Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48187 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
She rolls her eyes, her chin-length black bob bouncing at the exaggerated movement. “No. The patient says she had one glass, so it’s not alcohol poisoning. Chrissy doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
I frown as I dry my hands. “Rohypnol?” Wouldn’t be the first time I had a roofied patient.
“No,” she says quickly. “She’s aware and can move. More dizzied and dazed than anything. Her blood pressure is 177 over 116.”
“Age?” I bark out, already sliding into urgent doctor mode.
“Eighteen.”
A flash of panic startles me. Now that I have my daughter, every time a patient comes in with the same age, I worry I’ll walk in and find her. The thought of losing her when I just got her is scary as hell.
“That’s too high. Name,” I grunt out.
“Lauren Englewood.”
The relief is brief that it isn’t my daughter, Jenna, but the desire to help my patient soon becomes my sole focus. I snag a couple of latex gloves and slide them on before pushing the curtain away to assess my patient.
Her eyes are closed when I enter the room. Pale flesh. Damp blond hair. The young woman is listless and breathing heavily.
“Lauren,” I say as I reach her side. “I’m Dr. Venable. How you doing there?”
She flutters her eyes open, revealing intense brown eyes. My gaze skims over her face as I assess her. A few freckles dot her flesh under her eyes and over her nose. Her cheekbones are high, giving her the look of so many of those magazine models who litter the hospital waiting room. I drop my focus to her lips, looking for discoloration. They’re not blue or purple indicating something respiratory. Just full and naturally red.
“Lauren?” I ask.
“I’m fine,” she breathes out.
I arch a brow at her. “If you were fine, you wouldn’t be here. My nurse tells me you only had one drink.”
“Yeah.”
“Could it have been tampered with?”
She swallows hard. “No, I made it myself.”
“Did you feel this way before or after you consumed the drink?”
“Before,” she murmurs. “I had a headache, but my brother, Landon, was having a party. I didn’t want to ruin it.”
Using my stethoscope, I begin listening to her heart. It’s steady, but I still want an EKG to be sure. High blood pressure on a patient this young is worrisome.
“You have a headache now?” I ask as I pull the instrument away.
“Pounding, yes,” she admits. “And my side hurts.”
I loop the stethoscope around my neck. “I’m going to press on your abdomen. Let me know if you feel any pain or pressure.”
She nods and I push against her over her shirt. Her brows furrow, but she doesn’t wince.
“Is it uncomfortable?”
“I just feel really full.”
“I’d like to get a urine sample to run a full analysis—”
“No,” she cries out, her hand gripping my wrist. “I mean, I’m fine.”
“Again, Lauren, you’re not fine. You wouldn’t be in triage if you were.”
She lets out a frustrated huff and sits up. “See, fine. My dad is out of town and my brother is wasted. I just want to go back home. Give me some Tylenol or whatever. I’m sure it’s just a migraine.”
“A urinalysis could rule out some things like urinary tract infection or kidney infection. I’d like to run those tests to check for blood in the urine. With your high blood pressure and what you’re describing with your abdomen, I want to rule it out.”
Her nostrils flare and her cheeks burn red. “I don’t have blood in my urine.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “I’m just trying to help you. Your blood pressure is through the roof. I want to get to the bottom of this.”
Lin peeks her head in, waving a urine cup. “Ready, hon?”
Lauren shakes her head. “I’m not peeing in a cup.”
Gritting my teeth, I look over my shoulder at Lin. “Sodium nitroprusside. We’ll do a drip to get her blood pressure down along with some fluids. Draw a blood sample and—”
“I’m fine. Just give me the medicine to make this headache go away and send me home. I don’t know why Winter brought me here in the first place,” Lauren bites out.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Lauren before standing and stalking out of the room.
Lin frowns at me. “Hiding something?”
“Yeah. Due to her age and the fact she was partying, I’d like to say it was the fact she also took drugs, but we won’t know for sure unless she allows us to run the tests.”
“Can you convince her?”
“I’ll try. But you know how some people are. We’ll get her in a more stable condition and then we can try and convince her from there.”
Lin runs off to get the meds and I walk back into the room. I cross my arms over my chest and frown at Lauren. She squirms under my intense glare.
“It’s my job to want to treat what’s going on with you,” I tell her. “The human body isn’t something that can be ignored when it’s flashing warning signals.”