Relieving Pressure
This story has been prompted by AriellaXavier with the prompt Sandy collapses when home alone and is found by the twins.
Breathing deeply, Sandy winced as the pain in her chest only increased, trying her best not to draw attention to the pain running through, lest any of her overprotective sons, or worse her husband, Fraser, noticed.
They'd only worry for sake of worrying and Sandy wasn't in the mood to deal with their ways. She knew the chest pains, head aches and constant tiredness that had been plaguing her weren't normal, though she doubted it was anything truly serious, after all she was in perfectly good health and there was no reason as to why that would change.
The blonde wasn't stupid though and she had organised a meeting with the doctor for later that afternoon. If everything went well, she would simply be placed on some form of medication and her troubles would just disappear, with her family none the wiser that anything had been amiss in the first place. If not, well then she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
"You okay mum?" Joe asked, flitting around Sandy in his haste to get to the garage on time. "You're normally ready for work by now, not lazing round in your pyjamas."
"I'm fine love, I've just got a half day today."
"Okay, well see you later. Love you!" Joe said over his shoulder, already out of the door before Sandy could say anything in reply. She couldn't help but smile as her second eldest son left in a rush, glad for the normality that she was still surrounded by. And that was why she hadn't told anyone about how rubbish she'd been feeling lately, because then that normality would disappear.
She knew that her whole family could worry about the littlest of things like it was going out of fashion and Sandy didn't need that to be surrounding her.
Because the symptoms she was showing couldn't be anything serious could they? After all, she did lead a healthy lifestyle and did what she could to stay fit. But, well life since moving to Hollyoaks hadn't exactly been stress-free and she wasn't getting any younger.
That couldn't have had a serious impact on her health though, could it? Pushing away the fear that was suddenly at the forefront of her life, Sandy drained away the remainder of her tea away and started getting ready for her appointment.
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"Sandy Black," the young nurse called out to the waiting room and Sandy got to her feet, suddenly feeling a lot more nervous than she had been just a few moments ago. This was it, this was when she would find out what was wrong with her. Once more she berated herself for being so dramatic, after all it wasn't likely to be something serious, though Sandy couldn't help but feel slightly sick as she was lead into the doctor's office.
"Hi Sandy, it's good to see you," the blonde woman smiled from behind her desk. Sandy vaguely recognised her from when the other woman had visited the hospital, though they had barely spoken whenever passing by each other.
"Doctor Miller," she replied back, taking her seat and fiddling with the wedding ring that adjourned her finger, her most recent, but possibly favourite piece of jewellery.
"Oh please, call me Lacey. So what can I do for you today?" Sandy quickly explained the symptoms she had been suffering, praying once more that she was just being over-dramatic, not that darker forces were out to play.
When she had finished, the kindly doctor finished her note taking and leant back, giving no clues to Sandy on what she thought could be wrong with her. After a painful few moments Lacey finally spoke up. "Well it doesn't seem to be something overly serious, though I'd like to do some tests to be on the safe side. First off, I'd like to test your blood pressure, as a lot of your symptoms indicate it being quite high."
Sandy took off her cardie and rolled up her right blouse sleeve as Lacey grabbed her stethoscope and blood pressure cuff from the side before lifting her arm slightly, knowing the full procedure for the test, having performed it on others many times in the past.
The test was over fairly quickly and as Lacey wrote down the results, Sandy pulled down her sleeve, her nerves returning in full force.
"So?"
"Just as I thought, your blood pressure is a little high at 140/9, probably one too many glasses of wine in the evening I bet. It's easy enough to fix though and I'll fill you out a prescription for some diuretics which should help lower your blood pressure. I'd suggest metolazone, I know a lot of woman just like you who have really benefited from that type of medication," Lacey said with a smile, signing off on the prescription form and handing it to Sandy. "I hope you feel a lot better soon."
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Despite Lacey's well wishes, Sandy wasn't feeling much better over the coming days. Whilst the chest pains and fatigue had gone, the district nurse was still plagued by constant headaches and dizziness whenever she moved too quickly.
Still none of the family knew, though she had seen both Fraser and Ziggy shoot her concerned glances more than once, reminding her that she needed to up her game, because Sandy wasn't going to have any of her family mothering over her, especially over something as stupid as a blood pressure problem.
So with only a few days till her next doctors appointment, Sandy knew the best thing to do was to simply grin and bare it, after all, everything could be sorted out then and she'd be left feeling right as rain once more.
The mantra went through her mind again and again, reminding Sandy to not make a fuss for the sake of making a fuss and that she wouldn't have long to deal with her headaches for much longer, though as she was sorting through the family's laundry on her afternoon off, it was pretty much impossible to ignore the pain.
