Chapter Text
It took over a month to get in with the specialist, they were called a- a rhu-me-tol-oh-gist… it was a long word.
In the meantime I had to do more physical therapy. Mom gave me some of the papers to read on the symptoms and it really explained a lot.
Fatigue was one, mom said that meant feeling tired.
I’d been feeling pretty tired lately, so that made sense.
Heat flashes and fevers were another, which explained why I’d been so hot and kept having fevers. Mom said those should lessen as I started treatment.
Pain was an obvious symptom. Mom said that the physical therapy and the medicine would help a lot with that. If I did it all carefully I might even permanently get rid of the pain.
I hoped it did. Writing hurt and I had to learn to write left handed cause sometimes my right wrist hurt too much to use.
Sometimes both hurt too much to use.
Thankfully the school was being a little bit nicer to me because of the issues. They were legally required to, mom said at least.
OO OO OO
The doctor was nice. She looked me over and had me tell her when things hurt when she poked stuff, or even felt off. Then she sat us down and started talking about my condition.
I didn’t understand some of what she said, but the gist seemed to be that the Arthritis had spread through lots of joints and was pretty advanced. That wasn’t fun.
She started talking about medicine with my mom and I was a bit lost. But mom seemed to be figuring out what was up.
“Alright, Percy, you’re going to have to take a lot of medicine. And some of it will have uncomfortable side effects.”
The doctor leaned forward to look at me.
“I need you to tell your mom whenever something feels different. So any stomach aches, head aches, dizziness, or anything else, okay?”
I nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”
“I also recommend low-impact activities, swimming for example.”
I perked up, I liked swimming.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Mom said. “Do you… do you know any programs for those not as financially capable?”
The doctor seemed to soften, “I’ll give you some pamphlets we have. Don’t worry, we’ll do everything we can to help Percy get better.”
Mom relaxed, “Thank you.”
OO OO OO
I sniffed, my breath shaky. It hurt so much.
Normally my back wasn’t that bad but it just- it started when I got home and just wouldn’t stop. I was curled up in bed and my back was hurting so much.
Nothing I did made it feel better and I didn’t want to move and-
“Percy? Percy are you okay?”
I sniffed as mom came in.
“It hurts,” I whispered.
“Oh no, hang on, let me get the pain meds-“
Mom was back soon, sitting next to me and helping me take the pain medicine while petting my hair.
“I’m here baby, it’s okay, you’ll be okay.”
OO OO OO
Mom was burning some food, I stared in confusion.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
She jolted, “Oh, Percy, I didn’t realize you were there… I’m just-“
She looked at the stove where she had a fire going in a pan and was burning food. She sighed.
“I’m praying to the Gods for your health.”
I blinked, “The Gods? Like… multiple? At school they said there’s only one?”
She winced, “That’s the Christian God… I don’t believe in him. I’m praying to the Greek Gods, specifically Poseidon.”
I considered, mom had never mentioned that before but she did have a lot of books on Greek mythology so…
“Why though?”
“For your health,” she said softly. “You’re hurting so much- and the medication won’t be ready until tomorrow and won’t start working for a bit longer so… I just- I couldn’t do nothing while you hurt Percy.”
I blinked, mom was doing so much-
“How- how do you do prayers?”
She softened, “Do you want to do a prayer as well?”
I nodded quickly, “Yeah. I can pray with you. Maybe they’ll help more with more prayers? Who are you praying to? Can they make me better?”
She ruffled my hair, “They probably won’t just cure you, the Gods help those that help themselves though. By praying we can let them know that we’re asking for aid. I’m giving an offering to show that I respect the aid that they can offer.”
I nodded, “ I guess that makes sense. So what do I do?”
Mom grabbed a stool and pulled it over, “Here, stand on this.”
I did so.
“I’m praying to Poseidon right now-“
“The sea God?”
“Yes, He’s not- He’s not connected to medicine but… He’s my favorite God and I try to give Him little prayers weekly. He’s always been there for me.”
I nodded solemnly, making a note of that. Maybe I could use that to make mom a gift.
“So, what I’m doing is reminding Him of all I have done to honor Him. Then I’m asking Him for aid, asking that if I have been good in honoring Him that He grant us some kindness in this trying time.”
“So, it’s an exchange?”
She shook her head, “No. Even if He does nothing I still honor Him because He’s worth honoring. Right now though, I’m- there’s a specific term for it but it’s basically the traditional way of praying when asking for something. I bring up how I’ve honored Him and then asking for help. It’s a way of bringing up your favor with the Gods you could say.”
“Oh… so it’s like you’re nice to them, so when you ask for help you remind them you’re nice and ask if they’d be willing to help?”
