I don't want to get into too much detail about the scale (and leave it up to the reader to find out more --or not-- about it) but indicate that my character's condition is worsening. I'm not sure if you can "gain" or "lose" points on the scale, or if I should forget about it altogether and just say he's getting worse. This is a YA novel. The mother is thinking about moving her son into a traditional healing lodge. Here's the dialogue (minus the tags, etc.) "What are the doctors saying?" "He's down one point on the Glasgow scale." “One more reason to keep him in hospital, if you ask me.” “Are the sealed windows and fluorescent lights doing him any good?”
Hi, You can go up and down on the scale. For the purposes of your story I think it is fine to mention GCS as it is in the context of a medical conversation, recounting what a doctor has said, but certainly not essential. If you go with it I would suggest giving the reader enough that they don’t need to look it up, so you could decide whether they have lost a point on the Eye, Motor, or Verbal part of the scale and then describe that: ‘He lost a point on the Glasgow Coma Scale overnight. Won’t open his eyes at all now, not even when I give his arm a pinch.’ Of course, you could then choose not to mention it at all because if you are describing a character becoming more deeply unconscious, do you need to? Perhaps, if this is the only time it comes up, don’t bother. If GCS comes up in other clinical conversations before this, so the reader is already aware of it, then it fits better.
I agree with @Midge23 - if this is the only time you mention it, I don't think it's worth mentioning. You can just say "he's getting worse," and that gets the idea across better than introducing a measure most of your readers won't be familiar with.
Thank you for your suggestions @Midge23 and @BayView. I think I will drop the GCS, since I am more than halfway through the story and I haven't mentioned it before. Also, it cost me a little to use the word "coma" when referring to my character's state, because a couple of drafts into the story, I found two novels with MC's that were in a coma. (My POV character is very much alive and kicking.)
