Sunday 4th February 2029
Unfortunately, after a rather large RTC with a huge pile up on the motorway, Sam and Tom had been called in to assist on a Sunday. Fourteen year old Daniel was already going out with his friends but 10 year old Ella was too young to be left alone so, just like during school holidays, she had packed a bag filled with things to keep her occupied and was going to sit in the staffroom all day. However, it was 9am when Tom finally found a spare moment to check on his daughter, but he suddenly noticed a mark on the sofa where she had been sitting, about the same size as a 2p piece. Upon further inspection, he realised that it was in fact dark red blood, and he knew it hadn't been there before.
"No. She hasn't..." Tom whispered to himself. But he knew his daughter was probably somewhere feeling very alone and embarrassed so he covered the blotch with her rucksack before he jogged out of the staffroom and pulled Sam aside.
"What is it? I need to chase up some results." Sam panted as she had barely stopped all morning. As soon as they'd received the call about the collision, they'd had to drive straight to the hospital and Sam had skilled breakfast so that wasn't helping anything either.
"Has Ella started her periods?" Tom asked quietly.
"What? No, why?" Sam demanded.
"Don't panic but there's a little bit of blood on the sofa and Ella's gone-" Tom barely had time to finish his sentence before Sam zoomed past him but he followed her into the staffroom where she checked the mark and then went over to her locker. "What're you gonna do?" Tom asked.
"She's probably gone to the toilets so I'll go and sort her out. I need you to go to pharmacy and get a Von Willebrand factor and a Clotting factor VIII saline infusion. Tell them it's for Ella Kent and it's non-emergency but she needs some within the next few hours." Sam ordered as she took out a few things from her locker, including her dark Blue NHS hoodie and then quickly walked to the toilets but on her way, she was intercepted by her boss.
"Sam, I thought I told you to stay in resus today. We haven't got time for breaks-"
"Zoe, I haven't got time for patients. Ella needs clotting factor, now." Sam stated and she knew the clinical lead would understand because Zoe was the one who had diagnosed Ella when she was younger.
"Why? What's happened?" Zoe asked worriedly.
"Me and Tom have got it covered just let me sort this out please." Sam pleaded before she walked into the toilets and closed the door behind her so that Zoe didn't follow. Sam walked along the three cubicles in the toilets, two of which were wide open, the third was locked. "Ella? Ella, I know you're in there. Come on, just come out. I saw the mark on the sofa, don't worry I'm not mad." Sam pleaded.
"Has anyone else seen it?" Ella finally spoke up.
"Just dad."
"Brilliant."
"Hey, dad knew what it was straight away, covered it up and came and got me. He could've dealt with it a lot worse, I know my dad did. Just come out please."
"Mum my trousers are stained really badly."
"It's alright. If I go and get you your spare jeans from my locker, will you come out?
"I need underwear and a pad thing too."
"Yeah sure, I'll get those too." Sam said reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'll be back in a couple of minutes."
"Sam!" Sam was just about to enter the toilets with a change of clothes for her daughter when her husband caught up with her. "Clotting factor eight and Von Willebrand clotting factor, for Ella Kent." He announced quietly as he showed her a bag containing half a litre of saline, and the appropriate dosage of both clotting factors. "The pharmacist made it up there and then for her, and said you need to infuse it into her over a period of one hour." Tom stated. They both knew that clotting factor couldn't go straight into the blood or it would cause an unnecessary clot around the injection site so it needed to be slowly infused into her blood stream.
"Great, can you set up an IV cannula and leave the stuff in my locker in the staffroom please?" Sam requested as she handed him her keys.
"Sure, how is she?" Tom asked.
"I don't know, she hasn't come out of the cubicle yet." Sam admitted feebly.
"You'll get her out somehow, I know you will." Tom said reassuringly before he headed off leaving Sam to go into the toilets where her daughter was still hiding.
"Right, here is as pair pair of jeans, underwear and I got you a heavy absorbency pad." Sam announced as she slid them under the door before she waited for her daughter to change.
"What should I do with my trousers?" Ella asked finally.
"Just come out here and I'll see now bad it is." Sam replied and thankfully, she soon opened the cubicle and came out to the sinks with just her jeans because she'd already thrown her underwear in the bin. "Ah, well. They're only an old pair anyway." Sam shrugged as she threw that pair in he he bin because the stain was very noticeable and unlikely to come out completely. "Listen, I can't get off early darling, I'm sorry but there's been a massive crash. But because of the bleeding you know the drill; you've got to have an infusion, it'll take about an hour and you can have it in the staffroom okay?"