Sandy knew she hadn't felt this bad in a long time and would do anything to stop the pounding in her head, though was at a loss on what she could do. "Stop being so dramatic," she berated herself silently, hoping that with the headache and now talking to herself, she wasn't going around the bend. "It's nothing and after this laundry's been done you can just sit down and put your feet up."
Mind made up, Sandy picked up the last of the clothes from the washing basket and made her way downstairs, loading the washing machine as quickly as she could, ignoring yet another wave of dizziness that hit her when she stood.
She was fine, completely fine really, she just needed to rest for a little bit and then she'd be fighting fit once more. Those were thoughts that ran through Sandy's mind before everything turned black and she fell to the floor, completely motionless.
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"Look I'm just saying Phoebe's never going to be interested if you treat John-Paul, her guardian, like absolute crap," Jason sighed as he pushed open the front door, rolling his eyes as Robbie shoved past him, obviously in a mood about Jason berating his most recent behaviour.
"Give it a rest Jase, just because you're in the bloody honeymoon period with Holly, which by the way would have never happened if I didn't do something."
"Oh what a saint you are Rob, really I don't know what I'd do without your constant meddl-" Jason was cut off as he stepped into the kitchen, instantly seeing his mother's still form. "Oh my god. Mum! Robbie get in here it's mum!"
As he cried for his twin, Jason fell to his knees, desperately trying to get a response from Sandy with little success. The only thing that stopped him was the shocked gasp from Robbie, the teen stopping in tracks at the sight of Sandy.
"She's not waking up, call an ambulance," Jason directed, trying desperately to stay calm though he knew it wasn't really working. Wordlessly Robbie grabbed his phone, the sound of his voice being the only thing to break the silence as he asked for an ambulance, voice breaking as he helplessly tried to explain what had happened, still watching Jason trying to rouse Sandy.
"What the hell happened?" Jason asked himself, struggling slightly as Robbie pulled him away from Sandy, not wanting to be further away from his mum than he had to be.
"Look the ambulance is going to be here soon and -" Robbie was interrupted by Sandy groaning as she slowly began to wake up. The two youngest Roscoe's rushed to their mother's side, helping her sit up and guiding her to a nearby couch.
"Mum? Are you okay?" Jason asked, eyes wide as he realised just how pale Sandy was.
"I'm fine, what happened?" she groaned in response, limbs feeling heavy and uncoordinated.
"We don't know, you were just on the floor when we came back from school," Robbie explained, passing over a glass of water as he spoke. "We called an ambulance though, so they'll be able to tell us what happened."
"You didn't have to do that boys," Sandy protested, though the effect was ruined by how weak she still was.
"Says the one who was unconscious just a few seconds ago," Robbie replied easily, though the sound of the ambulance sirens reaching the house kept the family from bickering anymore.
Within minutes the team of paramedics had entered the house and were directly led to Sandy, despite her still protesting that she was fine and didn't need any sort of help.
"It sounds like you just fainted ma'am," one of the paramedics supplied after checking over Sandy. "Can you think of anything that could have caused this? A change in diet? Any new medication you've been taking recently?"
Sandy sighed, realising exactly why she had been feeling so under the weather over the last few days. "Actually yes, I've been taking metolazone for almost a week now to combat my high blood pressure-"
"I didn't know you had high blood pressure," Robbie cut in, sharing a questioning look with Jason, who only shrugged in reply.
"That's because it's not any of your business," Sandy retorted sharply, turning back to the paramedic before she ended up saying something she'd regret to Robbie about the subject of privacy. "Sorry about that. Do you think it's the medication that caused this?"
"It's more than likely as the wrong dosage of medication can be known to lower people's blood pressure too much, and when we checked, yours was lower than recommended. I would suggest that you stop taking the medication for now and to call your doctor up as soon as possible to change your treatment."
"Of course," Sandy said, nodding in agreement. "Thank you for all your help and I'm sorry for wasting your time."
"Don't worry about it Mrs Roscoe. Your sons did the best thing to do in this sort of scenario, after all something could have been seriously wrong with you," the balding man replied, making his way out of the door and narrowly avoiding bumping into Joe, as the three eldest brothers made their way into the house, completely baffled, as well as worried, as to why there was an ambulance right outside the door.
"Everything okay in here?" Joe asked, his confusion only growing when he saw that everyone seemed to be okay and in no need of the hospital.
Sandy opened her mouth to ease the worries, though was beaten to the punch by Robbie. "Mum collapsed so we called the ambulance."
"You what?" Ziggy asked, not expecting that answer in the slightest and even more confused as to why the paramedics were leaving without Sandy in tow.
