A/N: Happy New Year's Adam! Here's a new chapter.
Comment on anything for any reason, good, bad, random!
Post-every-day-story has been decided. You'll find out January 1st!
~Pip Pip Da Doodly Doo~
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Today will not be a good day. My Johanna woke up feeling sick again. Luckily, she didn't fight me on going to visit the pack doctor. How frustrating would that have been? How do you even convince someone that they are sick when it's their own body? That doesn't make sense!
Stop talking while you are behind.
I don't think that is how the saying goes, Maximilian.
For you, yes it is.
Whatever, I'm moving on.
So, anyway, right after Jo agreed to go to the pack doctor, I gave him a call to tell him we were coming. A few minutes later, we are in the car and Jo has a ginger ale in her hand. When we get to the pack hospital, I rush around to Jo's side before she can even think about opening the door. I unbuckle her and lift her into my arms gently--don't want to mess with her dizziness.
"Are you aware that I am capable of walking?" She asks from my arms.
"I have seen you do it before-" I give her a smile. "-but I don't want to chance my baby girl getting hurt right now. You are in a weakened state."
"I'm not weak." Jo pouts.
"I know you're not."
"But you just said I was."
"Are you sure you are just dizzy? What were you just drinking in the car? What's you name? Who am I?"
"Daric?"
"Yeah, babe?"
"Shut up."
"Of course."
Once inside, I don't set Jo down in a chair like she asks. I just walk to the counter and give my ever charming smile to the lady at the desk.
"Mr. Anderson, hello." She blushes. "How-how can I, uh, we help you?"
While Jo mutters things under her breath, I answer the nurse. "I called Dr. Mutchers yesterday and this morning. My JoJo needs to see him."
"JoJo?"
"Yes, JoJo, That's what I'm calling you now."
The nurse clears her throat. "Um, yeah I'll call Dr. Mutchers to see if he is ready for you."
"No need." I smile. "Just point me to his office and we will be on our way."
"You can't do that it's against-" But she doesn't finish because I am already walking away from her and toward a guy who can and will help my JoJo. I end up getting pretty lucky because we catch the doctor just as he leaves the crapper in the hallway.
"Hey Doc, we're here."I say when he turns the opposite way as us.
"Oh! Daric, Jo, hello! I didn't expect you two to be back here yet."
"He just walked back." Jo says blandly.
"Of course I did. Dr. Mutchers knew I would be coming. Why would I wait for someone to notify him again?"
"Because he may have been in the bathroom..."
"Well, he just got out! So perfect timing!"
Can't beat that argument!
Dr. Mutchers claps his hands. "Okay! Let's get you two back to my exam room and see what's going on with Ms. Tayor."
We follow the doc to his room, and that's when I finally set Jo down on the paper-covered table. The doc is at a cabinet and counter to wash his hands and grab a few things.
"Okay, so we are going to start by getting all the normal check up things. Blood pressure, pulse, weight. We have your records, but I want to see what has changed. From there, I'll ask a few questions and we'll go from there." He puts on some gloves and starts with her pulse and lungs. When it's time to get her weight, I carry her to the scale while ignoring her protests.
The doctor gloves snap as he pulls them off. "Okay, I'll send that blood to the lab now. Last thing is a urine sample and we are good."
I take a step towards my mate, but she glares at me. "I do not need help peeing."
I hold my hands up in surrender. "Fine."
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After Jo gets back and is asked a bunch of questions I don't understand, the doctor stands.
"From what I have so far, I think it may have something to do with your digestive system or nervous system. Maybe ears. When I get lab results back, we'll be able to tell a lot more."
"How long will they take?" I ask.
"Not long." With that, he walks out the door.
I wrap my arms around Jo and kiss the top of her head. I feel a small shiver in her body, and I get the feeling that it's not from me.
"How long to you think 'not long' means?" She whispers into my chest.
"I don't know." I answer honestly.
"What do you think he means by my nervous system."
"Everything is going to be okay." I mutter into her hair.
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"Not long" later, the doc comes back into the room lab reports in his hands. "The blood work and urine analysis can basically rule out most kidney, liver, and gastrointestinal causes. I would like to do an ultrasound to make sure everything is as it should be. Want to double check that there aren't any tumors or ulcers."
"Tumors?" Jo asks in a soft voice.
"It's highly unlikely, but we want to cross it off the list for sure. After that, the tests will be a little more complicated and the causes a bit more rare." The doctor reassures us while a nurse comes in with a machine. "Thank you, Sam."
Doctor Mutchers gets the ultrasound machine set up, Jo stands up from where she is on my lap.
"All right, lay down up here and lift your shirt over your stomach."
I don't like the sound of that.
For once, I think we can agree, Max.
Don't call me that dog name!
I move to stand by my mate as gel is placed on her stomach followed by the wand. The doctor moves it around and stares at the screen for a few minutes. He explains what a few things are as he goes. When he finishes, he hands a cleaning cloth to Jo to wipe up her stomach. I snatch it up before she can do anything.
"Everything looks great, so there is nothing to worry about there. Because you mentioned your ears and dizziness, I'm am fairly confident this has to do with your ears, so I am going to call in our audiologist. She will know what to look for better than me."
He makes a phone call and a few minutes later, an older female doctor walks in. Unlike Dr. Mutchers, she is not in scrubs but a blouse and slacks.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Kelly." She holds her hand out for Jo and me to shake. "We'll make our way over to my office to start. I have equipment that can't be moved."
After a few tests with the new doc, she comes back with Dr. Mutchers bringing some news.
"All right you two, after we discussed results of tests, we are confident we have found out what is going on." Dr. Mutchers leans against the counter.
"Yes, we agree that your symptoms point to Meniere's Disease." Dr. Kelly takes over. "It affects the inner ear and ultimately balance."
She continues to explain some of the anatomy of the disease and the rarity of it--especially in youths and werewolves.
"Eventually, the ear affected will begin to loose hearing slowly then all together. However, this doesn't mean you will have to face these effects necessarily. There have been great advances with hearing aids and implants that allow your hearing to remain."
"And," Dr. Mutchers puts in some input. "Years from now, they will have improved even more."
"Yes," Dr. Kelly agrees. "We would like to do an MRI to be 100 percent positive that your nervous system in not the cause. We will get that scheduled. For now, we have a prescription for you and will go over some changes in diet and such to help you. Aldactone is something you will have to take daily; Valium is for flare ups like you experienced the past few days."
"Okay," Jo nods and takes the scripts from the doc.
"Avoiding salts and caffeine in your diet can help, and some sources say to avoid chocolate: that hasn't been searched as much so I feel comfortable saying it's okay as long as you don't go overboard. Stress is always a good thing to avoid if possible. We can also schedule a Physical Therapist to go over some helpful exercises for you, too."
After they go over a few more things, we go up to the desk to schedule what needs to be scheduled. On our way home, we stop by a pharmacy to fill Jo's new prescriptions.
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A/N: For those who are studying/working in medicine, you know the doctors don't actually do everything. Also, if you have ever seen a doctor or been to the hospital, you notice the nurses do a lot of the physical work while the doctor interprets. (If a nurse has trouble taking blood from you, DON'T ask the doctor. They don't do that very much. They won't be any better.) But this is my werewolf world and he's the Alpha's kid and there are less werewolf patients then human patients because there are less werewolves so the doctor does everything himself.
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~Pip Pip Da Doodly Doo~