DARK DAYS AND DARKER NIGHTS

Can't someone just put me out of my misery?"

It was over an hour later before a nurse and orderly entered the room and headed over to where Miles was. "Dr. McCabe?" the nurse asked checking the patient's ID number against that on the CT order she held.

"Yeah," Miles answered still groggy from the sleep.

"We're ready to take you for the CT scan," the nurse told him.

"Okay."

The nurse looked over at Natalie and said, "You'll have to wait in the patient lounge until we're finished with Dr. McCabe."

"All right," Natalie replied. She gave Miles an encouraging pat on the shoulder an encouraging pat and left the room. Entering the small waiting area, she found an empty seat that faced the door and sat down.

"Doing okay?" the nurse was asking the young man as they began to wheel him toward the CT scanner room.

"Yeah," Miles answered shifting slightly as he tried a more comfortable position.

"We'll get this over with as soon as possible." the nurse was saying as she and a radiology technician helped transfer the patient onto the scanner table. "Now I need you to remain as still as possible."

Miles took a deep breath and let it out nodding. "Let's just get this over with," he told her.

As soon as they had the patient ready the technician stepped away to start the scan while the nurse said, "I'll be in the other room observing you throughout thee CT procedure".

Once the scan started Miles tried to relax and ignore the noise of the machine. The nausea had decided to return although he wasn't sure if it was from the headache or nervousness. Swallowing hard he clenched his fists as he attempted to fight it down.

"Seeing the patient start to tense up she quickly opened the door and hurried over to him. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Miles replied, not daring to say anymore.

"DO you need to stop the scan?" she asked taking in his very pale face and beads of perspiration on his forehead.

Miles shook his head in response.

"You sure? We can if you think you're going to vomit."

"I'm okay…Just get this…over with," Miles replied.

"All right. I'll be right back," she told him. Quickly stepping of the room, she went to grab a basin just in case it might be needed.

"It seemed like forever before the scanner finally stopped and the table withdrew. About that same time the nausea decided to gain the upper hand. So much for making it back to his room first Miles thought as he attempted to roll over onto his right side.

This nurse was immediately at her patient's side helping to support his shoulders while she held the basin in front of his mouth. "I'll call and see if you doctor has any thing ordered for the nausea."

Miles just moaned in response. The painful retching was pulling at his incisions and making him hurt even more. Finally the dry heaving eased up and he sank back totally spent.

"I'll get some help to get you ready to go back to the SICU," the nurse said seeing that the attack was apparently over at least for the moment She returned a moment later followed by an orderly with the bed.

"Natalie had been watching to see when Miles was going to be taken back to his room. Seeing the bed being wheeled past the door she got to feet and hurried out frowning at how pale he looked. "What happened?"

"It's nothing to be concerned about. He's just a little sick to his stomach," the nurse answered. .

"Can't somebody just put me out of my misery?" Miles asked, the pain and frustration evident in his voice.

AS soon as they arrived at the SICU Miles was settled in for the night and a nurse administered the compazine and valium that Dr. Lawson had ordered.

Natalie saw that he was struggling to stay awake as the meds were starting to take effect. "I'm going to go ahead and take off but I'll see you in the morning," she told him.

"Okay. I'm feeling pretty wiped out anyway," he mumbled.

"Well, you've had quite an eventful day. Have a good night and I'll see you tomorrow," Natalie said. She pulled the blanket up over his shoulders and then picked up her purse and tote bag.

"Nite, Nat," he said sleepily.

"Sleep well," Natalie said softly as he let herself out of the room.