I apologize for not updating sooner (I'm pretty sure this is the note that I've left on every chapter) but I was nannying at the beginning of the summer for a doctors children so you can understand how that might have been crazy due to COVID. I hope everyone is staying safe and wearing those masks!
I groan, cursing as my alarm goes off. I turn to my side table and shut it off before rolling over and looking up at my ceiling, wondering how bad it would really be if I just went back to sleep.
It was now Tuesday, and my long weekend was officially over. Colton stayed until about three in the afternoon on Sunday before he had to get back to his apartment. He had some work things he missed because he had been in the hospital with his brother and sister in law. For the rest of Sunday and all of Monday it was just Milton and I, very much to the little orange tabby's dismay.
I let out another groan as I roll out of my bed and head to my closet to pull out a pair of scrubs. It was just one of those days where I really don't feel like putting on a dressier outfit. My bosses tend to like us to wear business casual unless we're in the OR, or if I'm delivering babies, but I just couldn't be bothered today.
After I finish dressing and putting on gym shoes, I head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair back in a french braid. I'm not scheduled for any deliveries or c-sections today, but its best to have my hair out of my face just in case.
When I'm finally done getting ready I make my way to the kitchen to grab some water and toast, checking my email as my bread toasts. Plain bread seems to be the only thing I can keep down at the moment, so it's what we're going with. I threw up some more Sunday around noon, after lunch, very much to Colton's concern. He continued to check on me every hour after he left and wanted an update after I ate dinner. What I initially ate didn't stay down, but I didn't tell him that out of fear it would push him over the edge and he'd come flying over here all concerned. Monday went much better, considering all I ate was crackers and toast. This baby is going to just be a loaf of bread when its born with how many carbs I've been eating.
After I slowly eat my breakfast I grab my bag and make my way to my car, noting to myself I need to grab groceries after work so my cat doesn't starve. I also need to make sure I don't starve, but cat owners know it would be way worse for him to run out of food than for me to run out of food.
Before I start driving I text the group chat of residents and med students on my service to meet on the labor and delivery floor for rounds at 8:30. Rounding is important of course because you check up on your patients and make sure there's no problems, but in teaching hospitals it helps educate the medical students, and even the residents on problems you might run into when rounding on patients.
I arrive a little later than I want to at the hospital due to construction but I still have time to quickly drop my things at my office and grab my white coat and stethoscope before heading to the floor where I can see my team waiting for me.
As I approach the team, I notice they all have their backs to me, not noticing that I'm practically right behind them.
"I heard she lost her shit on some nurses this weekend when she had to come in" one of my new 3rd year medical student says.
My chief resident, Andy, nods in agreement. "She found one of our patients, Callie King, in an extreme state of pain that was potentially life threatening to the baby. I actually want to say quickly, even though as medical students and interns you're considered bottom of the food chain, don't ever be afraid to speak up if you see something wrong happening in the hospital. I don't care who it is or how afraid you are of them, the patient always come first. If you see injustice and report it, you will always have someone backing you up. We're all here for patients, so please don't be afraid to speak up and stand up for someone who may not know enough to stand up for themselves."
I smile as Andy finishes her speech, thankful to have someone like her on my team. I can only hope she stays here and completes a fellowship so I can hold onto her for longer.
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Andy." I say smiling, causing the group to turn around and look at me startled. "Injustices are all too common in medicine, and they come in many forms. It's our job to recognize those injustices and disparities and speak up. I'm actually in talks with the medical school about introducing a mandatory seminar on this sort of thing. Would you be interested?" I get some very nervous nods from the students and interns, and Andy just smiles.
"You know guys, you don't have to be afraid of her. Dr. Anderson is one of the best doctors in this hospital to work with, and just the best in general. Women come from all over the state to see her for high risk pregnancies, and even normal pregnancies."
I smile, "You know Andy, you're already on my good side, you don't don't have to kiss up to me that much." Everyone laughs.
I have everyone begin to introduce themselves, and as the new interns and medical students speak, I can't help but notice a female medical student in the back. Saying she looks anxious would be an understatement. When she's the only student left to introduce themself, I give her a nod of encouragement before she speaks up.
"Hello, I'm Marissa. I'm deaf, and this is my first clinical rotation. Would it be okay if I went over some things that would help me out while I'm on this service?"
"Of course!" I exclaim.
We listen as she explains some things that help her be able to understand what we're saying/hear us. We learn she has a cochlear implant but her hearing still isn't perfect. She nervously tells us the importance of looking at her when we're talking so she can read our lips in noisier settings where she can be a bit overwhelmed, and also stresses the importance of making sure we have her attention when we try to talk to her while wearing masks, and to make sure that we speak loud and clear.
"Thank you Marissa, I know everyone here will do their best to follow all of these things. Please correct us if you're having problems understanding and hearing, or need us to make adjustments!", I say.
She smiles, looking less nervous than when I first walked up. Andy leads us down the hall to the first patient on the rounds list and I lag behind to talk more to Marissa.
"Have you talked to the nurses on the floor to have them put a note in the nurses station to be more mindful when talking to you?" I ask as we try and keep up with Andy's brisk pace.
She shakes her head no. "That's my next stop after this, although I'm really intimidated and nervous, especially hearing what happened with you this weekend. If they weren't caring about patients, the odds that they'll care for me are even lower."
My heart sinks in my chest as she explains this. Medicine really is only set up for the perfect able-bodied people. Healthcare workers with any type of disability have to work ten times harder to get where they are and to have their needs met.
"Would you want me to go with you to talk to them after rounds? It was actually the surgical recovery floor that I pissed off but we can talk to them as well since we do sometimes have patients up there. She smiles at the offer, pondering for a moment. "That would be really lovely, I could use a little backup."
