Getting Worse
"April, the sons for your patient in room 625 are here. They're in the room with her, they… wanna know what's going on." The nurse got a hold of AJ who was walking past the desk.
"Oh, ok." AJ nodded, "Thanks." She said, making her way to the room, walking on in with preparation of what she was going to say in her head, looking down at the notes, "Hi, I'm…" She lifted her head, noticing it was the man from the bar, her shoulders dropping a lot as she looked on with confusion, "Are you following me?" AJ shook her head as Punk raised his eyebrows.
"Uh… no, this is my mother." Punk shook his head, "W-What… what's going on?" He asked. They had both panicked when they got a call from the hospital, telling them their mother had what appeared to be a seizure and was getting some tests done. The last of his worries was the girl from the bar continuing to pop up in his life.
"Right… shall we talk outside?" AJ nodded, looking on at Gerry who was in a daze looking around the room. She didn't find it appropriate to discuss in front of her when she most likely didn't understand what was happening.
The boys followed AJ out of the room, looking to her for answers.
"Is it bad?" Dean asked worriedly.
"No… no, her scans came back as normal so that's really good." AJ nodded, "It isn't uncommon for people with dementia to take a seizure. It's more common with Alzheimer's and vascular dementia." She said, "We're gonna keep her in overnight for observation, I'll do some more tests with her in the morning and then she should be good to go." She nodded to them.
"How did it happen?" Punk asked her.
"Says here it was during breakfast this morning. Patients with dementia can also suffer from what's called absent seizures. To you or I it just looks like they're behaving normally but they're really having a seizure in the brain." AJ said, "I'm sure the care workers at the home she's in will keep a close eye on her over the next few days." She nodded to them.
"So she'll be ok?" Dean confirmed.
"Yeah." AJ nodded, "She uh… she asked me to call her husband but I couldn't find him on her details so-"
"Cause he's dead." Dean said bluntly, "She's got dementia." He reminded her.
"Right." AJ nodded, watching as Dean walk back into the room to see his mother whilst Punk stayed outside with AJ, "So are you… Phil or Dean?" She asked him.
"I'm Phil." He nodded, "Thank you for taking care of her. The last time she was at the hospital, it was a while back, she'd fallen and broken her wrist, she wasn't particularly cooperative with the hospital staff then."
"She's been fine." AJ assured him, "And don't worry, us staff understand." She nodded to him.
"So you're a doctor here?" Punk asked as she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm on residency." She told him, "Neurology."
"Oh, so this is your field." Punk nodded as she laughed a little.
"Hopefully one day it will be. I'm kinda like an intern." She explained, "Although… I am working the floor way more than my attending." She whispered to him as he chuckled.
"It's how you learn, I guess." Punk said as she nodded, "You gotta have brains to work here." He thought to himself, looking around at the busy environment.
"Some, yeah." AJ said modestly as he looked at her. There was just something about her. He couldn't describe it. Her aura was cool yet frantic at the same time. She just seemed like the type of person everyone wanted to be around. And man was she beautiful.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" He asked her before she took off.
"You just did." AJ nodded as he smiled a little, "Sure."
"How bad can this get?" He asked, "I mean she already doesn't know who we are, she thinks my dad is still alive." He said, "Once her memory is gone does it… never come back?" He wondered.
"It can." AJ nodded, "It can come and go for sure. One day she might know your face and another she might not." She said as he nodded, "Believe me, I know it sucks."
"Yeah?" Punk asked her.
"I see it a lot." AJ nodded, "But just know it's… it's hurting you more than it's hurting her. Families try take comfort in that."
"Yeah." Punk agreed, "Well thanks. I guess we kinda got off to a weird start." He laughed a little.
"Well I normally take a few days to forgive someone so… I think I've forgave you." She said.
"I appreciate that." Punk smiled as she looked up at him, nodding, not realising she was staring for so long, deep into his eyes.
"Ok." She looked away, shocked at herself for staring for as long as she did, "I got patients to see." She excused herself, walking off as Punk watched her.
He walked back into the room where his mother was chatting to Dean. She had no idea she was in hospital or why she was in hospital, and it was extremely hard to see her this way and in this setting.
