Chapter 5: Human Action
Christian was lying in bed awake next to the sleeping Kimber cursing himself for what he'd got himself into. He couldn't give up on the idea of deception cause then they'd be back to square one and their relationship would be dependent on his religious affiliation. However, these tests were a pain in the ass and perchance literally so, even if he only had to deceive another plastic surgeon and not a gastroenterologist. He was hoping the actions he'd undertaken would be enough. He had to act fast and make sure the drugs were undetectable by the time of the tests tomorrow, so he had to take them right after Sean left. He told Kimber he was going to take some of his Rulox, but in fact he took a small overdose of aspirin and vitamin C out the cabinet. They were simply drugs that were present in most households, but given his stomach'd been empty for the last thirtysix hours they should be enough to cause a thickened, edematous, nonpliable stomach wall with erosions and reddened gastric folds in accordance with the gastritis he was trying to simulate when Sean was going to perform an endoscopy on him as he'll suggest he should. For good measure he took another sodium phosphate overdose as well. Now that Sean had pumped some fluids into he needed to make sure he stayed dehydrated. With all the trouble he went through he contemplated whether he actually had Munchausen Syndrome, a psychological disorder in which a person falsifies or really induces illness upon himself for the purpose of gaining attention that cannot be received in any other way. Munchausen patients were intelligent in the medical field. They were well known to go to uttermost lengths to make themselves sick and have had unhappy and unloving childhoods. Then he shook his head. Although he had done this in the past it was for different reasons and when he reached his goal he would stop never to resort to the same measures again. He turned to his side, cuddling himself as his tummy hurt. There was nothing unexpected about it, a vitamin C o. d. could do that, not to mention the laxative. He calculated how long it would take for those to be out of his system as his sore stomach rolled again. He had to calm down and stay still. It would go away soon. He tried taking in deep breaths, but it wasn't working. He gave up on trying to sleep at all thinking maybe a change of position would help. He even
contemplated taking some of the right medication this time, maybe he'd overdone it before. He tried to get up, felt faint, hot and the room span incouraging a few dry heaves from his by now very sore stomach. He would have wanted to rub his belly, but at the moment he wasn't at all sure he wanted to move any bit of him again in case that set those cramps off again. He must've overdone it a little, but he just had to grit his teeth now and wait. A sodium phosphate overdose could cause drowsiness, a restless feeling, nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness, a fast heart rate, feeling light-headed and fainting, so none of this was unexpected, and he even counted on some of these effects to lead Sean on later. His guts cramped violently this time prompting him to squeeze a hand over his mouth. He wouldn't wake Kimber up. She would take him to the hospital and they'd find traces of vitamin C in his urine and his blood thickness would be affected by the aspirin. It was way too early for that. But what if he caused himself a bowel obstruction? He had to examine himself. He fought off a wave of dizziness that threatened to make him sick and dared to touch his abdomen. It seemed a little distended, but he could feel no mass. He tried to take his pulse, but the pain was making it difficult to concentrate. It was unbearable. He couldn't cope with it, "Kimber," he whispered and reached out for her.
"What is it?" Kimber asked, "are you okay?"
"Something wrong...very painful," he managed before moaning in agony as his stomach cramped and rejected the acids that were in it.
"Should I call Sean?" She grabbed the phone nervously.
"Ambulance..." He forced out before he sagged passing out from the pain.
Tbc