Page 27 of Prognosis Do Over

Only one more week.

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Lou had finished sortingthrough the charts, and was contemplating going back to Ward Two without even telling Will, when a very familiar wave of nausea struck. She checked her pocket for Fruit Tingles, but wasn’t surprised to find none. She had left them on her desk. Her hand started to shake, and she knew if she didn’t get something sweet into her mouth she was going to vomit. Or faint. Or possibly both.

Her wobbly legs kicked into action. Maybe Lydia had a stash in the clinic office? God knew she had them everywhere else Lou was likely to be in the entire hospital.

Will was still writing in a chart when she opened the door.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked, as he quickly shifted a leg to save it from being amputated by her swift opening of a desk drawer.

She ignored him, her single-minded pursuit of sugar making her oblivious to everything.

‘Lou, this cold shoulder thing is getting a bit ridiculous, don’t you think?’

Her hand shook as she searched through all three drawers on one side, then moved around Will to hunt through the drawers on the other side. She could feel sweat beading on her upper lip at the effort it took to concentrate on not vomiting. She could hear his voice, but the words weren’t registering.

‘Lou!’ he said, grabbing her arm. ‘For God’s sake, what are you looking for?’

She straightened up and felt the world tilt. ‘Some sugar, okay? For God’s sake just shut up for a minute,’ she snapped.

‘Sugar? What the hell—?’

Lou didn’t hear the rest of what he said. Her vision blackened from the outside edges in, and a loud ringing in her ears obliterated everything coming from his mouth. She could see his lips moving, but that was it. And then it all went black, and she could feel herself letting go and falling, falling, falling.

Will caught her as she slumped against him. ‘Lou? Lou!’ he said, shaking her slightly, his heart thundering in his chest as at least six worst-case scenarios stormed through his head. He swept her up in his arms and placed her on the examination couch in the office. Even seven months pregnant and all baby she weighed less than some people pumped at the gym.

‘Lou?’ he said again, shaking her shoulder, pulling the BP cuff off the wall and almost sagging in relief when he heard a faint murmur escape her lips.

Her blood pressure was seventy-five on forty-five. The fist that had rammed into his gut and squeezed his stomach relaxed its hold. Hypotensive vagal episode. Probably exacerbated by a brief dip in her sugar levels.

For an awful moment, despite all his medical training, he’d thought she had stopped breathing, and he never wanted to go through that blind dread again as long as he lived.

Lou’s eyes fluttered open and shut a couple of times, and Will fell even more in love. ‘Lou?’ he said again, stroking her forehead gently, giving his heart rate time to settle.

‘Will?’ she murmured. Lou took a moment for her eyes to focus. Will and the room swam before her, and it was a full minute before her confusion cleared and her recall returned. ‘Oh, God, what happened? Did I faint?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes, you did. You scared the hell out of me.’

She had?Lou moved, trying to sit up and flailing about like a beached whale. Her low sugar level had left her feeling irritable. ‘Are you just going to watch me get nowhere or help?’ she grumbled.

Will snapped out of his grateful stupor, locking forearms with her and pulling her upright slowly. ‘Easy,’ he said. ‘You’re quite hypotensive.’

The room swam again, and she kept hold of his arm as she struggled to focus. A fresh wave of nausea hit as her surroundings became clear and sharp again.

‘You okay?’

She shook her head, her arms and legs shaking. ‘I need to eat something. Now. The sweeter the better.’

‘I have some Tic-Tacs,’ he said, fishing them out of his pocket.

‘Perfect,’ she said, snatching them out of his hands, flipping the lid, opening her mouth and pouring in half of the container. The little bullets of sugar practically dissolved on her tongue, and she shut her eyes as the spearmint flavour exploded in her mouth — and, more importantly, revived her flagging blood glucose, dispelling her trembling and nausea in one magical minute.

She opened her eyes as the last one melted on her tongue, to find him looking at her.

‘Better?’ he asked.

She sighed heavily as the residual wooziness subsided. ‘Much.’ She handed him back his Tic-Tacs.

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