"Is this going to happen every month?" Ella huffed.
"Well, first of all you're not going to ruin a pair of trousers every month because as you start to get regular, you'll know when to go and stick a pad in your underwear just in case. And you will need an infusion at the beginning of each period, but if we know when you'll be coming on, I can give it to you over night so you won't be tied down during the day." Sam explained. "Are you gonna come back to the staffroom so we can get it started?" Sam asked and Ella nodded whilst she kept her head to the floor. "Sweetheart you're being so brave okay? I know it might be a bit of a shock but you'll get used to it."
"But there's so much blood." Ella sighed. "I'd only been sitting on that sofa for half an hour and by the time I ran to the toilet, I had blood dripping down my leg."
"Ella we've talking about this, it's your disease, and I'm doing everything I can to make it better, you just need to let me put a drip on your hand to get the infusion started." Sam said pleadingly and Ella slowly followed her mum out of the bathroom back to the staffroom.
Later on, Ella was lying in her own bed because lying down seemed to slow down the flow and thankfully the infusion had also slowed down bleeding. She was lying down on a black towel in her bed because she had already ruined some pyjama bottoms and Sam knew Ella was having a really tough time so he was doing everything she could to help her. Ella was just reading a book when her mother came in with two new packs of pads.
"Right, these are night pads and they're just longer okay? So, it's up to you but I'd think about maybe wearing these during the day. Because they're heavy absorbency and they are longer than normal pads so they'll help to prevent leaks. Just don't wear any tight clothes with them because you might be able to see them." Sam said as she put the pads with the rest of Ella's ones in the bottom of her wardrobe.
"Thanks mum." Ella murmured, though they both knew she was just dreading going back to school the next day.
"I'll tell you a tip: when I was at school, I used to put a tampon in in the morning just before I left for school, and I'd put a pad in my underwear as well. Then, by the time it got to lunch I could just take the tampon out and use the pad because let's face it, it's not easy to discreetly and quietly change a pad in public toilets." Sam joked halfheartedly.
"I'm not using a tampon." Ella replied adamantly.
"Alright. Well to make changing a pad quieter, you can just open the edges at home, and then take them to school."
"Can't I stay at home tomorrow?" Ella pleaded.
"You're too young to stay by yourself." Sam shook her head.
"Well can't I come to work with you then?"
"Because I want you to at least try going to school Ella. I sympathise for you, I really do but at the end of the day, you can't just skip your education for a week out of every month." Sam stated. "Right, are you going to come down and have some dinner?"
"I'm not hungry." Ella mumbled as she pulled her duvet up to her chin.
"It'll just be nerves Ella. C'mon, you've got to eat something, you barely touched your lunch."
"Just leave me alone." Ella sulked as she turned over to face the wall and then closed her eyes and thankfully, she heard her mum leave the room and close her door behind her.
Monday 5th February 2029
The next day, Sam was working in cubicles when she was called over to the nurses station.
"It's Holby Primary for you." Tess stated and Sam frowned before she put the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is that Mrs Kent?"
"Yes."
"I'm a nurse at your daughter's school and I'm afraid Ella has had a bit of an accident. Would it be possible for you to bring her a spare pair of trousers and underwear in and drop them off at reception?" She asked and Sam knew Ella's school uniform meant that her trousers were grey rather than a discreet colour like black.
"No, tell her I want to go home. Please." Sam heard her daughter plead in the background.
"Ella, I've told you there's no need. You just have to get changed and you'll be fine. You're not getting out of PE that easily." Sam heard the nurse reply. But then it clicked, Ella loved PE, she wouldn't miss it unless she really had to and she knew her daughter needed her.
"I'll be there in ten minutes." Sam replied before she hung her phone up and headed to the staffroom to grab her keys and jumper.
Sam walked into reception in her scrubs with her NHS dark blue jumper on where she was greeted with a young man at the reception.
"I've been called for my daughter, Ella Kent." Sam stated.
"I'm afraid you just be mistaken, all children who're being taken home are radioed ahead and brought over here by the school nurse." He replied confusedly.
"Well then tell me where the medical room is so I can go and collect my daughter myself." Sam ordered.
"Miss Kent, I'm afraid you can't just take your daughter out of school without a valid reason."
"Its Mrs Kent. And oh goodness, I've just remembered she has an emergency dentist appointment and we're running late. Can you bring my daughter over please?" Sam demanded with a hint of sarcasm.
"Mrs Kent-"
"Mum?" Ella questioned as she came out of an office after hearing her mother's voice. "Mum please take me home, I can't do this." Ella pleaded.
