Kalorm would actually prefer she DIDN'T do that and instead WENT AWAY, but he's way too tired to argue right now. 

(It doesn't really hurt. It's definitely unpleasant, but mostly because he hates this entire situation where random hospital personnel are constantly TOUCHING him.)

It doesn't look significantly worse? There's still drastically reduced peristalsis and gut activity, but the ultrasound can detect local bloodflow, and all of that looks, if not normal, at least adequate for low-activity conditions. There's no sign of a mechanical obstruction. She can see fluid and gas in his small intestine, but it's not especially dilated or swollen, and the tissue walls are only slightly thickened, which is about what you would expect from moderate inflammation downstream of damage to the fast-dividing epithelial lining cells but not the underlying muscle wall. His large intestine is more distended, with both solid feces and gas, and none of that is going anywhere, but again, the local bloodflow to the tissue at least looks intact. She doesn't see anything that looks like bleeding. 

It's definitely not ideal, but it's not particularly worse than the last check, and it doesn't look like there's a new acute problem. It's possible that Kalorm's gut is sending lots of damage signals, particularly in response to any stimulation including "tensing abdominal muscles to try to roll over", and this set off a vasovagal reaction. It's also possible that it's not directly related, but that both problems are downstream of underlying nerve damage to the autonomic nervous system. The latter is actually a more serious issue, that could take a lot longer to resolve, but it probably will still resolve eventually. 

Treatment Planning wants to get another bloodwork panel, this time a more thorough assessment of a wide range of different tissue-specific inflammatory markers. There are some potential drug treatments to block certain inflammatory processes and disrupt some of the dysfunctional cascade telling Kalorm's gut to stop doing any things, but they want to be cautious given the suspected underlying tissue damage. 

(In the long run, tomorrow they're going to want to clear out the stool and contents of his lower GI tract, to minimize the risk of bacterial translocation into his gut circulatory system – his bloodwork doesn't show an infection yet but leaving it for days means rolling those dice repeatedly – and to relieve the pressure on damaged tissue so it can heal. Kalorm is predictably going to hate this, though, so if Merrin is up for an afternoon shift tomorrow, it can probably wait until then. In the longer long run, if the intestinal stasis continues to not respond to conservative drug treatments, there's a simple and fairly low-risk surgical procedure to place a sort of electrical pacemaker and stimulate peristalsis. They want to hold off on it until his inflammatory markers are generally lower and his immune function is closer to baseline, though, and hopefully it won't end up being necessary.) 

The Diagnostic team wants repeat ultrasound scans every six hours, or sooner if Kalorm complains of GI symptoms. 

All of that discussion is happening on the Treatment Planning screens, which Kalorm cannot read. 

"Problem?" he manages to croak. 

Merrin squeezes his hand. "Not a scary problem. Your gut isn't in great shape, but we knew that already, and it doesn't look like it's gotten suddenly worse or anything. They're going to keep checking up on it, but not for a while unless you tell us something feels wrong." 

Kalorm has no idea how he's supposed to TELL if something is wrong, given how everything feels wrong all the time. He's tired, though. He blearily rolls his eyes at Merrin and then closes them. 

...Yeah, she's kind of worried. Maybe it's just that it's now past 11 pm and Kalorm's circadian rhythm is telling him that it's time to SLEEP rather than do things? Maybe he's drowsy because he just had a near-fainting episode (though that's worrying in itself) and it's pretty common for patients to feel tired and out of it for a while. 

She's not super looking forward to being handed the duty of giving Kalorm an enema or worse! Not because she minds the procedure itself – she probably minds it less than most medtechs, actually, she'll take a colonoscopy over suctioning someone with gross secretions – but Kalorm is going to be so miserable about it. She can do it, she's pretty sure, she can navigate explaining it to him, set it up so it doesn't feel like an awful violation of his dignity and bodily autonomy, but it sounds exhausting. Hopefully it'll sound a bit less exhausting once she's SLEPT. 

Nerdel is outside the room? Is now actually good time for her to come in???

Well, Kerrin now has his hospital pajamas and blanket back in place. "Kalorm, hey, are you up for seeing your mother now?" 

If it'll make them stop asking him QUESTIONS! 

Nerdel slips in. Grabs one of the spare floor chairs from the wall alcove for bulky equipment. Merrin moves aside for her, and she eases herself into place by Kalorm's side. 

She's visibly exhausted, almost haggard. (She's been sleeping, but not well; her other children need a lot of reassurance, and Finnar needs a lot of, well, management.) There are worry lines etched around her eyes. 

