The doctor smiled. “Anything else besides a little klutziness? Any tingling or numbness?”
“Yes. Occasionally in my feet. I just thought it was because it was cold outside.”
“Dizziness?”
“Sometimes.”
“Hmmm… Any problems with your vision?”
“Yeah, now that you mention it. I was thinking about seeing an eye doctor. My vision went kind of spotty once.”
“Hmmm. Floaters?”
This guy’shmmmswere starting to cause her concern.
“Is anything wrong, Doctor?”
“I need to finish the exam before I come to any conclusions.” He rechecked her blood pressure the old-fashioned way, with the stethoscope and cuff, then used the other items on the wall and looked in her eyes and ears. He checked her reflexes with his little rubber hammer, then listened to her lungs with his stethoscope.
“Hop down. I want to see you walk down the hall,” he said.
As he was opening the door, she stopped. “You want me to go out there with my butt hanging out of this gown?”
“Sorry.” He chuckled. “No, you can get dressed now. Come out when you’re ready.” He closed the door behind him.
Seriously? That’s it?
A few minutes later, she had sashayed down the hall with this man undoubtedly checking out her bum. Then she had to do the heel-to-toe walk. Naturally, she didn’t lose her balance. Why was it that whenever she went to the doctor, the symptom she was going for disappeared by the time she got there?
She had to walk the hall again, and when she reached the end, she turned a little too fast. Suddenly, everything shifted to the left. A nearby nurse grabbed her arm and steadied her.
The doctor’s facial expression immediately changed. A slight Mona Lisa smile turned into a suspicious frown.
When she made it back to him, he ushered her into the exam room again.
“What is it, Doctor?”
“It’s too early to say definitively. I still need to rule out a few possibilities.” He asked her a few more questions about her general health, looked over her thin record, and scratched his chin.
“C’mon. Tell mesomething. Am I dying?”
He smiled briefly and said, “No. You’re not dying. Well, no faster than the rest of us, anyway. But I am concerned. It could be a number of things. Blood tests will tell us if it’s something like Lyme disease, a group of diseases known as collagen vascular diseases, certain rare hereditary disorders. You’re on the young side for MS, but its onset can start as early as age twenty-two.”
“I’m going to be twenty-three next week.”
“Really?” He glanced at her chart. “So you are. Happy birthday!”
I might have MS, Lyme disease, or half a dozen other things? Yeah, a big fat happy birthday to me.
“We need to do some neurological tests to narrow it down. I’m ordering blood tests, an MRI with contrast, and a spinal tap. I want to see you soon after I get those results. We’ll use these tests to rule out some possibilities and go from there.”
He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”
She sure hoped so.
He scribbled on a form and said, “Take these to the secretary on your way out. She’ll schedule the tests and follow-up appointment. You can get your labs done today, if you like. Nothing requires fasting.”
“Oh, goody.”
Eventually, she went home a few vials of blood lighter and several dollars poorer.
She sighed.Now what?The whole thing made her want to run screaming, but she had to get these tests while she had insurance. If she quit the bank, that would end. And there was no way Gabe could cover her health insurance and her rent, as much as he might like to.
She still didn’t know what to do about his recommending she find another job. Parker was backing him up. She hadn’t talked to either of them in a few days, but the one thing she knew was that she couldn’t quit the bank. Not now.
She had to find out what she was dealing with before she made any kind of changes. If Gabe and Parker didn’t like it, that was just too bad. Parker would be on the other side of the world. And Gabe… What could he do? Spank her? The visual made her shiver—but not in an entirely bad way.
She huffed and marched home in the chilly air, watching her steps carefully.
