FicWad

Emily found it quite hard to sleep in the emergency department that night. She tossed and turned for what seemed like forever and could not find a comfortable position to lie in. There were also other reasons why she couldn’t sleep at all, firstly there was the fact that the emergency department had its lights on all night and all of the doctors, nurses and patients were quite loud. Then it was also hard to sleep in a hospital, as it was such a foreign environment, and lastly Emily kept on thinking back to those few moments before Patrick had left, when he had asked her out. She hadn’t thought that he would have asked her out so quickly, let alone even wanted to ask her out, and Emily was really excited about the fact that after she got out of the hospital, that she could go out on a date with Patrick.

Finally in the early hours of the morning, Emily managed to drift off to sleep, but it wasn’t long before she was awoken by a nurse wanting to do another round of obs on her. Emily groaned as the nurse wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm and received a sympathetic look from the nurse.
“I hate having to wake patients up,” the nurse commented, as she waited for a reading from the blood pressure monitor, “But it’s my job.”
Emily nodded a little, “I understand, it’s just I only went to sleep about twenty minutes ago.”
The nurse took off the blood pressure cuff and sighed, “How about some sleeping tablets? I can get the doctor to write some up for you?”
Emily contemplated this and finally decided that it was best to accept the tablets, as without them she probably would never get back to sleep. The nurse exited the cubicle to find the doctor and get the tablets.
Shortly after she returned with the medication and Emily took it quickly before the nurse left her once again. Emily slowly felt the tablets kick in as she began to feel drowsy and soon she was asleep once more.

“Morning sunshine!” A voice said to Emily. She opened her eyes to see Sarah standing over her.
“What time is it?” Emily asked rubbing her eyes as she tried to adjust to that harsh hospital light.
“It’s nine o’clock Em and they’re giving out breakfast…and I haven’t had any so can I have some of yours?!”
Suddenly the cubicle curtain opened and Liz came in, “Sarah! I told you not to say that,” she said walking up to her daughter.
Emily grinned, “Nah, it’s fine Liz, I’m not too hungry anyway.”
“But you have to eat something,” Liz said in a concerned voice as she sat on the side of the bed.
“I will, promise, did you get in contact with mum and dad?” Emily asked. That was another thing she had been thinking about before falling asleep. Emily really didn’t want her parents to know about what had happened because it was probably nothing and she didn’t want them to be worried. They had told her before she had left to come to the US, that if she were to get sick, they would be on the first flight there. Emily didn’t want them to have to come half way around the world for nothing, which she hoped her sickness was.
“Yes I did get in contact with them and they’re very concerned,” Liz said quietly.
“They’re staying in Australia right?” Emily said wide-eyed.
“Yes, they are for now, I’ll update them later on, if a doctor tells us what’s wrong,” she said with a hint of exasperation in her voice.
Emily relaxed knowing that her parents weren’t paying a fortune to get here; money had been a little tight lately. Just as if it had been on cue after what Liz had said, the doctor from last night came bursting into the cubicle to tell Emily, Sarah and Liz the news on Emily’s health.

The doctor came around the side of Emily’s bed and rested his clipboard next to Emily before pulling up a chair to sit on.
“So Miss Roberts,” he said after sitting down, “The tests have shown us what’s going on with you.”
“Bad news?” Emily asked as a sudden wave of fear came over her, “Because I’ve been alright since I woke up,” she added as if to convince herself everything was alright. Sarah came and sat close to Emily putting her arm around her for support; emotionally and physically too.
“Well not entirely,” the doctor said adjusting his glasses, “It seems as if you have had a mild form of tacchycardia which was shown on the ECG we did last night and this corresponds to high blood pressure monitored and low potassium levels found in your blood.”
“In English please?” Sarah blurted out and got a scornful look from Liz.
The doctor laughed, “Well it means that your heart has been beating a little fast and irregularly, and it seems that it is probably due to the sudden change of coming from Australia…so there is probably nothing to worry about. However, I would recommend you rest for the next few days…bed rest that is.”
“Thank goodness!” Liz said, “That sounds like good news to me.”
“I think the fast heart rate is because of Patrick,” Sarah said in a serious voice.
Emily chuckled but then realized that she wouldn’t be able to work at The Metro or play with Fall Out Boy on stage again, so her face turned to a frown. She would miss these things dearly, but most importantly, probably not seeing Patrick for the next few days, if she were to be in bed resting.