She takes Kalorm's hand. "Hey," she says gently. "S'good to see you breathing on your own. You look more comfortable." 

Kalorm cracks his eyelids open. Makes a questioning expression. 

Nerdel is his mother. She's not sure she has the right guess for what his questions are, but she has guesses. 

"We're doing okay. I mean, we're worried about you, but it's really good that you're awake and starting to recover, so we're all relieved and happy about that. Your father is - well, stressed - but he's not taking it out on any hospital personnel right now, and I figure the medical venture capitalists can take it. I think he's trying to invent some kind of new rehab technique right now? He has about eight unfinished projects on the go, though, he bounces between them whenever he runs out of attention span and poor Kurthin ends up scrambling to do all the documentation. Khemeth probably pushed himself too hard last night, staying up with you, but he's resting and I'm sure he'll be fine tomorrow. Ranthir made a decent profit on the markets, so she's mostly delighted about that. The twins disappeared to go do a programming competition or something today, so they must be fine."

She has the urge to brush the hair back from his forehead, but she cannot do that because Kalorm is currently bald and his head is covered in wireless EEG electrodes. She settles for squeezing his shoulder. One of the few silver linings to this situation is that he lets her. 

"Mallor is sort of bouncing off the walls," she admits. "I don't think she likes it here. Or being in hospitals in general. She wants to see you, whenever you're up for it - I'm not going to assume that's tonight, I know it's late - but after that she might want to relocate back to her Default apartment."

(Mallor is enough of a Famous Person and frequent world traveller that she has apartments in multiple big cities. She doesn't spend a lot of time in the one in Default, but it's very nice.) 

Kalorm manages a very tired smile. Tries to moisten his lips. "Tomorrow," he whispers, and then struggles to lift his hand. It's been a long time since he last remembers wanting physical contact and affection from his mother in particular, but he wants it right now. 

Nerdel catches his hand between both of hers. She's nearly on the edge of tears. 

"I'm here," she says softly. "I'm not going anywhere. I know this is awful, but - you're going to recover and be okay and it will be worth it." 

Merrin is possibly going to EXPLODE of sheer ADORABLENESS OVERLOAD. Or possibly start crying. She can't quite tell. 

- instead of doing either of those things, she finds herself yawning. 

Why is Merrin still here. Kalorm wishes Khemeth would come here in person so he can yell at his brother. He could ask Nerdel to yell at Khemeth for him but that won't be nearly as satisfying, and Nerdel probably wouldn't do it anyway. Also he isn't sure he can yell right now, his voice doesn't seem to be working very well. He's pretty irritated about that. He was supposed to be able to TALK once he was off the ventilator, and instead he can, like, sort of barely talk, and he feels leery about trying more than one word in a row. 

Also he's very tired, so he just scowls and rolls his eyes again. 

He's probably not scowling about what she just said? There was a delay there, and it feels surprising if he objects that hard what she said. Though she's not very sure of that. She hasn't, actually, spent a lot of time with her son over the last decade. 

"Is something bothering you?" she says quietly. 

Kalorm looks over at Merrin. 

Nerdel follows his eyes. 

...She wouldn't have expected him to be mad at Merrin? Merrin wasn't doing anything just then, and also Nerdel has been watching the camera feed and she's pretty sure that Kalorm is still getting along shockingly well with this particular very young weirdly impressive neurodivergent medtech. 

Asking if Merrin just did something frustrating or upsetting is also really awkward because Merrin is, like, right there? ...Looking a bit worse for wear, honestly, though not nearly as abjectly exhausted as Khemeth was today (despite having worked harder for more total hours, it's really quite something.) Maybe Kalorm is concerned that Merrin is here while visibly fatigued, and might make a mistake? 

"Kalorm," she says gently, "I'm going to be here for a few hours, and it's late. Do you think Merrin could go get some rest now?" 

FINE he will NOD about that even though it's not nearly as satisfying as yelling at Khemeth. 

Oh no this is so awkward she's being judged for yawning Merrin does, in fact, super want to get some rest! She's not sure that she's ready to sleep just yet, she did after all only wake up like five hours ago, but at this point she's really mentally not there. 

She tries her best to smile. It is perhaps not the most convincing. "Kalorm, you're doing really well," even if he is vaguely and nonspecifically CONCERNING, it's not going to help if she tells him that right now. "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" 

Nod. Very tired smile. 

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. 

Merrin reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. "I'm going to go get some rest. You should do that too, okay? Because I've got all sorts of plans for things we can work on to get you recovering faster when I'm back, if you're well rested for it."