Chapter 2, enjoy!
Warning: Potty mouths
Disclaimer in chapter 1
Enjoy, please review? owo
Nurse Me!
Chapter 2
"It's been too long since I've been in a pair of scrubs," Stephanie said, smoothing out sky blue scrubs with Winnie-The-Pooh pictures on it, "They sure have made them look much better, since my time as a nurse."
"I can't believe Joe let you go back to working again, just like that," Stephanie's close friend, Mary Lou said as Stephanie picked out several more scrubs, "You two must have gotten into a huge fight."
"Not really, but we almost did," Stephanie said, placing the chosen scrubs in her basket, "I reminded Joe that I loved working as nurse and that I was going to go back to being a nurse. He doesn't own me, nor am I a child."
"True," Mary Lou said, helping Stephanie pick out bottoms for the scrubs she got, "Just don't fall in love with some hot sexy doctor."
"That only happens on shows, May Lou," Stephanie said, turning to her friend, "Besides, I'm happy with Joe, and I'll be too busy dealing with scared children than with sexy doctors."
"So, you're going to be co-head nurse for the serious illness ward," Mary Lou said, skimming through pink scrubs, "What's the serious illness ward?"
"It's the area of the hospital where children with cancers and diseases are housed," Stephanie said, looking over to Mary Lou, "It's in the Cancer Ward, but it's a different section of it, it's the section where, in a sense, it's a halfway hospice, these are the children who are on the last resort treatment, and they either survive or die from their illnesses."
"That's so sad," Mary Lou said, in a soft voice, her eyes bright, "Those poor children, and their parents…my god, to go through something like that, I wouldn't know what to do if one of the boys got that sick."
"I know," Stephanie said softly, thinking about her nieces, "I wonder how those parents deal with something that serious."
"Lots of outside help, I suppose," Mary Lou said, gazing at the shoes that lined the walls, "Oh, get the ballet flats."
"I need something with support," Stephanie commented, turning to Mary Lou, "I'll get the clogs with memory foam in them."
"How did you apply for that spot?" Mary Lou asked, sitting beside Stephanie as the woman tried out several different pairs of shoes, "I didn't know you had any experience with cancer."
"I took care of Joe's cousin when he had stage 4 lung cancer, gave him his chemo and everything," Stephanie said, looking down at the shows on her feet, "The head nurse really liked that on my resume, besides, I wanted to do something else, besides E.R nursing, and these children need all the help they can get."
"True," Mary Lou said, turning to Stephanie, "How are you going to break the news to your mother?"
Stephanie winced and took off the nursing clogs. Her mother believed that once married, a woman should stay at home, pop out a few babies and keep house. She had been elated that Stephanie and Joe wedded, and Stephanie stopped working, but she wouldn't be too happy to hear about Stephanie going back to work. She would hound Stephanie all day and night.
"Well, tell you what, Mar, we're not going to tell her, alright?" Stephanie said, getting up and going to pay for her items, "If she doesn't know, it won't kill her that much!"
"She's bound to find out about your job," Mary Lou said, crossing her arms and looking at Stephanie, "You know how the 'Burg is."
"I know, but I'm hoping she won't find out for at least a few days," Stephanie sighed, giving the store clerk her credit card, "I start in a few days, I want a few days of peace, yes?"
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
The waiting room to Riverwood Pediatrics was partially filled with mothers holding sick toddlers and a one father sitting beside his teenage daughter, letting her fill out the forms for her doctor's appointment. It was a blustery cool November morning that had the girl sitting beside her father shivering, whenever the front door to the doctor's office opened.
"Do you want to switch seats with me?" Her father asked, earning a head shake, "Alright then, shiver for as long as you want to, Bella."
"Be quiet, Papi," The girl said, sticking her tongue out at her father before looking down at the forms, "Let's see, name: Heidi Manoso, date of birth: June 10th 1999, age 15, 5'2, 115 pounds, black hair and amber eyes…Father is Carlos Manoso, age 33, here, Papi, you fill out the rest, I don't know the other things."