"Come here." Sam smiled and her daughter ran into her mother's open arms when suddenly a woman in a nurses uniform came out of the same office that Ella had been in.
"Excuse me Mrs Kent but-"
"I'd like to talk to the head teacher." Sam said to the receptionist as the nurse came over. "Now." She barked and the receptionist got to their feet and walked off so Sam turned to the nurse. "How long have you been working here?" Sam asked as she kept an arm around her daughter who was trying to hide the back of her trousers.
"Three months." The nurse replied confidently.
"And are you aware that my daughter has Von Willebrand Disease?" Sam asked.
"Oh um, no. But I-"
"Then I think you'll understand why she is having a bit of a hard time at the moment." Sam snapped and as she turned around she was met with a short woman, with high heels and a floral dress and cardigan on.
"Ella? What's going on?" The head teacher asked with a smile.
"Miss Clarke." Sam greeted as she shook the woman's hand.
"I'm a very busy woman Mrs Kent so-"
"Well then can I schedule an appointment to talk to you when you have the time?" Sam sighed.
"Yes, of course. I'm free this afternoon from 3:30pm onwards." She nodded.
"Well then, Ella will not be attending the rest of this school day because she isn't well, and I shall see you later." Sam said briefly before she walked off with Ella who was rather embarrassed. She got into the car and Ella sat down on the black towel that Sam had put in the passenger seat just in case.
"Are we going to the hospital?" Ella asked finally.
"Nope. I'm taking you home; we need to talk about this a bit more and then I'm going to try and sort it out with the head teacher this afternoon." Sam replied as she pulled out of the car park.
"But how?"
Ella was sat nervously at the breakfast bar whilst her Dad prepared dinner and she awaited her mother's return from the meeting with the head teacher.
"I got your text, why didn't I have to walk home with Ella?" Daniel asked as he came in and dumped his school bag on the counter.
"Because she got sent home from school. She had a headache and you know what primary schools are like; they can't even give out paracetamol." Tom replied after glancing at a daughter.
"Oh, you feeling alright now?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, much better thanks." Ella forced a smile when she jumped as the front door opened.
"Daniel, can you go and tidy your pigsty of a bedroom?" Tom ordered so Daniel grabbed an apple and then plodded upstairs so that Sam, Ella and Tom could talk. "How did it go?" He asked.
"Pretty good, I think." Sam admitted. "Right, I've spoken to Miss Clarke about your disease and she's agreed that if you want to, you can take off the days when you're on. And if you do agree, then she'll tell your teachers that if you email them for work, they can send it to you but they won't have to know why. So, when you're on, you'll still have to come with me and Dad at work, but you can wear your own clothes, sit on a dark towel or something and do the work." Sam explained. "It's only an exceptional case and we'll have to sort something different out when you go to secondary school in September. But to be honest, I know you're going to think it's bad but there's not much else doctors can do for you about the heavy bleeding."
"It's okay, thank you." Ella said gratefully as she got up and hugged her mother.
"So you wanna take time off yeah?" Sam questioned.
"Definitely. Everyone was laughing at me when it happened and it was really embarrassing."
"I know, hopefully it won't happen again." Sam said sympathetically. "Tell you what, I want to start you on the pill." Sam stated.
"Isn't that what prostitutes use so that they don't get pregnant?" Ella asked confusedly.
"God, the rubbish you hear at school these days is unreal." Sam exclaimed.
"Basically, in your case, it'll hopefully lighten the bleeding, and it will help us to know when your periods are going to be exactly to the day, so that then we can prepare and give you clotting factor the day before you start." Tom explained. "It'll just be a little tablet you have to take every morning but we'll remind you to take it." He added.
"Thank you, by the way." Ella said quietly to her father.
"For what?" Tom asked confusedly.
"Mum said you were the one who noticed the sofa in the staffroom yesterday. And that you covered it up and then got mum for me."
"It's alright. I'm just glad I could help." Tom smiled.
"What's for dinner by the way?" Sam asked.
"My famous chicken korma and lamb rogan josh curries with pilau rice and naan bread." Tom stated proudly.
"Then how come I can't smell curry?" Sam stated confusedly.
"Because I've only just started preparing my ingredients. Calm down woman, give me a chance!" Tom laughed.
Coming up: A canine member of the family passes away and Sam is devastated at the loss. Tom tries to find a way to cheer her up when it comes around to her birthday and he books her a surprise.
Thanks for reading, please review :) Also, I know I've said about Sam injecting Ella before but I've only just realised about how clotting factor is given so please ignore my previous mistake :)