Mom laughed, “Yeah, it’s sorta like that.”
I nodded, “That makes sense. But I haven’t done anything to honor Him?”
“You can just say that you’re hurting, and maybe promise something to Him.”
“Like what?”
“Whatever you want.”
I considered. I could do an art project in school for him maybe. I wasn’t good at cooking, so I couldn’t promise food.
“Do I need to burn it?”
She shook her head, “No, you can do whatever you want to give it to Him. Maybe setting it in a special place in your room, just for Him.”
I hummed, “Can I promise Him a painting of a seashell?”
She smiled, “I’m sure He’d love that.”
“Okay, then uh,” I looked at mom shyly.
“I’ll do my prayer first,” she assured.
“Oh, Poseidon, of the people, father of many. If ever I have offered to you, I ask that you hear me now. As I offer you these homemade cookies, I plea that you aid my hurting son. Lessen his pain, grant him comfort. Offer whatever kindness to him you are able. When my son is healing, and his pain lessened, I will offer you all the treats I can make and on each night the moon is dark I shall pour out unmixed wine for you.”
Mom bowed her head and then leaned back.
I bit my lip, “Do I say mine now?”
She nodded, “Yep, you can say your prayer now if you want.”
I nodded, nervously licking my lips and twisting my shirt.
“Um, Poseidon, of the sea? I haven’t offered to you before but I hope that you’ll hear me anyways. I’m dealing with Rheu- Rheu-ma-tod Arth-ur-rite-is and I uh, I ask that you help me hurt less. When I’m back at school I’ll make you a painting of a seashell and put it in the second drawer in my desk, just for stuff for you.”
Mom smiled, “That’s a very nice prayer, Percy.”
“It is?” I asked nervously. “I haven’t done anything nice for Him so-“
“That’s alright. This is your first time talking to Him, so I’m sure He won’t mind.”
“Can I offer Him other stuff?”
She nodded, “Of course. We can make some offering cookies together later.”
I slipped off the stool as mom put out the fire carefully.
“How come you’ve never told me about them?”
She hesitated, “I- well, I’ve never really told anyone. And I didn’t want… I was used to keeping it to myself. But I’m very happy to share it with you as well.”
I perked up, “Really?”
“Really.”
OO OO OO
I swung my legs and carefully painted the seashell, trying to get the shading right. My wrists were hurting still but Poseidon wasn’t a healing God, so He probably couldn’t do much there.
Maybe I could take a bath, would that help?
OO OO OO
I had a lot of pills to take.
Mom sat down with me and filled up a pill container for a week. She told me what each pill was for and said that there were a few others to get if I needed them.
Right now, I had to take them all though.
I didn’t like it.
There was the one for my Arthritis, the leflunomide, it was a small yellow triangle pill. Then there was the muscle one, celecoxib it was bigger and white. Plus, the Tylenol, I took that to help with pain. And there was the Iron pill I was to take to help with the side effects of one of the meds. Mom said I had to drink and eat stuff with more salt too, cause the meds would mess with my ability to absorb it.
I thought that was weird.
One of the worst things was that I could no longer drink soda though, because it would mix badly with my medication and hurt my bones.
No more coke.
It was devastating.
I didn’t let on to mom though, just agreed to everything she said with the meds.
She also added a few vitamins to my meds, to help out with the things my meds would mess with.
It ended in my having seven pills every morning and night, the leflunomide, the celecoxib, two Tylenol, the iron, and two mixed vitamin pills.
I swallowed them one by one with a grimace.
OO OO OO
I curled up with mom as she told me about Greek mythology.
She did warn me to not take everything super literally, it wasn’t like the Bible for Christians apparently. The myths were used to teach people what was right and wrong, and used for prop-a-gana too. The people in charge used it to get people to believe what they wanted.
So the myths weren’t wrong but they weren’t really literal either. I thought that was kinda cool.
But they did tell us some of what people believed.
Apparently, Hephaestus had leg problems too, from being thrown off Olympus. I wondered how literal that was.
Mom told me He made up with His mom though, so at least there was that. I was glad mom didn’t throw me out a window or something though, that seemed painful.
I thought Apollo was super cool, He was a healer! So He might be able to help me. I hoped He might. I drew Him a sun and put it on my window.
Dionysus dealt with madness, which I thought was interesting. Mom said He could make people go insane or cure them. She said in the modern day many prayed to Him when they were really sad, or scared, or nervous. I wondered if praying to Him would help me be less nervous about my illness.
The stories were cool, I was glad mom was involving me now.
OO OO OO
I was so nauseous. It was horrible. I could barely move from bed from it. Mom was calling the doctor, apparently nausea was a side effect of my meds.
