Page 21 of Colby
While they were boxing up his pizza with his brother’s order, they made their way to his home.Lance was going to pick him up and take him to their home, but he wanted to change out of his scrubs, something that he wore to work daily, and put on some nicer clothing.As he was coming out of his house in favor of going to Lance and Georgie’s, his house phone rang.
“Doctor Tucker?This is the switchboard for the firm that you work with.There has been an emergency going on at the hospital with one of your patients.Mr.Toby has had a fall and would like you to be there with him.”He said that he wasn’t on call, but he’d go to see him.“Thank you, sir.The doctor on duty tonight said to give you a call since Mr.Toby is one of yours.”
That’s not how being on call worked, but he didn’t say anything to her.Instead, he grabbed a slice of pizza and went back to change clothes again.He knew Mr.Toby was an elderly man in his late eighties and worried for him.Even though he was a pediatrician, he had treated the man while in med school, and he had been calling him in every time he was in the hospital.He was the only person over thirteen that he saw, and he loved the elderly gentleman.
Getting to the hospital, Kayce wasn’t surprised to find him in the emergency department.He’d taken a tumble, he’d been told, and had banged up his leg and head.The man was a mess when he was able to see him.Taking the elderly man’s hand into his, he wasn’t happy with the weakness of his grip.
“I told you about those steps, didn’t I?”He said that he was showing off to his granddaughter.“See what that got you?A messed-up head trauma and a banged-up knee.What am I going to do with you?”
“Roll me into a grave and be done with me.”He said he’d never do that; he was his best patient.“Best or not, I’m afraid I’ve done myself in this time.Hurt myself bad.”He said he’d order some tests after examining him.“My granddaughter would have my head if she weren’t so worried about me.Durn near ran her down when I was falling, too.”
Mr.Toby started crying, and it tore at his heart.Waiting for him to regain his composure, he held his hand, checking his pulse while he was at it.Even for as upset as he was, his heart rate was a little slow.Instead of asking about the fall, which he could tell had taken a great deal out of Mr.Toby,he asked about his granddaughter.
“She’s a might mad at me right now, you understand.I know you are, too.But she’s come to visit me for a week and I had to go and fall down like a durned old fool.”Kayce examined Mr.Toby and declared that he did indeed need some tests run.In addition to a CT scan, he wanted him to have some bloodwork done as well.“She’ll be around here soon.My Molly had to park the car someplace and then come in.”
“I’m going to start on the tests now, Mr.Toby.That way, we can get some answers about why you fell.”After asking him a series of questions, he said that he had blacked out a little bit when he’d hit his head.That wasn’t what he wanted to hear about him, so he ordered a couple of more tests to be run.“I’ll talk to someone when you get back.All right.Is your granddaughter old enough to get information about your health?”
“She’s darn near twenty-five years old, so I’d guess she is.”He didn’t make a joke about her age, but had said it like it was a question whether or not she was.Kayce said that he’d talk to her and him when he got back from the tests.He was being wheeled out of the room for the first set of tests to be run, just as someone came into it.Kayce paused long enough to tell the young woman that he was headed for tests and would be back shortly.Then he went to put in the orders that would get Mr.Toby to feeling better.
~*~
Molly was frantically worried about her Pop-Pop.Seeing him fall down the stairs like he had, had aged her fifty years, she thought.Then, when she’d called for an ambulance, he’d told her that he wanted to die.That he was just too old to be around anymore.It broke her heart that he thought that way, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
She paced the little room he’d been in while he was gone getting tests run, and wondered what she’d do without him around anymore.It had been something that she’d been thinking about forever.He was all she had in the world and didn’t want to lose him just yet.
But he was in his eighties, and she knew that the fact that he’d made it this long was a miracle.He’d lost his wife when they’d been in their fifties, and it broke her heart that Grannie wasn’t around, too.But to lose him now would be devastating to her.There was no one else that she cared for as much as she did the old man.
Her father was around, she supposed, but she didn’t care for him at all.Then there were her two brothers, who were younger than her.Seth and Ryan were a pain in her ass whenever they were around, and she couldn’t stand them either.Since she’d gotten older and was now in the service, they didn’t bother her so much now, but her father did, and that was about as bad as it got, she thought.
