balding brown hair and brown eyes, that looks to be in his fifties. The Indian doctor spoke first and said, “I’m Dr. Kutner and I specialize in diagnostic medicine.” Pointing to the woman on his right, he said, “This is Dr. Cameron and she specializes in autoimmune diseases.” Pointing to the man on his left, he said, “And this is Dr. Taub and he specializes in genetics.” Dr. Cameron then asked, “Will, we have been reviewing your case and would like for you to go over your symptoms with us again.” I then spend the next ten minutes going over all my symptoms and what has happened to me over the past week. Dr. Kutner then said, “I'm going to do a physical exam of you, is that alright?” I said, “Sure.” He proceeded to listen to my heart and lungs and poke and prod all over my body. At the same time, Dr. Taub turned to my parents and said, “You all must be Will’s parents?” My mom responded, “Yes I’m Elana, and this is his father, George.” Dr. Taub said, “I wish we could be meeting under better circumstances, but it is nice to meet you all.” Dr. Kutner, now finishing his exam, stepped back and said, “Will, I not seeing anything abnormal in your physical exam and your lymph nodes feel normal which confirms that we are still most likely not dealing with an infection.” My dad asked, “What is the plan for figuring this out?” Dr. Kutner said, “We plan on drawing some blood samples today to begin running tests. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for Will. He will have a full body CT scan and X-ray done, to see if anything changed since his last. He will also have an MRI of some key areas of his body and I will be performing a biopsy on a few of his joints tomorrow afternoon.” Dr. Cameron followed up with, “With the blood samples, I will start looking at other types of autoimmune diseases that Dr. Wilson could have missed and with tomorrow's tests, could shed light on which direction we should be looking in.” “With one of the blood samples, I will start sequencing Will’s DNA, and see if there are any genetic abnormalities that pop up. Hopefully, if there is anything to find, we can find it quickly, but with how large the human genome is, it could take some time,” Dr Taub said. “I will be supporting both Dr. Cameron and Dr. Taub, but I also will be exploring other avenues in trying to diagnose what is causing your symptoms. Do you have any questions?” Dr. Kutner said. I said, “No.” “Get some rest, Will, we will see you tomorrow,” Dr. Kutner replied. As they were walking out of my room, my mom said, “I feel better already after meeting the doctors.” My dad then said, “Yeah, it seems like they have a game plan together and are attacking this from all angles. How do you feel, Will?” I said, “Better, I still hope they figure this out quickly.” A moment later Rosie walked in carrying a caddy of empty vials, and what looked to be a needle and tourniquet. Walking over to the right side of my bed, she sat the caddy on the bed beside me and said, “Will, it seems that the doctors want a lot of blood samples, I’m going to draw blood from your right arm, OK.” I nodded and held out my arm and Rosie tied the tourniquet around my upper arm and began to draw vial after vial until the whole caddy was full of blood samples. After throwing the used needle and tourniquet away, Rosie said, “That should be the last of the blood samples that they would need today. I will be back at 6 to start the last of your feeding for the day and give you more morphine if you need it. Let me know if you need anything else before then.” Rosie walked out of my room with the caddy in hand and it did not take me long to fall back asleep. I woke up twice before the night, one to go to the bathroom with the help of my dad, and the other to get more morphine and the last feeding of the day. I fell back to sleep shortly after getting the morphine. I woke up to it being dark outside and my joints screaming in agony.

I wet the bed until I was 14 years old. I worn diapers then pull ups until I was 6. Luckily, I didn't wet the bed every night, but would usually wet my underwear and pajama bottoms a little bit almost every night until I was 9. For there I went from wetting about twice a week to once every couple of months until I stopped.

I mainly use a pacifier when I'm awake. I have tried sleeping with a pacifier, but due to my deviated septum, I have a hard time sleeping with one and usually end up spitting it out. I can't say much on craving for food, but I was hoping that pacifiers would curve my vaping habit. I quit smoking over three years ago but have not been able to quite vaping. Sadly it doesn't help as much as I would like. Maybe if someone came out with favored ones would help better or a nicotine pouch in a pacifier. That may cause problems though in public since I have such a bad oral fixation.