YOU BEFORE ME

Chapter 7

Carl

I sat in my office, going through the documents on the desk in front of me. If there was one thing that hadn't changed much with my transfer, was the paperwork. Sure, I got to do less, but it was still as tedious as ever, and it had taken me nearly the whole morning since I'd been neglecting this side of my work lately.

Technically, I did paperwork in the middle or right after seeing a patient, but my memory was good enough that I could take a few notes on every visit and do paperwork afterward. I had been abusing this trick of mine ever since I realized just how much paperwork I had to do for every patient.

When I got to Sandra's file, I paused. It was the last file in a pile, because it was an ongoing case, and it was important. There wasn't much I could add to the other files than what I'd already put in, but there was still plenty I was waiting for in Sandra's file.

Come to think of it, what was the time?

I checked my watch and saw it was past lunch already. I sighed, wondering if Sandra was already awake and wondering where I was. I wanted to go over and see her right away. I could even take her file and work on it in the cafeteria.

Sandra was good company to keep; I'd come to realize in the past several days she'd spent in the hospital. She was still a patient, and I didn't plan on crossing that line, but ever since that first day, I couldn't help but keep an eye on her. While I couldn't say I would do this for every patient, the fact that she wasn't eating was a concern, and even with me there, she looked like I was trying to torture her with every slow bite of food she took. I'd reduced the portions, but what would take a normal person less than twenty minutes to finish, she took an hour.

When the recent results arrived, I was coming close to what the problem could be, though I already had a few suspicions. I just wished I was f*****g wrong. We'd had to test her blood more than once trying to find the cause of her loss of appetite, not to mention several other tests.

In the end, I decided to look for Sandra and take her file with me. It was important to make sure she was taking proper care of herself and eating. Her fainting had happened because she wasn't eating right, after all but that wasn't the only reason so I found out after looking at things in a different light after talking to dad.

A knock on my door made me pause, and I looked up with a frown, already halfway out of my seat. But I just sighed and sat back down.

"Come in," I called.

The door opened, and a nurse walked in.

"I have some test results for you, Dr. Wilson."

"Thank you, Macy," I said with a distracted smile, holding my hand out for the file.

She looked a bit disappointed as she handed it over and turned to leave. But I was too preoccupied to try and be friendlier. She was a professional, and she understood, so she hurried out and left me alone.

I looked at the file in my hands, suddenly afraid to open it. It was Sandra's latest test results. After staring at it for a moment, I picked up the phone and made a call to another doctor in the hospital, who I'd befriended. After securing an invite to chat in his office, I took Sandra's file and the latest results, and headed for his office. It wasn't that far from mine, and I made it there in a matter of minutes.

"Dr. Lopez," I said, walking inside.

He looked up from his desk where he had a folder open.

"Thank you for this."

"There's no need to thank me," he said, waving his hand, gesturing me to take the seat across him. "Have a seat and let me know what the problem is."

"It's this patient of mine..."

I sat down, and we chatted lightly. I let him see the file I had on Sandra, and he looked at it as I unsealed the results. This sort of thing happened in a lot of hospitals. It wasn't really that I needed the other doctor's help, but getting another's opinion was always a good idea. It was why I still chatted with my dad about patients.

"This is serious," Dr. Lopez said. "And? Do you have a diagnosis or are you still running tests?"

I sighed as I looked at the results in my hands. No matter how many times I looked them over, it was impossible to come to a different conclusion. I looked up gravely at Dr. Lopez and handed him the documents. It only took him a single look, and his expression matched mine.

"Oh, dear," he murmured. "This is serious."

Crap. It had come to this. Sandra had Acute Kidney Failure. "When was the patient brought in? And for what reason?" the doctor asked.

"She fainted in the store, and someone called the ambulance for her. She mentioned feeling weak when she came in. It's not down to the point of her not eating yet, but I've had to sit with her to make sure she takes more than a few bites. While she's been here, she's walked around a bit, but mostly she stays in her bed and sleeps, according to the nurse."

"The fainting spell was probably from her lack of eating. In that case, this probably saved her. If she had waited..."

"The problem is that it's already waited too long, though, right?"

I picked up her file and added the latest results to the back of it, my heart feeling heavy. I would have to tell her this news soon, and I wasn't looking forward to it. There was no need to put her off saying some tests were inconclusive, or I didn't have something solid yet. I had no right to keep something like this from her, but it would devastate her.

"What do you think?" I asked. "How do we go about treating this?"

He looked at me, and his expression was grave. "You know exactly what is going to happen now, Dr. Wilson. You don't need me to tell you that."

I sighed because it was true. Dad had said it himself, and I'd just confirmed it. Sandra's kidneys were f****d. Going by its definition, Acute Kidney Failure could be cured, if caught early the damage could be reversed and everything would be right again. However, the damage to Sandra's Kidneys was severe. Dialysis would not be able to reverse this. Which meant, she would need a new kidney.

Sandra was extremely unlucky. The infection had hit both her kidneys. One of them was worse off than the other, almost completely shut down, but she still had one that was mostly functioning, for now which was why her condition wasn't so much more serious already.

Fuck. There was no way to remove the damage in Sandra's kidney. Which meant, she would need a new kidney.

In this case, Sandra was extremely unlucky. A person was born with two kidneys, and it wasn't impossible to survive with only one kidney left. Quite a lot of people lived that way, after they lost one, or donated it. But for Sandra, the swelling could be seen in both kidneys. One of them was worse off than the other, almost completely shut down, but she still had one that was mostly functioning, which was why her condition wasn't so much more serious already.

"You need to find this patient and talk to her, let her know the treatment options she has. The faster she knows about this, the better it'll be for her, and we need to start treatment as soon as possible. Also - "

"I know," I said. "I'll talk to her first then put her name down on the donor's list. It...might not be easy to get her a donor, though."

Dr. Lopez nodded. "There will always be a patient with special circumstances such as these. For now, talk to her. She has no idea anything's wrong, so she must be worried about being here for this long."

"I'll go let her know now," I said and got up.

We shook hands, then I left. I returned to my office and dropped into my chair, leaning back against it in exhaustion, imagining the days ahead. This was going to get a bit complicated. In the time since I'd been back, I was lucky. Not all my patients had easy to fix problems, but the death rate of patients was really low compared to a hospital in the middle of the city. I hadn't lost a patient yet, and even though I'd been around a few months, it was still considered good.

I didn't want Sandra to be my first, but it would take some serious luck for her to survive this and I wasn't convinced that it was on her side. Especially, because usually patients have problems which allow it to be detected when they have one kidney damaged not both as in Sandra's case. She was too young and beautiful to be dealing with her prospects, but I couldn't let go. I had to make sure that she got a donor, even with her rare blood type.