“Do we have a nurse here who can do some blood draws right now? I was due for rounds three minutes ago.”
“I can do it,” a nice middle-aged nurse piped up, glancing up at us from the chart she was reading. “I’m supposed to be on the fourth floor, but I can do that before I head back up.”
“Thanks, Melissa,” Rowan said, squeezing my arm. “Macey is one of ours.” Rowan dropped my arm and hugged me, then hurried away, yelling back over her shoulder, “Keep me updated, Mace!” I turned back to the nurse who approached me with a smile.
“Ready?” she asked, and I nodded as she began to walk across the ER floor towards an empty room already stocked with needles and tubes. She shut the door behind us and motioned for me to sit down in the chair and put my arm out.
“Hello, Macey,” she said, pulling up a chair to sit next to me. “As you heard Rowan say, my name is Melissa, and I’ll be your NP.”
“You’re a nurse practitioner?” I asked, and she nodded. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.” I tried to smile for her, but I felt weak. Sick. Exhausted. I felt like if I focused too hard on something, I might just vomit all over the crisp white bed they’d stuck me on.
“I don’t work in the ER,” said Melissa. “I was just down here for a consult with the surgeon. I work on Oncology.”
“Cancer?”
“Yes.” She smiled when my eyes went wide with a small chuckle. “Don’t worry, they didn’t call me down here specifically for you. I was just here and wanted to lend a hand. I owe Rowan a lot.”
“She’s good people.”
“So tell me how you’ve been feeling, Macey,” Melissa said, keeping that kind smile glued to her face. “What brings you in today?”
With trembling fingers, I rolled up the sleeve on my left arm and laid it out as Melissa prepped the test tubes and needles. I closed my eyes, mostly because it made me feel dizzy to keep them open, and took a small breath. “Mostly it’s just fatigue,” I told Melissa as she worked. “And some nausea.”
“How bad is the fatigue?” she asked, poking the needle into the vein under my skin.
“It’s, um...pretty bad,” I said hesitantly. “I know it seems silly to complain of fatigue as a college student, but I’ve never actually felt this bad before.”
“Okay,” Melissa said, capping the tube of blood. “How long have you been feeling this way, Macey?”
“A few months, probably. It seems to get worse as time passes. I imagine it’s just an iron deficiency or something. I struggled with anemia when I was younger.”
“Okay.” Melissa smiled again. I really enjoyed her smile. She seemed to be one of those people who just kind of lit up a room everywhere they went. “We’ll send these to the lab as soon as we can for testing, but the lab has been backed up on orders. We might not have the results until mid-next week.”
“That’s okay. I’m flying out of town this weekend. Is traveling okay?”
“You should be good to go. Just call the office if you experience any more unusual symptoms, okay? I’d recommend iron pills from the store until the results are back, just to see in advance if that helps.”
“Thank you,” I said, shaking Melissa’s hand. “It was lovely to meet you.”
Feeling better about finally getting that over with, I headed to campus for my first class of the day, typing up a quick text to Jayce to let him know that I’d gone in. A few minutes later, as I settled into the seat for my class, he texted back.
Good. Meet @ the quad for lunch after class?
See you then, xo.
Feeling better than I had felt in a few days, I focused on the lecture, taking notes, knowing that I had to keep my focus on passing these classes. Not even Jayce was an acceptable distraction. I had to learn to juggle both.
Around eleven, once class ended, I made my way to the quad to wait for Jayce. It was nice today, around seventy degrees, and the spring air refreshed and invigorated me. As I sat down on one of the empty benches to wait for Jayce, my phone rang. It was my mother.
“Hey, Mom,” I said into the phone, refusing to let anything, even this, ruin my day.
“Hi, Macey,” Mom said. “Do you intend to come to the wedding?”
NoHow are you?orI miss you,orWhat have you been up to?Not this time, not any time, really.
“I still have a few days to decide,” I said, and on the other end of the phone my mom made a huffing sound, like a dragon ready to burst into flames.
“We expect to see you here, Macey.”