"I didn't know that chick was a nurse." Dean said, later that night, popping a beer open in the kitchen of their apartment.
"She's a doctor." Punk corrected, "I told you, I bumped into her the day after when I was handing in a report."
"Oh, yeah." Dean remembered.
"At least the scans showed up ok." Punk nodded positively.
"Yeah." Dean sighed, sitting down at the table, "Man, she had no clue she was even in hospital. You'd think we'd start getting used to her being like this but… it's impossible." He shook his head as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, I know." Punk said, "It just feels like it's gotten really bad all of a sudden. I mean there's no good days. At least before she'd recognise us most days." Punk thought to himself as Dean nodded.
"It's a cruel fucking world, huh?" Dean nodded.
"What time did your friend leave last night?" Punk asked him.
"I have no idea." Dean shook his head.
"I'd advise not to sleep with girls who are probably a little traumatised from a fire in their house. Some may say that's… taking advantage." Punk said.
"Dude, she was all over me." Dean put his hands up, "Did the dog keep you company?" He smiled a little.
"Shut up." Punk shook his head as Dean chuckled.
"She was fine when she came here. She said she would stay with her mom for however long it took to fix the house up." Dean said.
"Oh, are you planning to see her again?" Punk asked.
"No." Dean scoffed, "I had to make some sort of conversation, didn't I?" He shrugged.
"You're the worst." Punk rolled his eyes.
"You're just jealous. Your crabby ass needs to get laid." Dean nodded.
"Yeah, I know." Punk shook his head, "I just wanna go to bed." He said, "I got a 6am start tomorrow." He sighed.
"You think mom will be taken back to the home tomorrow morning?" Dean asked.
"Yeah if everything goes ok." Punk nodded, "She looked bright enough and she didn't feel sick or anything so…" Punk shrugged.
"I'll stop by on my lunch break to make sure she's settled back in ok. Remember last time she was in hospital and went back to the home? It was like she had a mental breakdown." He shook his head as Punk nodded.
"Yeah, I remember." Punk said, "She seems a lot more calmer this time, though. Try not to worry." He said brotherly as Dean nodded, "Alright, I'm going to bed. I'll see you whenever tomorrow."
"Ok, man." Dean nodded, watching as his brother left the kitchen and headed to his room.
"Man, I prepped a patient today for brain surgery. You wanna know how many metastatic tumours he had?" AJ asked Jason, taking a pop from the fridge whilst he sat at the table.
"How many?" Jason asked.
"4." AJ shook her head, "I had never seen anything like it. The CT scan was just insane." AJ shook her head.
"Is there even any point in doing surgery for that?" Jason questioned.
"It's what the patient wanted." AJ nodded, "With successful surgery and chemotherapy, radiotherapy, there's a chance he has a few years. But… multiple tumours is a tough surgery. Sometimes they can only get certain parts." AJ said.
"So you had a busy day?" Jason asked her as she nodded.
"Always." AJ nodded, "And I called my mom, I'm gonna have lunch with her next week."
"Oh, that's good." Jason smiled, "I was thinking we could start hunting for a wedding venue next week too. I'm sure your mom will be glad to hear that." He laughed a little.
"Oh, yeah of course." AJ nodded, "How was your day?" She smiled, sitting down at the table, leaning over and pecking his lips.
"It was good." Jason nodded, "Sold the house."
"Oh, great." AJ smiled. She didn't know the ins and outs of his job, other than he bought and sold property, and worked with sales. Just like he didn't really know much about her job.
"Yeah, and I got the higher offer from the buyers too." Jason said happily.
"Good job, babe." AJ smiled proudly, "Think I'm gonna take a shower and order pizza." She thought to herself, sipping on her soda.
"Count me in." Jason nodded.
"For the shower or for the pizza?" AJ grinned.
"The pizza." He chuckled, "I gotta finish up some work here." He told her as she nodded.
"Ok." AJ smiled, leaning over and pecking his lips, "My hard worker."
"Please, you save lives." Jason scoffed.
"Well…" AJ smiled modestly.
"Go on." He nodded with a smile as she took her coat and left the kitchen to go take a shower.
