I'm Just the Way That the Doctor Made Me

7/31/06-8/6/06 (NOW it follows a LOT of My Chem's actual schedule after this point)

On Monday, not only did Andie have an appointment to follow up with her regular doctor, but, while they were there, Gerard and Andie were both going to get tested for HIV and any STD's, so she could talk to her doctor about birth control.

She felt up to driving for the first time since the accident, which made Gerard happy. Not only because he didn't want her to be afraid to be her normal self again, but also because he didn't know his way around LA like she did!

When they reached the doctor's office, Gerard filled out all the private medical forms, and provided his own insurance information. Then they were each taken, one by one, to have labwork drawn.

Gerard's palms were sweating as he watched the phlebotomist tie the latex tourniquet tightly around his upper arm.

"Squeeze your fist," she instructed, noting his nervous behavior. "Are you okay?"

"Um...yeah...I'm just...what do you call it? Try-pan-o-phobic?" he attempted to explain, trying to pronounce the word correctly.

"Oh..." she said as her rubber glove tipped finger pressed the perfectly UNpunctured skin inside his elbow, searching for a good vein. "Then I guess you'd better look away, dear."

With that, the phlebotomist wiped the spot with an alcohol swab and picked up the needle.

Gerard thought to himself...this will be worth it, this WILL be worth it...as the needle punctured his skin fist, and then found the vein. He held his breath as he watched her connect a vacutainer tube and it filled with his blood. Then she took ANOTHER tube and filled it as well. As it filled, she released the tourniquet. She pressed a cottonball to the spot where the needle was injected and removed it.

"Hold that there," she instructed him as she set the needle down and applied tape over the cottonball. "That's it. Was that so bad?"

Gerard just grinned at her politely. She truly had no idea.


A short time later, after Andie's bloodwork was drawn as well, Gerard went with her into the doctor's examining room. Dr. Randall checked the stitches under her right rib where her lung had been repaired from the puncture wound, and her spleen removed. He prescribed an antibiotic for her to take as a follow up to the splenectomy.

Dr. Randall explained to them that your spleen helps your body fight off infections, so the antibiotic was necessary to prevent Andie from getting pneumonia following the surgery. He also noted that, in the future, should she get even a sinus infection, she should seek immediate medical attention, as she will most likely need an antibiotic prescribed.

Otherwise, he said Andie was healing extremely well from her injuries. He also gave her the okay to travel outside the country when they go to Japan in a couple of weeks, but said for her to make an appointment before she leaves to have her stitches removed.

"So you want to discuss birth control together? That's reassuring, that you want to do this together, that is," said Dr. Randall as he pulled out pamphlets describing the options.

"By far, with the busy schedule it sounds like you two will have, and assuming, of course, both of your bloodwork comes back free of any sexually transmitted diseases, the patch would be your best bet," Dr. Randall explained.

"It uses the same hormones that a birth control pill uses, but it administers them directly into your bloodstream through your skin. You wear the patch...it sticks to your skin and is waterproof...either on your abdomen, buttocks, or upper body. Like the pill, it will prevent your ovaries from releasing an egg, but you'll have a regular menstrual cycle. And it's 99% effective when used properly.

"And the greatest benefit for you, Andie, is you only have to remember to replace it once a week, on the same day. You'll have three weeks' patches, then go without one for the fourth week. You should have your period that week."

Gerard and Andie looked at each other.

"What do you think?" Andie asked him. "I think it sounds like a good idea."

He shrugged slightly and lifted his palms, "Makes sense to me."

"Alright, so if both of your bloodwork comes back clear, my office will let you know, and I'll fgcall in a prescription for you for the next twelve months," said Dr. Randall, making notes in her file. "Oh and when was your last period?"

"Um..." Andie had to think, not only because she didn't have a calendar in front of her, but the accident still had her all mixed up as to how much time had actually passed. "The second week of this month."

"Then you'll have to use another form of protection if you have intercourse during the first five days that you wear the patch."


That night, Gerard and Andie celebrated the good news about her recovery from her accident, by going out for dinner, and to see 'Superman Returns' as it was now showing in theaters.


On Tuesday morning, Dr. Randall's office called with their labwork results. And, as they suspected, both Gerard and Andie were free of any sexually transmitted diseases. So a presciption was called in for Andie's birth control patches to start.

After they picked up the presciption later that day, Andie stood in her bathroom, trying to decide where she wanted to put the patch on her body. She decided to get Gerard's opinion...

"Gerard?" she called into the living room. "Can you come here?"

Gerard peeked his head around the bathroom doorway and saw Andie standing in her panties and a tanktop.

"I don't know where I want to put this," she held up the sticker-like patch.

"Hmm..." Gerard thought this decision required some serious research first. "Lemme see..."

He stood before her and looked down at her body in front of his. He placed his hands on her hips and held her there for a moment, before he slid those hands around to her bottom. He rather liked the feeling.

"Right..." he took his index finger and slightly pulled the elastic of her panties down in the front. "There."

Andie looked at him quizzically. "Why there?"

