Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Chart?” I asked, wanting to review everything before I walked into the room.
“I got it, Dru. Thank you,” Dr. Marsh said, dismissing her.
I gritted my teeth.
I didn’t like Dr. Marsh.
He was a good doctor, from what I could tell, but I didn’t like the way he treated the nurses and techs on the floor. I didn’t like it even more that he made them feel uncomfortable every time he came into the room.
He always stood too close. Touched too much. Let his eyes linger too long.
It was a perfect storm of smarmy, and I couldn’t stand the guy.
I hated that I had to deal with him today, though.
As a surgeon, he was the best.
He was smart as fuck, quick as a whip, and extremely competent.
As a person, though…
The next few hours were going to really suck.
Marsh gave me the rundown of everything I would need to know as I reviewed the chart.
I nodded.
Like I always did, I said, “I’ll go check in with the family, then meet you in the operating room.”
Dr. Marsh rolled his eyes.
Emergent cases, you never really got to see your patients before you were in there doing your thing.
But when they were alert, I always wanted to introduce myself to the family.
“We have about ten minutes or so.” Dr. Marsh looked frustrated then. “We’ve had a bad morning. Almost all of the operating rooms are in use but one, and they’re cleaning up from the previous surgery. Not fast enough, but they’re getting it done.”
You could only go so fast and it be considered clean and sterile.
In medical shows, they didn’t show you the amount of time that it took to get the room ready again.
Nor did they show you all the work that the surgical technicians had to go through beforehand to make sure the OR was ready for work.
Dr. Marsh likely figured the room magically appeared ready and didn’t think about how it got to that point.
Though, he would be the first to complain if something wasn’t the way he wanted it.
“Sure thing,” I said as I knocked on the patient’s open door.
Three sets of eyes looked up, and two of them looked freaked out.
I smiled at them and held out my hand, introducing myself.
“I’m Dr. Clayborne,” I said as I shook the mom’s hand first, then the dad’s. “I’ll be the anesthesiologist.”
“Ford Spurlock,” the man introduced himself. The woman looked too freaked out to get a coherent word out. “This is our son, Chevy.”
I grinned at that name.
“Nice name,” I said as I turned to the little boy who was lying in his hospital bed with a bunch of tubes and stickers on him. “How are you feeling?”
“Bad,” he rasped.
I squatted down until my ass met my calves and heard the chain of my wallet hit the floor.
The dog tags that I hadn’t taken off since I was eighteen and entering the military slid free of my shirt with the movement as well, catching his eyes.
“I’ll bet,” I said. “But when I get you put to sleep, you’ll feel really great.”
Not so great when you wake up…
Not that I’d tell him that. I didn’t want him too scared.
“I don’t want to go to sleep,” he grumbled.
I grinned. “Yeah? Well, you won’t have to stay that way for long. Only long enough for us to get that mad appendix out of your belly.”
“I’m scared,” he said. “What if I don’t wake up?”
This kid was too young to be worrying about that.
Just as I was about to explain in detail what I was waiting for, Dru arrived with the medication that I usually administered to young patients.
I liked Dru.
We worked well together, and she knew what I’d ask for before I asked, though technically it wasn’t allowed.
I checked the dosage, then confirmed with her that it was what I actually wanted, then turned around to the kid.
“This stuff is kind of sweet tasting. When you drink it, it’s going to make you calm,” I said.
He was reluctant to drink it, but the kid’s dad helped him out.
Once he had it down, I started to explain to the kid what would happen next.
When I’d first started out, I’d do all the explaining to the parents, thinking that it was best to address them. However, I found that kids liked to ask questions, and this way I could explain it in a way he would understand.
“What’s going to happen,” I said to the kid, “is you’re going to put a mask on your nose, and the stuff that you start to smell is going to make you really sleepy.”
The kid’s eyes widened. “And I’ll go to sleep?”
“You will,” I explained. “You won’t even know you’re asleep, either.”
“Wow,” he said. “I hate going to sleep, are you sure that I have to?”
I chuckled.
“Did you know that you have the same name as me?” I asked to distract him.