AUSTIN:

I was at my job. I was in the teen clinic just one floor above pediatrics (I was a doctor who worked with babies, kids, teens and adults) where there was a fifteen-year-old girl named Lily Levine crying her eyes out. I felt terrible for her, so I sympathetically asked her,

"What's wrong? Are you OK?"

She wiped her eyes and looked at me.

"I had unintentional unprotected sex with a boy who wasn't my boyfriend, my boyfriend is in rehab right now because he's an alcoholic and he uses crack, weed and heroin, and I recently found out I'm pregnant. I can't take care of a baby, my mom would kill me, and I need an… an…"

I asked,

"Is there something you need?"

She sobbed,

"I need an abortion."

I asked Lily,

"Was the sexual intercourse between you and this boy consensual?"

She said,

"I made a really fucked up mistake. I was drinking at a party I was at with him and the next morning, I woke up next to him naked in his bed. I just was still hurting from my boyfriend being in rehab."

I said,

"Well, it doesn't sound like that sexual encounter between you and him was consensual."

She wiped her eyes and said to me,

"This also happened."

She took off her white hoodie, revealing her pink lowcut tank top with an aqua camisole underneath, revealing some wounds on her arm. Seeing them just sent chills down my spine. Granted they weren't that serious lacerations, but still, cutting was a dangerously addictive habit that was hard to break and they still deserved to be nursed.

"How long have you been cutting?"

She said,

"Since I found out my boyfriend drinks and snorts, smokes and shoots drugs. I'm scared to death he's going to hurt himself."

"I understand that. But cutting is a very dangerous thing to do to yourself. There are better ways of dealing with stress."

I washed my hands with soap and water, put on rubber gloves, cleaned the wounds with antiseptic and cotton balls, covered them with gauze and adhesive tape. I threw away my gloves, washed my hands again and I handed her the card and I printed out a visit summary with how to stop cutting.

"I'm sorry you had this experience. You're beautiful and I hope you get the help you need. Do you need a hug?"

Lily wiped her eyes and tightly embraced me and I hugged her back. I had sympathy for her. Now was my lunch break, I was sitting with my colleagues, nurse Connie Ramirez and Dr. Dwight Lawrence. I decided to call Ally to check on her.

"Hey, Austin,"

My wife said.

I said,

"Hey, snookums. Are you feeling any better?"

She said,

"Well, I've been drinking a lot of water and my fever has gone down. But now my breasts are sore, I still have to urinate a lot, I still feel a little dizzy."

I said,

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll be home by six. I'll call again in a few hours."

Connie asked me,

"Who were you calling?"

I said,

"Ally."

Connie chuckled.

"I remember when she came here needing her tonsils out. Now you guys are happily married."

I said,

"Yeah. She's sick today with either the twenty-four or forty-eight hour bug. The poor thing was throwing up and had a fever this morning. She also said she had sore breasts, she had to use the bathroom a lot, and she's been dizzy a lot."

Connie took a bit of her food and chewed and swallowed it.

"When my sister was pregnant, that happened to her."

Dwight agreed.

"Yeah, that was my wife too, when she was pregnant with my daughter and my son."

I said,

"If my wife is pregnant, I'll know. I definitely will support her."

Connie told me,

"Also when I got pregnant, that happened to me."

If Ally had been constantly feeling the need to urinate, if she had been feeling really tired, if she had been feeling dizzy, feeling sick this morning, and later she would be craving food that I'd seen no one other than my friend Dez eat, then she was pregnant.