It had been three weeks since her diagnoses and Jac had just reentered Darwin after she had left Elliot to takeover her patient because once more, she could not operate and unfortunately it was beginning to become a bit of a habit for her. She made her way straight to her office where hopefully, she would be able to get some peace because she didn't feel well- in fact she felt bloody awful. Her hands and ankles were swollen thanks to water retention, and she felt bloated. She was exhausted - both mentally and physically - and unfortunately her frequent toilet breaks had begun to be noticed by both Mo and Jonny. To top it all off, her endometriosis was playing up. However,despite her condition, Jac showed no reluctance in upping her pain relief dosage over the previous few days which had begun to elevate her problems. Although, she had changed her pain relief from NSAIDs to amphetamines as instructed by Mr T.
Mo and Jonny were working at the nurses station when Elliot emerged from theatre.
"Hey prof, don't suppose you know what's up with Jac do you?" Mo asked curiously with a hint of concern. She knew that the consultant had left theatre once again and paged her superior to take over. Despite not being with her anymore, Jonny still looked up to hear the answer because he couldn't help but worry about her.
"Honestly? No I don't I'm afraid." Elliot replied.
"Well why did she say she had to leave theatre then?" Mo asked.
"She didn't really give a reason I suppose. I mean she sort of, held her hands around her abdomen," Elliot said as he gestured the action, "and she's been rather quiet today so I'm assuming it's a female issue." Elliot explained quietly and delicately.
"Nah, this is something serious. I'm sure of it." Mo concluded as she folded her arms across her chest.
"Well, I'll try and have a word with her." Elliot smiled before he returned to his office. door, he found an awful and unexpected sight. Jac had collapsed on the floor and she was unconscious lying chest down in the middle of the dark room.
Once he opened the door, he found an awful and unexpected sight. Jac had collapsed on the floor and she was unconscious lying chest down in the middle of the dark room.
"I need a trolley here now!" Elliot shouted before he squatted down besides her. He tried to listen to her breathing but he couldn't at first because all he could hear was quick, loud footsteps as Jonny sprinted into the room.
"What the- what's goin' on?" Jonny demanded as he ran his hands through his hair in a panic.
"I'm not sure, her breathing is shallow though so let's get her into a bay now." Elliot ordered as he carefully turned Jac over.
"What's happened?" Mo asked as she arrived outside the door with a trolley that was too wide to fit into the room.
"Let's just get her into a private bay." Elliot repeated as he was about to begin to lift the unconscious consultant however Jonny beat him to it and he hoisted edge single handedly onto the bed.
Ten minutes had passed since they had gotten Jac into a bay yet they were no further in finding a reason as to why she had collapsed, and she had still not woken up.
"Right, let's take a blood sample." Elliot said to Jonny who then disappeared to collect the equipment before an out of breath Sacha stumbled into the room followed by a nurse from Keller.
"Stop, we need to take her to my ward now." Sacha stated as he began to unclip the unnecessary heart rate monitors off of Jac.
"Why? What's wrong with her? And how did you know?" Mo asked quickly as they raised the railings on the sides of the bed.
"Gossip spreads like wildfire." Sacha stated. "And she won't want you lot with her, not yet anyway so I need you to stay up here." He ordered as they quickly began to wheel Jac's bed to the lift where they met Jonny on the way.
"Wait. Sacha? What's goin' on?" Jonny demanded as he dropped the kidney dish of equipment on the nurses station and then followed the trolley.
"I'll update you as soon as there's any news." Sacha stated as he stood between Jac's bed and the entrance of the lift with his nurse besides him to stop Jonny from entering the lift. Within seconds the lift door closed leaving the Darwin team to wait anxiously for news whilst Sacha had to treat Jac as fast as humanly possible.
Jac slowly opened her heavy eyelids and blinked several times to acclimatise to the lighting. She had a full feeling of nausea in the pit of her stomach as she slowly looked around the room, only to realise that she was in a private room on Keller, in a hospital gown. It was then brought to her attention that there was a faint humming sound, similar to a fan, besides her. So she turned to investigate the noise, only to find a machine that she had learnt to detest the idea of ever since her diagnosis - it was a dialysis machine.
She let out a sigh of despair and let her head hit the soft pillow when a familiar face entered the room and sat in the chair besides her bed.
"How're you feeling?" Sacha asked softly.
"Sick." Jac muttered halfheartedly as she stared at the blank white ceiling.
"Well that'll be the-"
"The dialysis, yes I know." Jac interrupted.
"You gave us a real scare Jac. You're in renal failure, your kidney was spewing toxins into your body and if you hadn't have collapsed, I'd say you'd have had a week left, maybe two before you'd have died." He stated because he knew better than to sugar coat something, or to hide any information from her.
"I collapsed." Jac repeated to herself as she tried to remember the events leading up to it. The last thing that she remembered was getting up to go to the toilet but then her mind went blank. "Who found me?" Jac asked as Sacha sat her bed up so she was at a 45° angle.
"Elliot, I think." Sacha replied. "And then Jonny got you onto a trolley and Mo checked you over." He added and Jac closed her eyes in disbelief.
"Do they know?" Jac croaked eventually.
