Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“She’s exactly like you,” she whispered.
I watched my daughter systematically dismantle the doctor’s explanation of her medication schedule, using logic that even I could tell was impressively sound. Also, the resident’s face turned a very unflattering shade of red. And he stumbled over his words a lot. My chest swelled with a complicated mixture of pride, regret, and fierce, protective love.
Not long after, Dr. Patel came in to see what the fuss was about. Once Brynn laid it all out there, Dr. Patel gave her resident a look that said, “where do they get them and why do they send them to me?” I got the feeling she wasn’t annoyed with Brynn.
“We will use this as a learning experience for you and my resident.” Dr. Patel then explained exactly why she wanted to administer the medication on the “less than optimum” schedule.
Five minutes later, the proverbial light bulb had come on in Brynn’s head, but the resident still had a blank look on his face. Brynn huffed, then explained it like she might to a third grader.
“God help us all,” I murmured back.
Chapter Nine
Lavender
I jerked awake to the sound of footsteps fading down the hall, my neck screaming from another hour passed out in the visitor’s chair. The clock on Brynn’s monitor read 6:17 AM. Two hours since I’d last checked. Knight hadn’t moved in the chair next to me, head tilted back at an angle that would leave him hurting when he woke. The steady beep of Brynn’s monitors had become our lullaby, the rhythm of our lives narrowed to these four walls, this tiled floor, this daughter of ours whose pale face looked impossibly young to be dealing with an illness so harsh. I knew we had very little time before a decision had to be made about dialysis.
I reached for my lukewarm coffee, grimacing as I swallowed. Three days. We’d been here three days straight since Brynn’s condition had worsened. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead on the other side of the room. I’d turned off the one near her bed to keep a headache at bay. Her blood pressure, though relatively stable as they called it, crept slowly upward.
Knight shifted beside me, sitting up straighter with a groan as he massaged his neck. He reached for his phone and opened up the app with access to Brynn’s records. As usual, he looked up every scrap of information available for him to view. I had no doubt he understood every Goddamned word and value, too, because Brynn did. He and Brynn had conferred often about her care.
Thank God, Dr. Patel seemed to enjoy their encounters. How did I know she enjoyed them? Because the hospital report system was set to upload the physician documentation when they finalized their report with a signature. Dr. Patel finalized her documentation from the previous evening in the morning at six and her morning reports in the evening at five-thirty. She showed up at six-thirty on the dot each morning and six in the evening. Every day. Any time she stopped to check on Brynn, she had an eager, almost giddy smile on her face the second she realized Brynn or Knight had questions. Today was no exception.
“I know there’s a lot to look at this morning,” Dr. Patel said when she shut the door after entering. Knight still scrolled through the information on his phone, playing catch up. The same intern from the medication debacle came with her every time she entered Brynn’s room. “Let me go over it with you, then you can ask me any questions I don’t answer.” She smiled at Brynn.
To my shock and everlasting gratitude, Brynn looked to Knight for reassurance even before she looked at me. Knight was the technical-smart person. I was the emotional-smart person. And I was thankful all I had to be was the emotional-smart person, because all the medical shit baffled me so much it threw me into a panic.
When the conversation concluded, Dr. Patel folded her hands on her lap with a happy sigh, like a schoolteacher watching a classroom of students studiously doing their classwork with thoroughness and enthusiasm.
“Miss Brynn, if you ever decide you want to go into medicine, you come to me. I will write your letter of recommendation.”
A flush of pleasure filled Brynn’s face, but she waved off the offer. “Thanks, but this stuff’s boring.”
Dr. Patel’s smile spread even wider. “And yet you’ve mastered more about the surface of what’s happening with your body than my intern.” She indicated the red-faced young man behind her with a small tilt of her head in his direction. “Which is understandable, if disappointing.” She gave the young man the side-eye. “You’re a highly intelligent young woman. You understand not only the seriousness of your illness but where you’re at in the progression. Anyone as smart as you and your father would want to know as much as they could about what’s happening with their own body. So I expected this much. What surprises me is how much you fully understand how other systems in your body affect and are affected by the kidney transplant we’re working so hard to get you to. I’ve never worked with a patient I could honestly say understood illness and treatment as well as you do. At this point” -- she looked at Knight and then me --”I’d be inclined to take her wishes into account even more than yours.” She looked at Knight pointedly. “You’re probably the most intelligent man I’ve ever met. And in my profession…” She waved her hand dismissively. “I was going to say in my profession you don’t get to be a dumbass, but I can think of several examples to the contrary off the top of my head. The point is, as intelligent as you are, your daughter is having the most intelligent conversation with me about medicine I’ve had so far today.”