I smile back, "It's no problem at all. I want to make sure you feel welcome and that you have the same opportunities every other student has."
She nods in response as we make it to the very end of the labor and delivery wing and arrive at the door of patient one of six. Not all of these patients are mine, but I also round on the patients of my team members who aren't working today.
"Alrighty, the first stop me have is Mrs. Alverez and baby Theo. Who wants to brief me on this patient? We'll start with medical students first," Andy says.
The medical students look around at each other nervously before all looking back up at Andy terrified.
"Since its their first day Andy why don't you and I trade of presenting patients today to see how it's done so the medical students and interns can get a feel for the way we do it," I say, coming to the rescue of the newbies.
Andy smiles and nods, "A perfect idea."
We move through all the patients on the floor that I have to cover fairly quickly, discharging everyone today.
"Alright, we do have one more patient not on this floor. She presented as a trauma patient from a car accident. She is 25 weeks pregnant, and is also the patient I came in this weekend floor and pissed off the entire surgical recovery floor. The residents, interns, and students snicker as I continue speaking. When I arrived this weekend Mrs. King had been given no pain medication after the accident and was in such bad pain her blood pressure rose to a dangerously high level. I was able to prescribe medicine and talk to the orthopedic team who fixed her leg and wrist. They have no idea how her pain medicine was not prescribed considering the attending told me he put the order in himself. There was obviously some kind of error along the way, and her nurse did not bother to question why she was not given pain medicine, especially with the trauma she had just been through and seemed very a-sympathetic to me and Mrs. Kings family. I was told she is doing much better today so we're going to go quickly check on her and the baby and then you guys will be free. Any questions?" I ask.
My team stands there quietly for second, with no responses so I lead them to the elevator up 4 floors to Callie. Having everyone with me this time makes me nervous, probably due to the fact that these people are technically my family now too, even though they have no idea how well Colton and I know each other. I remember his mother asking if he knew me the night that Callie and Alex were admitted, but I hope it was forgotten due to the circumstances at hand. When we arrive at the room everyone sanitizes and follows me in. "Hello Mrs. King, how are you feeling?" I ask, signing into the computer next to her bed.
She gives me a small smile, "A million times better than how I felt on Saturday. Thank you so much for your help, and taking care of me."
"Of course, I know it's a little intimidating, but this is my team of residents, interns, and medical students. We are doing teaching rounds so they can learn how to interact with patients and the problems we have to solve while rounding."
She gives a bright smile to all of them as they wave and smile at her. I move to the fetal heart rate monitor to check the baby's heart-rate and it looks just as strong has I had hope. I move to palpitate her stomach, careful of the abdominal bruises caused by her seatbelt and other things in the crash. I can feel the baby move and I smile.
"Everything looks and feels perfect Mrs. King. On our end everything is good and ready for you to be discharged when the orthopedic team is ready. I will come by and go over some precautions you have to take before you're discharged to make sure you don't strain yourself too much."
She nods and smiles, rubbing her swollen stomach. As I turn around to leave I finally notice Colton in the room, sitting with his brother. They both smile and thank me, and Colton winks as I turn around to walk out the door, with his brother giving me an almost knowing look. I cross my fingers that none of my team saw that and remind myself to chew him out over text later, and ask what his family knows.
After I dismiss my team I head over to the nurses station with Marissa, who looks like she's about to vomit from the nerves. I reassure her, telling her that the only person they have to be mad about is me.
When we arrive, the nurse at the station looks at me with a glare. "Here to call me incompetent and tell my I'm not doing my job correctly, Dr. Anderson?" She asks.
I stare at her shocked for a moment before I decided to redirect the conversation and not scare poor Marissa even more.
"This is one of our new medical students, Marissa. She is deaf and since we sometimes have patients on the floor she was wondering if a note could be left to notify the nurses on the floor of some accommodations she needs when communicating with people in different scenarios.
The nurse turns to Marissa, not relaxing her hard look and shoves a pad of paper and a pen her way. "I'll copy it and post one on each of the computers so the nurses from different shifts see it."
Marissa quietly thanks the nurse and I pull out my phone to check the messages I had received since starting rounds this morning.
"You have a lot of nerve saying what you did to Mallory, we all work hard and you came in on the only break she had gotten and berated her." The nurse, Jaclyn, says, staring daggers at me.
Marissa continues writing her note, sinking herself to the corner of the desk, trying to put as much distance between her and us as possible.
"Where did you hear that? I ask, genuinely confused. That is not what happened, and if thats whats being spread I'm going to be in some huge trouble.
"That's what she recounted to me and a bunch of other nurses."
I restrain myself from rolling my eyes. "When I arrived at the hospital on Saturday the King family had heard nothing from Mallory in hours. Mrs. King was in serious danger with her high blood pressure which should have set off an alert. The nurse who did help me was way over his shift and felt he couldn't leave because very few other nurses were truly doing their part, I believe his name is Dylan. I should probably not have lost my temper the way I did, but I do not regret what was said. She put a patient's life in danger."
Jaclyn looks at me surprised. "That's not what she's telling anyone at all. She said she reported you to HR this morning and even had the paperwork to prove it."
I sigh, feeling exhausted already. "That is not what happened, but I'll definitely be looking out for an HR email."
The nurse looks a bit embarrassed as she takes the note from Marissa. We thank her and head back to the labor and delivery floor to inform the nurses there too. As we finish up there, an email comes in from HR about the report and how they are taking it "very seriously" and need to meet with me as soon as possible.
"Alright Marissa, I'll see you tomorrow. Would you mind texting me how your day went just make sure there aren't any other accommodations we need to make?"
She agrees to text me before thanking me and heading down the hall. I make my way to the physicians lounge and find it empty. I take a seat at the table and put my head in my hands before letting out a deep breath. I'm definitely in some trouble.