She’d been on leave since yesterday, and then her Pop-Pop had fallen today.The poor old man had beaten himself up, too.Molly had ten more days to stay in town before she had to leave again, and she knew she was going to miss visiting with her Pop-Pop unless she stayed in the hospital with him.She loved him very much.
“Miss, I was asked to tell you to go and get you something to eat as Mr.Toby is going to be a little while longer.”She said she’d wait for him.“All right, but it might be another hour before he gets his scan.They’re backed up a great deal.”
“Thank you for telling me.I’ll wait for him.I don’t want him to think that he can fob me off so quickly as sending me to get something to eat.I have an idea he meant for me to go home and not to return.”The nurse laughed and said that was what he’d said too.“I thought as much.He can be a stinker when he wants to be.”
Molly only had about six months until she was getting out of the service.She’d done her time so that she could get a college education and then be able to better herself.Her plan had been to become a doctor, but the thought of being a nurse appealed to her more.She didn’t want the stuffiness of becoming what some doctors did when they got out of college.
When her Pop-Pop returned, he was a little groggy.Asking him what he’d been given didn’t help her any, so she waited for someone to come and tell her.That was another long wait while Pop-Pop dozed off and on for the next couple of hours.They did come and check on him a couple of times, but they were waiting on the doctor to tell them what to do next.
Finally showing up, the doctor looked like he’d taken a good one to the face.His nose had been bleeding, there was still a bit of blood on his nose, and his lip had two stitches in it.She asked him what had happened, and he just looked at her like she was some kind of germ under a microscope.Molly wanted to hit him again.
“I fell into someone’s fist.”She asked him how that had happened, and he didn’t look like he wanted to tell her.“A combative patient came in, and they thought that I’d have better luck at holding him down until they could get some medication into his system.”
“That sounds dangerous.Why would they think you’d be able to do that when they have bigger men working here?”She really didn’t care but was curious enough to ask questions to keep her nerves from taking over, worrying about her Pop-Pop.“I mean, you’re in good shape and all, but you don’t strike me as a man who likes to get too involved in what his patients want from him.”
“What the hell does that mean?”She shrugged and said her Pop-Pop had been waiting for him for over three hours now.“And I told you I was asked to help out with someone else.Or would you have rather he’d gotten away from the police and gone on a rampage around the hospital killing whomever he came in contact with?That would include your Pop-Pop, too.”
“I didn’t know that.”He said that she should never assume anything about him when it came to his job.“I’m sorry, and you’re right.I shouldn’t have thought that you were out fucking around while my Pop-Pop was suffering.Though it looks like someone gave him something for pain.Did you do that?”
He didn’t answer her but did talk to her grandfather.Pop-Pop was still groggy, but he was able to answer the questions that the doctor put to him.As he laid there, she could tell then that he was getting treatment.The doctor was also kind and calm with him, nothing like he’d been with her.Not that she didn’t deserve it, she’d been nasty with him, but she was worried, and he should have taken that into consideration.
“You have a concussion, Mr.Toby.And you’ve bruised your ankle.I want you to stay here for a couple of days to make sure that you can get the medication you need.Also, we’ll be able to keep a good eye on those cuts you have on your head while we’re at it.”Pop-Pop told him that he’d be fine when he got home, as his granddaughter was there now.“I’d rather you stay with us for those two days just to keep an eye on you.I’d hate to have sent you home, and you have to come back because of some kind of infection or something worse.”
“What do you think, Molly?You didn’t come to see me while I was in the hospital, now did you?Would you do this old man a favor and come see me while I’m in here?”She said, of course, she would; he was the reason she was home in the first place.“All right then, doc.I’ll stay here, and I promise not to make too much of a fuss because I’m missing time with my girl here.She’s all I’ve got myself in the whole world since my missus has passed on.”
“Pop-Pop, you have a son and two grandsons.What if they were to show up and want to see you?What would you do?”He said he’d tell them to go home.“Well, I would, too, I guess.They don’t have a great deal to do with you.But they are a part of your family.”
“True.”They put him in a room with a bigger bed.Pop-Pop wasn’t a big man, but he did like to spread out when he was in pain.She got a good look at his ankle while they were moving him and couldn’t believe that he hadn’t broken it.
