Playing Doctor

"Ma'am, your pulse is speeding up, can you talk to me? What are you feeling?"

"S-sorry," Aurelia whispered, "nerves… worrying about my job…"

The man nodded. "I understand, I can assure you that Ms. Hoffman, the pretty blonde woman? She's your boss, right? Well, she was really concerned that we take good care of you. She also said to tell you not to worry, just to rest and get better. Oh, and that she'll be by to see you later, assuming you're still at the hospital."

Aurelia swallowed hard but nodded. "Thank you."

The ambulance came to a stop and then the back doors of the vehicle opened. "Let's get you in there, so you can get better."

They lifted her down and wheeled her through the glass doors of the emergency room. A doctor and a couple of nurses or orderlies arrived to greet her. They spoke in quiet tones with the EMTs and then they wheeled her back to a curtained alcove where they transferred her to the bed in there.

"I'll just set your purse here with you. Good luck, Ms. Carson." The EMT smiled at her and then disappeared through the curtain.

"He's a cute one, isn't he?" the nurse said as she began setting things out.

"I guess?" Aurelia answered. The male EMT was probably in his mid-twenties, a bit too young for her. "Probably too young for me though," she continued.

"Who? Mark? He's twenty-five."

"Then definitely too young."

The nurse, who's name was Jane, proceeded to take her temperature, blood pressure and oxygen levels, and then had her change into a hospital gown. She started an IV once Aurelia had changed and sat on the bed again. The nurse then took down all of Aurelia's insurance information and left her on her own for a little bit. Aurelia bit her lip as she lay there listening to the staff moving about other cubby areas talking to and treating different patients. Two minutes later the curtain was pulled back and a woman in blue scrubs and a white lab coat strode in.

"Ms. Carson?"

Aurelia nodded. "Yes."

"I'm Dr. Song. I understand you've been experiencing chest pains for quite some time now?"

"Yes, for a few weeks, maybe a little more than a month?"

"You haven't had any tests done?" She flipped through the paperwork on the chart.

"No… um… I haven't had insurance… I have it now… and I went to Urgent Care, but they prescribed anti-anxiety medicine. Said it was stress…"

Dr. Song nodded. "Could still be that, but why don't we go do a few tests and see exactly what is going on in that chest of yours, sound good?"

Aurelia nodded.

"Okay, just hang tight right here for a bit while we finish getting things set up, and we'll come get you when it's all ready." She rose and patted Aurelia's leg with a smile.

Aurelia nodded again.

Twenty minutes later the nurse returned, and then they wheeled her, bed and all, to get chest x-rays, an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and then finally an ultrasound of her heart. It took hours. Finally, they wheeled her into an actual hospital room.

"Wait, what are we doing here? Don't I need to go back down to the ER?" she asked the nursing assistant who was pushing her bed into place. It wasn't the same bed she'd been in down in the ER, they'd switched it out to a larger one in between one of the tests.

"No, you're being admitted."

"But I can't be admitted," Aurelia sputtered, "I have to go back to work… I—"

"Your doctor will be in shortly; you can talk to them about it." The nursing assistant adjusted a few more things, then took her clothes and her purse and set them on the recliner in the room. "Here's the tv remote, we don't really want you using your cell phone, so if you need to make a call, just dial nine and then the number. Anything else you need right now?" she asked.

"No." Aurelia frowned and took the offered tv remote.

"Just rest for now. Someone will be in to talk to you soon."

Sighing, Aurelia watched her leave, cracking the door as she went. She leaned back against the pillows feeling suddenly exhausted. She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. A little while later, the door opened, and Dr. Song entered the room.

Aurelia pushed herself up in the bed, coming more fully awake.

"Did I catch you sleeping?" She smiled, tucking her short straight black hair behind her ear.

"I guess I was a little tired."

"I can imagine you haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep, have you."

"Not really."

"Well. I've got your test results back." She sat down on a circular spinning chair and maneuvered over to the bed. "I want to have some blood work done as well, but I think I know what's going on. To be sure though, I want to call in one of our specialists, Dr. West. He's one of our cardiologists here at White Plains. He's also got his own practice. I've already contacted him, and he'll be here soon."