Wow, what a thoughtful and incredibly awesome comment! I was of course thinking about all these things when I was writing, but I wouldn't have dreamed of someone actually catching on and thinking it through along the way!
All the med-credit needs to go to insane_songbird though, she's my doctor gal and does the consulting work on all things that go *splurt* (don't we love accurate literary metaphors?)
So glad that you enjoyed the story so much!