I hated it.
I wasn’t sick enough to throw up but was sick enough moving made me feel like I would.
OO OO OO
I had another pill added to my morning and night meds, with an extra kept with the nurse at school to take at lunch.
It was called Ondansetron, used for controlling nausea.
At least this one was small.
OO OO OO
School wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t like fieldtrips. Walking hurt a lot. I wondered if I could get something to help with that.
Maybe a cane or something? That might help…
I shook my head, slumping against the metal thing next to us while the speaker talked.
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, something about the civil war I thought.
I leaned back, wincing at the sharp thing digging into my back. Okay so not a good back rest-
BOOM
I tumbled over in shock and gaped at the metal thing.
It was a canon.
CRASH
I turned slowly in the direction of the noise.
“What on earth-“
“Jesus Christ!” cried the teacher. “The bus!”
Oops.
The bus was on fire, and had a hole through it, a big one...
“Jackson- Jackson what did you do!?”
“Er… just leaned against the metal thing? I didn’t know it would explode!”
The teacher and guide did not care that I did not know it would explode.
OO OO OO
“He blew up a school bus!”
“Why was the cannon not just filled, but primed to fire? With kids there? And no signs!?”
“He shouldn’t have-“
“You cannot put this on his record. It wasn’t his fault!”
OO OO OO
I was expelled from school, well, mom says she pulled me out because she didn’t approve of how the school was treating me. Apparently, I would be home schooled for the rest of the year.
She’d already found another school for me next year so that wasn’t a concern.
OO OO OO
I carefully put my art piece on the window so Apollo would be able to see it easily.
“Oh, Great God Apollo,” I whispered. “Please help me get a cane. I need to ask mom but I don’t want her to worry. I’ll make you two whole art pieces when I get one, I promise. And I’ll try to get mom to help me make cookies too.”
I nodded to the window, and the sun outside.
“Percy,” Mom called. “It’s time to go over your math.”
I hurried down. It was late, but she couldn’t skip work at all so she helped me with my classwork at night.
Maybe I could pray to a God to help me with school? Who was good at that?
OO OO OO
I swallowed my pills with a grimace. They sucked, I hated them. But I needed them.
Ugh.
I rubbed my side at a sharp pang there. I didn’t know why I’d been hurting there lately but it wasn’t too bad, just the occasional sharp pain.
Not as bad as the rest of my bodies pain at least.
OO OO OO
I grabbed the starfish off the bottom of the pool and swam up.
“Got it!” I cheered.
The swimming therapist nodded, “Alright, good job. Now add that to the treasure chest and we’ll do some laps before doing another treasure hunt.”
I beamed, swimming over and dropping the plastic starfish in the little treasure chest.
Mom said that the YMCA was doing a really good deal on swimming therapy at the moment, she seemed really relieved by it. I guess it must have been really expensive before, but now mom could do it.
I was really enjoying it though. The work was fun. I got to swim around hunting for plastic treasures and do laps and it didn’t hurt nearly as much as most things.
Swimming therapy was definitely my favorite part of the treatment.
OO OO OO
I stuck out my tongue as I carefully drew a picture for mom.
She’d been working a bunch lately so I was drawing her a picture of Poseidon! He was her favorite God after all.
I wasn’t the best at drawing, I’d have to get better, but I found some pictures of statues of Poseidon at the library that I printed out. I was using those to draw it.
In blue of course.
Mom mentioned Poseidon was known as blue something one time, I was pretty sure at least.
I hummed and gave him green eyes. Green was the best eye color, both my mom and me had green eyes. Well, mom’s were sometimes green. But I liked them green, they matched me!
Black hair because the myths called him ink-head. I thought so at least. Something to do with ink, and ink was black… Hmm, or was it more like of a different color? Like pen ink?
Could it be a bright color like green or pink? Or maybe it was like black or blue, or both? Maybe it was a combo of all ink colors.
I frowned at my drawing.
I wasn’t sure what color his hair would be.
Blue wouldn’t look good with his skin being blue…
Maybe Green? Like his eyes? Yeah, green.
I pulled out the green again and hummed as I colored his hair.
Hopefully mom would like her Poseidon drawing.
OO OO OO
I winced, holding my side. The pain there was getting worse.
“Percy?”
Oops, forgot mom was there.
“Are your ribs hurting?”
I bit my lip before shaking my head.
She frowned, “Then what’s wrong with your side?”
“I-“ I shuffled my feet. “My side hurts, it’s sharp though.”
Mom leaned over and rubbed my side, “Right here?”
I pointed a little lower.
“Hmm, I think that’s where your stomach is… let me call your doctor.”
