Larry Dr. Fics

Severe Pneumonia-Louis

Thank you, alibrooke28 , for the request.  :)

Words: 2,827

Louis's eyes grew wide in shock, his jaw dropping to the floor at the sound of that one word. Hospitalized. Louis had never been hospitalized in his entire 35 years of life, and now, this was what he was facing.

The doctor, noticing his unease, softened his expression as he spoke. "Yes, I know this is unexpected, but bacterial pneumonia is very serious and we treat it as such. It should only be for three days unless there are complications." And so Louis was whisked away in an ambulance a couple blocks away to the hospital.

He had been sick for several days, throwing up almost constantly, his chest hurting with every breath. He did nothing about it, choosing instead, to wait it out and see if he improved.

Waiting, however, seemed to be his downfall. The doctor said if he wouldn't've waited so long to get treated, it wouldn't have progressed to this point. Also, the fact that he kept vomiting and couldn't keep anything down was another reason for this lovely three-day stay.

Once he arrived, he was given a hospital gown and he put it on in the bathroom of his new room. Once he got it on, he promptly threw up in the freshly cleaned, Pine-Sol scented toilet.

He was awfully hot with fever, making him feel weird-always changing from hot to cold in the blink of an eye. He was dizzy and light-headed, but he managed to make it to his bed, and there was a nurse there waiting for him.

"Hi, there, Mr. Tomlinson," she greeted sweetly. "How are we feeling today?"

Her high-pitched voice only pierced his head, making his headache worse, and he saw no reason to be so peppy. It was just annoying.

"Pretty terrible," he said, with no hesitation. "And how might you be?"

"Oh, so sorry to hear that, sir." She pulled the IV bag closer to him and began getting the needle ready. "Now, because you can't keep anything down, we have to give you your antibiotics intravenously."

Louis sat back on his bed against the pillow. The room was spinning and he felt nauseous again. Before he could get up, he knew it was coming. He leaned over the side of the bed, away from the nurse, and retched all over the floor. Twice. Once he finished, he apologized to the nurse and cleaned himself up in the bathroom.

While a custodian cleaned up the mess, the nurse put in his IV and told him to get some rest. It was only 6pm, but he was able to fall asleep the second his eyes closed.

He woke up off and on, feeling very feverish. Sometimes it took a while to fall back asleep. The next morning, he woke up at 7am, feeling just as awful as yesterday, minus the nausea. Luckily for him, he hadn't thrown up again since he vomited on the floor. Maybe he was improving.

He wondered where his doctor was. What kind of doctor doesn't come to check on his patient? He felt like dying yesterday and all he saw was a nurse. He shifted positions and he realized that he really needed to use the bathroom. How much liquids were they feeding him?

He looked at the small table next to him and noticed a bedpan. Uh, no way. He was not sick enough to use one of those. Despite the dizziness, he tossed his feet over the side of the bed and stood up. He went a few steps and darkness began to cloud his vision. He hugged the wall with his eyes closed, bending over slightly. As he waited for this to pass, he heard a booming, deep voice enter his thoughts.

"Whoa, are you okay? Can I help you?" the man said, the voice getting closer and closer to him.

Louis, being the independent lad that he was, plus the fact that he was embarrassed by his inabilities to get himself across the room without passing out, quickly told him, "No, I'm fine."