“No, thank you,Adam,” I said. Then I plucked the package out of his hands and got out of there as fast as I could. The rest could wait until I’d taken care of my patient.
The whole interaction had been so strange.
Back in the room, Angie and Taylor had moved on to cat videos, and Pen stood behind Angie watching them too. Angie seemed as enraptured by the videos as Taylor was. “And that’s my Floyd. He’s so lovey dovey. All he wants is to be petted.”
“Do you give him kisses?” Taylor asked.
“All the time,” Angie said.
I smiled, pushing all thoughts of Adam to the back of my mind.
Maybe I’d hallucinated that he’d been so distant. That was the last time I’d eat kombucha for dinner the day before an ER shift for sure.
“Let’s do it.” Angie gently held Taylor’s arms while Pen held the phone and gently sneak-held her legs so she wouldn’t move them.
“Okay, sweetie, you just keep watching the kitties, and we’ll get that stuff out of your nose,” Angie said, keeping up a steady stream of commentary as I very gently inserted the instrument into Taylor’s right nostril and past the M& M. It was as thin as a wire with a tiny little balloon at the tip that inflated with water when I pressed the syringe. I inflated, I pulled, and out tumbled a green M&M.
I quickly repeated the process, and a red one tumbled out too.
I addressed Pen. “What kind of person are you that has M&M’s in your house from Christmas?”
“One with self-control?” Pen answered.
That made me think of Adam again. And our lack thereof last summer. Hard to believe this rigid, by-the-book person was the same charming, fun-loving guy who had been there for me when I’d reached the brink of the abyss.
I was starting to feel cocky when I approached the other nostril. But the offending candy was lodged a little further back, plus it was the one with the gross drainage, meaning that it must have been really stuffed up there. But I chickened out. There was a lot of drainage. And I didn’t want to hurt her.
I swallowed, thinking that there was a fine line between being a hero and knowing when to throw in the towel.
Medicine was like that. Sometimes more art than science.
I smiled at Taylor, who was being so amazing. So trusting. I never wanted to give her any reason to lose that. “Tay, I’m going to try again. So here I go. Maybe we’ll go see the Disney princess exhibit at the art museum too, what do you say?”
Someone cleared their throat. I looked up to find that Dr. Grumpenstein had stealthily entered the room.Myexam room. Without knocking. And of course he’d seen my hesitation. I did what any good doctor would. I ignored him and focused on my job.
“Dr. Green, may I have a word?”
I made eye contact with Angie, who shrugged. I set down my instrument and followed him out into the hall.
“We could call ENT.” He lowered his voice. “I don’t want to risk traumatizing the child.”
I rolled my eyes. “Trust me, that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do.”
“It’s hard to be objective when you treat people you have a relationship with,” he said in a calm, logical voice. “I’ll be happy to take over for you.”
“Absolutely not.” He’d be happy to take over? How about when reindeer fly, I wanted to say. Or on the thirtieth of February. Or how about when hell freezes over. “I’m going to give it one last shot.”
“I’m not sure that’s wise.”
I shot him my most deadly glare. “And I don’t think it’s wise to enter my exam room without knocking.”
“Can we please just work together on this?”
Anger was brimming inside of me like an overheated kettle. I forced myself to think of Taylor. So I didn’t say anything, but I let him follow me back into the room. He said hi to Pen and asked if it was okay if he took a look. He quickly assessed the situation, then turned to me. “Let’s suction the pus first.”
“Okay.” I blocked my outrage at him stepping in, my even more fierce outrage at him pretending that he didn’t know me. I only thought of the job ahead of me.
Luckily, I’d always found that a healthy dose of outrage always went a long way. I returned to my task with renewed determination, filled up the balloon and tugged.