"No reason!" Gerard grinned mischieviously before he kissed her cheek with a loud smack.


As the week progressed, Andie felt more like herself everyday, but Gerard's ankle was still bothering him just as much as before. Eventually, she convinced him to go see her doctor about it.

They went back to her doctor's office and an X-ray was taken of Gerard's ankle. The ligaments weren't healing as well as they should be. Apparently, he had not been taking the time to stay off his feet enough for his injury to heal itself.

Gerard explained to the doctor that he'd been so concerned about Andie that he hadn't thought about it. Andie's doctor said Gerard should go back to taping his ankle with an elastic bandage and try to stay off it as much as possible for it to heal properly before they started touring.

When they returned to her apartment, Gerard called Brian to tell him what Andie's doctor had said. But there was more bad news. Bob was in really bad shape. He had been released from the hospital, but his leg wasn't healing properly.

It looked like they would have to seriously reconsider the shows that weekend in San Diego, as much as they hated to even think about it. Brian ended the conversation with the idea that, for now, they would all PLAN on doing the show Saturday. They would meet up on the West coast on Friday. If worse came to worse, and it just couldn't be done, they would have to cancel the shows.

Gerard called Bob as soon as he hung up the phone with Brian. He didn't get an answer on his cell, so he called Mikey to get more information. Mikey told him the last he'd heard; that Bob seemed to think he could still do the show, although Mikey, himself, and Ray and Frank all wondered if that would be possible. He, too, said to go with Brian's idea and plan on doing it, but keep in mind that they may have to cancel.

Just in case the show would go on, Andie re-colored and trimmed Gerard's hair that week. The rest of the week, Andie insisted she was feeling well enough for Gerard to stay off his foot as much as possible. She went to get more groceries and she did the cooking the rest of the week.


"I feel like a heel," Gerard commented from her sofa as she was fixing dinner one night. "Literally!"

"Oh stop it," Andie chastised him. "You took care of me a hell of a lot more than this."

"Yeah, but..." he sniffed in pity. "You took off the black nail polish..."

"Gerard! I liked it! I did! But I like red better. I'll paint them black again...sometime," she said. "You big baby."

"What'd you call me?" Gerard teased. "You do know you're going to pay for that..." he bit his bottom lip.

Andie had finished setting the food on the table and walked over to Gerard on the sofa. If he wanted to play, she could play, too...

"You think so, huh?" she countered as she climbed onto his lap and planted kisses on his lips.

"Mmm..." Gerard moaned. "I think dinner can wait...just...a little...bit..." he said between kisses.


Soon, it was Friday and, sure enough, Bob came with Brian, Ray, Frank, and Mikey to San Diego. They all checked into their hotel, as Andie and Gerard made the two hour drive to meet them for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Over dinner, the group had to laugh at how much medical attention they had all needed since they'd last seen each other after shooting the videos! It had only been a couple of weeks but it seemed like so much longer.

"I am so fucking sick of doctors, " complained Bob.

"Me, too," agreed Andie smilling at him. "So they gave you the okay to travel and everything?"

"Yeah," said Bob. "Thank God. If I go fifty years without seeing another hospital room, it won't be long enough."

"I'm just glad everyone's recovering now!" noted Brian.

"Andie, how are you doing?" asked Frank.

"Much better now," she said. "But I don't know what I would've done without Gerard. And now look, because of me, he didn't take care of himself and his ankle isn't any better!" She looked over at Gerard sitting at the table next to her.

"Ah..." shrugged Gerard. "I'll live. And it's not like it's life-threatening. You and Bob had it worse than anyone."

Mikey put his arm around Andie sitting beside him and gently squeezed her shoulders. "Well, I'm glad you're better, Andie."

"Yeah," said Ray. "You really gave us all a scare. We didn't know what to think! And then Gerard was all torn up, but none of us could go into the ICU room with him."

"I know," agreed Frank. "We didn't know what to do!"

Gerard squeezed Andie's hand under the table and they looked at each other. They were considering the difficult time they had been through during the past two weeks, and didn't need words to acknowledge it.

"So, Andie," said Brian. "When do you want me to meet with your agency to finalize an agreement for you to come on tour with these guys?"

"Yeah," laughed Frank. "Otherwise, we'll have to kidnap you like we do everyone else we want to work with."

"What?" Andie laughed. "No wait...I don't even wanna know..."

"Hey," Gerard thought aloud. "You should get an agreement before we do that photo shoot next week."

"That's right," Brian agreed. "We really should."

"Okay, well, I'll call her and see if we can meet with her on Monday then, if that works out for you?" Andie replied.

"Monday would be great. And these guys don't all have to go, just me and you, really," said Brian.

"I'll go," Gerard said as their food arrived.

After dinner, they went to rehearse for the show, but it was very difficult for Bob and Gerard...


The next day, Bob was still in too much pain to perform, and Gerard's ankle was still swollen and painful. They had to face it, there wasn't any way they could perform in the Street Scene that night. As much as they hated to, the decision was made to cancel the show. Brian made the announcement and had it posted on their website.

Almost immediately, there were rumors of a car accident or plane crash ...