"I fainted actually," Sandy retorted, glaring at Robbie disapprovingly for trying to wind his brothers up. "And it's no big deal."
"It kind of is though," Jason replied. That moment when he had seen his mum collapsed on the floor had been one of the scariest of his life and he never wanted to relive it. The fact that Sandy wasn't taking it seriously, even if she had just fainted, irritated him more than words could say. "Mum's had high blood pressure. She fainted because the medication she took for it was too strong."
"And I'm fine now so can we drop it?"
"But you weren't then," Ziggy protested, after years of having Sandy mother them and make the biggest fuss out of the tiniest scraps, it was odd to see her brushing off something that could have been so serious. "And yeah you only fainted, but it could have been worse. What if you hit your head or were at the top of the stairs?"
"I know the risks love, you don't need to remind me."
"Well it seems like we do," Freddie said in reply to Sandy's sigh. "Did anyone even know you had been feeling ill?" Sandy's silence said it all, and it took all of Freddie's restraint to not scream out of frustration. "You've got to tell us these things mum, we love you and want to look out for you."
"I know, but I also know that you five are the most dramatic people I've ever met. A simple cough is enough to put me on bed-rest for the week with you lot."
"Well if you thought we were going to over-react about your blood pressure, you've got another thing coming now that you've actually collapsed," Jason said determinedly, causing Sandy to groan as she saw the same glint in all of her children's eyes.
"You're never going to let me leave the house are you?"
"Nuhuh," Freddie replied, a small smile playing at his lips as Sandy groaned once more. As her sons bustled around her, determined to make her as comfortable as physically possible, Sandy couldn't stop the pride she was feeling for seeing them so grown up and selfless.
Sure they all made mistakes, but in that moment, Sandy knew she had done right by them. They were all growing up into fantastic people and that was the best possible feeling ever, even if it was marred slightly by knowing she was going to be under house arrest for the foreseeable future.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and thank you all for the kind Christmas wishes. I had a lovely day and I hope you all did too!
Next chapter – Due to overdosing, Ruby is in a dangerous coma at the hospital with Ziggy keeping watch on her day and night. Knowing all to well what her son is going through, Sandy visits him to try and help ease his pain – prompted by roscoeareamazing
This is the part where I now try and reply to some of the guest reviews left last chapter, so if you aren't expecting any sort of reply, then feel free to move on and I'll see you all next time!
Hollyoaks Lover – Of course I can do a Holly/Jason one, is there anything specific you'd like me to write about?
Tasha – Thank you for all the lovely reviews you leave on this story and on Downwards! For your prompt are there any sort of truths you want to be revealed or any dares you want the boys carrying out? And would you like for them to get into a bit of trouble with Sandy because of it?
Becky – Haha no problem, when I saw your first review I was a bit confused, but thanks for clearing it up. Would you like the Dad to have a specific reason to doing what he does to Jason or for me to think it up?
Lydia- Of course I can do the Olympics one. For Jason's gymnastics team, would you like them to be members of Spelbound, or just made up characters?
The only thing with your other prompt is that, well I really can't believe either twin would get into Cambridge. It's the best university in the country and you need an A* and 2 As at A2 to even be considered and it's already been discussed on the show that Robbie almost failed his first year of A-levels, meaning any chance of going to Cambridge would have been long gone by then, never mind his track record as he's also been expelled from a number of schools.
And although Jason is the 'smart' one of the family, I don't know why, but I just picture him as an A/B student because he is smart but doesn't put that extra effort in which would get him the grades he'd need for Cambridge. Tuition fees are another thing too and Sandy would need to fork out around £80,000 to get them both through their courses and with eight of them living under one roof, it's unlikely the family have that money.
I'm sorry if this is just sounding mean or patronising I really don't mean for it to, and yes I know this story is a fictional one, but with all my prompts I do try to keep a sense of realism about and I think this would just be pushing the boundaries a bit too far.
I am more than up for doing a University story with the twins, it would just be a different uni they go to, and if you really want a story with them at Cambridge I can do it as a university trip with the school and they can find that the courses you want them to do are really interesting and then know what they want to do at uni.
If you're really unhappy with this alternative, please message me on my tumblr which is thatfandomblogg . tumblr. com though obviously remove all spaces. You don't need an account either, so don't worry about that, it's just an easier way for us to talk.
Aleks – your review genuinely made my day, it was brilliant! And I wish I was magic, but unfortunately that is not the case. And don't worry about me overworking myself babe, I've got a buffer of chapters already written up, meaning if I'm ever having a lazy day, I don't have to write if I don't want to. I hope you continue to enjoy future chapters as much as you are currently.