River
You can ask any nurse who’s ever worked in a hospital what happens when it’s a full moon, and they will all give you the same answer. The crazies come out to play. It didn’t matter if it was a big city or a tiny town. So, I wasn’t surprised when I dealt with difficult patient after difficult patient, followed by a “you waited until two o’clock in the morning to have someone look at the golf-ball sized cyst on your leg” and a few “you really didn’t need to come to the ER for that.”
Kennedy sped past me with a wad of papers in her hand. “I’ve got discharge orders for two of mine. Can you check in on the abdominal pain that they just brought back to room four?”
“On it,” I said and went to see our newest patient. I should’ve looked at the board. Should’ve at least checked the name. But we were crazy busy and doing everything we could to stay on top of the madness.
I knocked and pushed the door open. “Hi. I’m River, and I’ll be one of your nurses tonight. What seems to be—?”
“Is that any way to greet your mother, Rain?” the toothless, wrinkled woman asked before dramatically clutching her stomach.
Okay, I just needed to make sure she wasn’t actively dying, remain professional, and get the hell out of her room as fast as possible. Most hospitals wouldn’t make you take care of a family member if you didn’t want to; some wouldn’t allow it even if you did want to.
I cleared my throat, “What are we seeing you for tonight, ma’am?” No way in hell was I calling her any form of mother, and I didn’t have a clue what last name she might be using.
She scrunched her face and moaned. “My stomach. It hurts. Please make it stop. Oh, the pain. It’s killing me,” she wailed.
“I see. And where does it hurt?” I asked.
“My stomach, you stupid bitch. Just told you that,” she spat, no longer clutching her stomach.
“And on a scale of zero to ten, what would you rate this pain?” I asked.
“A twelve,” she yelled and fell back onto the bed dramatically.
“Have you had this pain before?” I continued.
“Yesss!!!” she screamed.
“And what helped it?”
She sat up quickly and said, “Dilaudid. Only Dilaudid. They gave me some through a needle in my arm and sent me home with pills. Made it all better.”
“Okay, the doctor will be in to see you in a few minutes,” I said and got out of there as fast as I could without actually running for the door.
I looked around but didn’t see Kennedy or Dr. Daniels anywhere. The two other nurses working were with Dr. Alvarez getting a patient ready to take to surgery. I waited at the nurse’s station, hoping one of them would return soon. And then room four’s call bell went off.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
With no other choice, I walked back through the portal to hell with a fake smile on my face. “Did you need something?”
“Pain medicine! I need something for pain before I die!” she cried.
“Okay, let me see if I can find the doctor,” I said and turned to leave the room only to be shoulder checked by a greasy, dirty, stinky man who was clearly on some kind of drugs.
“Why the fuck are you just standing there? Get my woman something for pain,” he shouted.
I left the room again and blessedly found Dr. Daniels at the nurse’s station. “Everything okay, River?”
“No, ma’am. Uh, the patient in room four is complaining of severe abdominal pain, and, um,” I sighed and covered my face with my hands. “And she’s my mother, so I would like to trade patients with another nurse, please.”
Dr. Daniels frowned. “Um, that’s fine, as soon as Kennedy comes back. She got puked on and went to shower and change,” she said as she clicked through the computer. “So, Spring Lawson is your mother?”
“She gave birth to me, yes,” I answered. She didn’t deserve the title of mother.
“I see,” she said kindly and patted my hand. “I’m familiar with Ms. Lawson. Let me go see if I can get her out of here so you don’t have to deal with her.”
“Thank you, Dr. Daniels,” I said and breathed a sigh of relief.