Carlos Manoso plucked the clipboard from his child's hands and filled out the rest of the information sheet, before getting up and returning it to the receptionist at the desk. He walked over to Heidi and said, "Bella, do you still have a headache?"
"Yeah, but it's not as bad," Heidi said, closing her eyes and leaning against her father, "I just want to go back home and go to sleep."
"You can, once we're done here," Carlos said, running his hand over his child's head, "You look awful, you slept a good 14 hours yesterday, though I can hardly tell, you look like you haven't slept at all."
"It's just the headaches," Heidi said, with a frown, as the side door that led to the doctor's office opened and a woman appeared.
"Manoso," She said, smiling kindly as the father daughter duo stood up, "Come on, let's go get your vitals and then Dr. Bru will see you."
"Wow, Papi," Heidi said, after she was weighed and her blood pressure was taken, "Unlike the women in the waiting room, the nurse isn't stumbling around you."
"Bella!" Carlos said, as Heidi climbed on the hospital bed and laid back on it, "That wasn't-your nose is bleeding again."
Carlos got up and gave his child a tissue so that she could wipe up the blood from her nose try to get the blood off her pink sweater. Heidi sighed and said, "This is getting ridiculous, can the air get wetter or something?"
"It's a humid day, Bella," Carlos said, sitting beside his child in the only chair in the office, "We'll get those nosebleeds checked out too, while we're here."
They didn't have to wait long for Dr. Bru, a 40 something year old woman, with soft brown hair and bright green eyes. She shook Carlos's hand and turned to Heidi saying, "So, Miss. Manoso, you've got a bad headache?"
"Mhmm," The girl said, rubbing her temple and looking at the woman, as she went to get an eye light, "And I've been getting nosebleeds too."
"Well now, your chart says you moved up from Miami, it could be a change of environment," Dr. Bru said, opening one of Heidi's eyes and looking at her pupils, "Slightly dilated, can you tell me how long you've had this headache?"
:Since the night before last, it got worse at school, yesterday," Heidi said, after Dr. Bru checked out her ears, "But, before that, I was getting small minor headaches."
"How many minor headaches were you getting?" The doctor asked kindly, earning a shrug from Heidi.
"Do you want how many in a week or something?" Heidi asked, as the doctor sat down on the doctor's stool and got out her notepad, "Well, about two months ago, it was maybe 5 headaches a week, now it's like 19 minor headaches and at least 5 major ones."
"A week?" Dr. Bru asked, earning a head nod, "How long do the major ones last for?"
"Sometimes only a few moments, but this one has lasted the longest, two days," Heidi said, rubbing her temples, "And I've started to get nosebleeds a lot too."
"I see," Dr. Bru said, jotting something down before asking, "Have you been having problems sleeping, or are you getting a lot of sleep?"
"I get a lot of sleep, but sometimes, it feels as though I don't get enough if it," Heidi said, with a causal shrug, "Papi said I slept 14 hours straight last night, but it doesn't feel like it."
"Mhmm," Dr. Bru said, before she got out her prescription pad and said, "I'll write you a prescription for medicine that help migraines, take half a pill for the minor headaches, and a whole pill for the big ones, okay? You can go back to school next week, I know you'll be excited about lounging around for a few days.""
"Okay," Heidi said, as Dr. Bru gave the prescription to her father, "But what about the nosebleeds?"
"Keep watch of them, and if they last longer than five minutes, your father should call me,' Dr. Bru said, patting Heidi's shoulder, "Now, you can make your way back to the waiting room, while I go talk to your father."
Heidi nodded her head and slid off the examining bed, walking out the office. Dr. Bru closed the door softly and said, "Mr. Manoso, I'm going to send a referral over to the Trenton's Children Hospital for Heidi to get an MRI of her head done. Now, I noticed that you put down that your family has a history of getting cancer."
"Some of her family members on her mother's side have battled cancer," Carlos said with a nod, "So did her mother, but, her cancer was aggressive and she didn't survive it."