OO OO OO
I had two more meds added to the container, for a grand total of ten now. Mom was talking about maybe adding another vitamin to my set too.
I smiled and nodded and was just relieved the zantac and omeprazole made the stomach pains stop.
OO OO OO
“Brat!” snapped Gabe from downstairs. “There’s a package for you.”
He glared at me as I hurried down, wincing as my knee twinged.
“A package?”
“Well it has Percy on it,” he growled. “Get it out of here.”
I picked it up and hurried upstairs.
It didn’t say “Percy” it said “Percival”. That wasn’t my name.
But it had my address?
I opened it with a frown and did a double take.
Who shipped me a cane and wrote down the wrong name for me?
I grabbed the card slip,
Returning it to you, Percival. I know you don’t use one anymore, but it’s too short for me. Maybe donate it to someone who needs it more.
-Stacy
The cane was a nice blue, with swirls of lighter blues scattered over it. It was my favorite color. And it had a top that was kinda cushioned and soft.
I liked it.
It was the right height too, with little sections that would let it get longer as I grew.
…
Well neither person needed it, right?
And I needed it…
Could I keep it?
I wanted to.
…
I’d ask mom.
OO OO OO
Mom said I could keep it and I was delighted. I would get to use it at school next semester too!
She said that since we didn’t have a return address (there was a stain on it that made it impossible to read) and we didn’t know how to find the person, plus they said to donate it, that it was okay for me to keep.
I hummed as I cleaned my room, my new cane propped against the wall by the door.
I reached my window and paused. The drawing’s I did for Apollo were still taped up against the window but one of them had a sun using a cane.
I asked Apollo to help me ask mom for a cane, but I never did ask mom…
I did promise Apollo art when I got a cane though, and cookies!
I decided cleaning my room could wait until I finished the drawings for Apollo. I’d give Apollo three whole blue cookies next time mom made some. Maybe she’d let me help.
OO OO OO
School was starting back up again in a week and mom told me we needed to talk.
Apparently, part of the thing the meds did to help me with my pain was su-press my immune system, cause my body thought that my joints were making me sick so the immune system was attacking it.
The last blood test I got told them that my immune system was weaker than it should be, which was the goal of the meds apparently.
I wasn’t sure how they got that from my blood, but apparently, they could.
Mom told me that meant I’d need to wear a mask at school, to keep from getting sick.
I nodded, feeling a bit of dread.
I hoped no one made fun of me for the mask, mom bought me a pack of them so I could keep an extra in my bag.
OO OO OO
School was not very fun. I got looks both for my cane and for wearing a mask.
A few students took pictures of me and it made me really uncomfortable.
Some people laughed.
I wanted to take the mask off, really badly, but I promised mom I wouldn’t.
I wasn’t gonna lie to mom, not about this.
OO OO OO
I had another doctor appointment with my specialist. This was the third one.
This time she was talking about adding another medicine to my meds. But not a pill.
“It would only need to be given once a week, or you can come to the hospital and get it done there. They’ve recently started a program for it for those that need financial aid too, so I can help you get in that program.”
Mom wrung her hands, “Are you sure we need it?”
The doctor grimaced, “While his immune system is being suppressed, the pain is not lessening properly. He needs a more effective med and Embrel is the best one for his age.”
Mom looked at me.
“Percy,” she hesitated. “I think this should be your choice.”
I blinked, “Okay?”
“Do you think you can handle getting a shot every week?”
I bit my lip.
I didn’t like shots. Even the vaccines sucked. Getting one every week?
“Do I have to?”
Mom winced, “It’s your choice. You might get better faster… but you also might not…”
I shifted, I really didn’t want a shot. Really, really didn’t want one.
“Do I have to give it to myself?”
She shook her head, “No, I’ll give it to you. It’s only once a week. Do you think you can handle it? It will hurt.”
I swallowed. I didn’t want mom to worry. Even though I hated shots-
I nodded.
“I can do it.”
“I’ll send the prescription in. They’ll have to mail it to you. Do you live in an apartment?”
Mom nodded.
“They’ll need you to sign for it then, to make sure you get it. Or someone else at the home can.”
I winced thinking of Gabe signing for it.
“Alright, I’ll make sure I’m there for it.”
“Take care, Percy. I’ll see you again in three months.”
I waved to her as we left, another blood test to go to.
I really hated needles.
OO OO OO
Mom and I curled up in my bed and mom read me stories of the heroes of old. She was telling me the story of my namesake, Perseus tonight.
It was nice to listen to. Athena was apparently the patron of heroes and aided Perseus in his quest, and so did Hermes too.
They seemed cool.
My eyes drifted shut as mom rubbed my arm and read, her voice soft and soothing.
I slipped into a peaceful sleep.