"No. I just told them that I'll update them if there was any news."
"And have you updated them?"
"Not yet. Do you want me to?" He asked.
"No, no they can't see me on this." Jac stated as she gestured the two cannulas in her left arm where the dialysis machine was retrieving and returning her blood.
"Okay." Sacha nodded before he tried to think of an excuse for her. "I could tell them that you've gone home. And that you passed out from endometriosis pain." He suggested to which Jac quickly objected.
"No, no. They don't know I have it." She stated. "Well, Mo does." She corrected. "But..."
"Well that's the only thing that I can think of. And surely you'd rather them know that then- in fact what am I saying? Jac, I should be telling you to tell them jac." He blurted out. "Look I know that you, well let's just say that you don't trust a lot of people but you're gonna need their support Jac. You're gonna be on dialysis for three or four times a week for around four hours each time and when -not if, when- we find you a donor, you're gonna need help and support through the transplant Jac." Sacha pleaded as he looked into Jac's pained eyes.
"I'm gonna need a transplant." Jac muttered to herself as the thought hadn't yet crossed her mind - her medical knowledge always went out of the window when it was to do with her own health.
"Yep." Sacha nodded. "And when we find a donor-"
"If we find a donor." Jac corrected,
"Don't think like that, please stay positive. Look I know that you're going to moan but I've sent off a sample of my blood to see if I'm a match for you." He stated.
"Too right I'm gonna moan." Jac said with a hint of sarcasm because in her mind she had already decided that he certainly wasn't going to be a match - those sort of things only happened in the movies, not in real life. "Anyway, when will this be finished?" She asked curiously.
"Um, you've probably got another, three hours left I'm afraid. And I'm sorry to tell you that from now on, you'll have to have a low sodium and low potassium diet so that means you can't have a lot of coffee or chocolate." Which he knew she was impartial to. "And now that you're on dialysis, you seriously need to restrict your fluid intake. And I'm talking around 500ml of fluids a day."
"Brilliant." Jac said sarcastically as she glanced at the machine.
"Oh, and one more bit of bad news, you can't have peritoneal dialysis because of your surgery history, therefore you can't run dialysis over night, it has to be during sessions like this. Anyway, I'm gonna go and get you a few bits, want anything in particular?" He asked.
"Um... Phone, my bag from my locker. Oh and my grey hoodie is in there too." Jac replied.
"Any small snacks? You're gonna need more calories now that you're on dialysis."
"Yeah. A bar of chocolate and a double expresso please." Jac smiled cheekily and Sacha folded his arms across his chest as he gave her a stern look. "I was joking. And no thanks, I still feel sick." Jac stated quietly.
"Alright well, I'll be back soon." He replied before he left the room leaving Jac alone so that she could think about her future. She would have to rely on a machine and come into hospital for sessions until a donor was found, well if, a donor was found. She knew the statistics; she demand for kidneys far outweighed the availability, and she also knew that over a dozen people died each day waiting for a kidney. But what she didn't know, was if she was going to be one of them or not. She knew there were no guarantees, but she knew that Sacha would do his very best for her. In the end, as much as she hated to admit it, that was one of the few situations in her life where she had no control.
Three hours into her dialysis session, Jac was sitting in her private bay alone after she had convinced Sacha that she'd rather have some time to herself. She was in the middle of reading her copy of the BMJ when there was a knock at the door and the non-Scottish, annoying Darwinian entered before she closed the door behind her.
"Mo... Just go." Jac ordered once she realised that her eyes had fallen upon the dialysis machine.
"I... I knew something was wrong." Mo stated as she approached the consultant.
"Well done. What do you want? A gold star?" Jac asked sarcastically.
"Nope." Mo replied simply. "Have you told Jonny?" She asked.
"No. Why would I?" Jac protested.
"Because he'd want to know." Mo stated solemnly.
"Well don't my opinions matter? I don't want anyone else knowing." Jac declared.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Mo said reassuringly. "Look I've seen plenty of dialysis patients and I know that it can wear you down, especially for the first session. So do you want me to give you a lift home when you're finished?" Mo shakes as she refrained from showing any sympathy because she knew that it wouldn't be welcomed and it would only aggravate the consultant further.
"I'm perfectly capable of driving thank you." Jac retorted.
"Alright. But if you need anything, even if it's just to talk then I'm here for-"
"Goodbye Maureen." Jac interrupted. Mo then forced a smile before she left the consultant in peace.
Jac was sitting on the bed, idly thinking about what her future held when Sacha entered her room with a solemn look on his face.
"What? Sacha what's wrong?" Jac asked worriedly as she fidgeted and sat up properly.
"It's not good news I'm afraid... I'm not a match. I'm sorry." He apologised sincerely.
"Come here you idiot." Jac ordered as she remained on the bed but pulled Sacha into a hug. "I wouldn't have taken your kidney if you were a match and anyway, it's not your fault." She said softly over his shoulder. "Pull yourself together, I'm the ill one not you." Jac laughed slightly as she pulled away from him.
"Sorry. But don't you worry, I'm gonna find you a kidney and you'll be better before you know it." He forced a smile, but they both knew that what he said was just optimism, not a guarantee.
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