"Yes, you put that down that her mother died from stage four ovarian cancer," Dr. Bru said softly, looking down at Heidi's chart, "You've done a cancer screening on Heidi two years ago, I would tell you to do another one, but, and I really don't want to say this, Mr. Carlos, it may be too late."
"Too late, but…the last screening came back negative, she was healthy as an ox," Carlos said.
"Which is why I want you to take her to the hospital and get her MRI done, do it on Friday, I'll call right now, to get you an emergency appointment," Dr. Bru said, placing a hand on Carlos's shoulder, "They'll get down to the bottom of this, but from what she told me, this does look like some form of illness."
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"Good Morning, Ms. Morelli," Claudia Sylvan, head nurse of the serious illness ward, chirped, walking over to Stephanie, "I like the scrubs! Very cute now, before we jump right in and head over to the nurses' station, I need for you to fill out these tax forms and emergency contact forms, it should only take a moment of your time, you can do that in your office, which is waiting for you to decorate!"
Stephanie smiled and shook the perky woman's hand before she was led over to her office, which was right beside Claudia's office. Claudia smiled and said, "Oh, I like to put candy in bowls for the children in the serious illness ward, I know they like the sweets and, heaven knows, they could use the sweet escape."
Stephanie nodded her head and said, "I understand that, it must be tough on them, you must have a good team here in this ward."
"Oh yes we do, my nurses, I mean, our nurses are dedicated to making sure that our charges are comfortable and have a nice stay with us," Claudia said to Stephanie, "They're going to love you, Stephanie, now, I'll be back soon to get you and take you on a tour."
Stephanie smiled and waved Claudia out, before she sat down in the soft office chair and looked around. Her office wasn't the biggest one, but it wasn't one of the smallest ones either. There was only an office desk, a computer on said desk, the office chair she sat in and two chairs across from it. She would need to decorate this room, no matter how little she would be in it. She didn't want the children to feel as though they were unwelcomed. Stephanie was mildly surprise to see that she had a window that over looked the hospital's garden and playground. She had a feeling she would like it here.
Stephanie placed her purse in the drawer that was built into the desk, took out a pen and began to fill out forms. It wasn't hard to fill the forms out, just basic things that Stephanie could do in her sleep. She was so engrossed in filling out the forms that she jumped in her seat, at the sound of someone coughing. Stephanie looked up and saw a boy, maybe 15 or 16, standing in the middle of her office doorway, looking at her. He was a blond haired boy, with tired blue eyes and a built frame. He must be a patient because he was dressed in a pair of sweats, a ratty looking t-shirt and a pair of slippers and his blond hair was thinning out from possible cancer treatment. Also, he had a hospital bracelet on as well and a IV catheter tape to his wrist. The boy crossed his arms, gave Stephanie a look and said, "You're the new co-head nurse."
"That I am," Stephanie said with a smile, getting up from her chair and walking over to the boy, "Ms. Stephanie Morelli, at your service!"
The boy rolled his eyes and said, "Shit, you must be huffing the same paint as Claudia, meh, I'll give you two weeks, let's see if you can handle the Kindergarten room, after they had their round of chemo."
Stephanie blinked and said, "Excuse me?"
"I take it back," The boy said, shaking his head, "I'll give you a week, and FYI; Blue room likes Skittles and Starburst, not that nasty ass tootsie rolls, what are we, kindergartners?"
The boy chuckled at Stephanie's confounded look and then walked off down the hall. Stephanie blinked again, looking out her office door at the boy's retreating back, "What in the hell was that?"
"Are you done, Stephanie?" Claudia asked, walking over to Stephanie's office, "Good, now I can take you over to the nurse's station and you can meet the nurses and some of the doctor's! They're going to just love you, Stephanie!"
"Okay?" Stephanie said, as Claudia led her down the hall. Stephanie couldn't help but file what the boy told her; Skittles and Starbursts, got it.
TBC….
Well, how do you like it, it's a slow start but Nurse Stephanie needs to get settled in! Please leave a review, they can light a fire under my ass, when it comes to writing!