Invisible String

Chapter 10: A Feeling so Peculiar

"I couldn't be sure, I had a feeling so peculiar that this pain wouldn't be for evermore..."

🦷

In Elizabeth's mind, there were only three reasons for someone to call her at 2 A.M. Either someone was dying, already dead, or in jail. But when her phone started to ring halfway through an episode of Modern Family, she discovered a fourth reason.

So she changed out of her pajamas and made her way out of her apartment to do the fifteen minute walk between her building and the hospital.

The ED was uncommonly quiet, although Lizzie would never say that out loud for fear of having a stethoscope thrown at her head. On the surgical floor, most of the lights were down, the nurses quietly sitting at the station to watch the patients or to check charts and test results, the screens of their computers and tablets coating the place in a soft, white-blue lighting.

"I'm so, so sorry, Dr. Halstead." said Paige, the nurse from the night shift as soon as she saw Lizzie. "Mr. Sheffield was screaming at all the nurses demanding to see you. He says he's in pain and he doesn't want to be seen by the resident on call."

Lizzie sighed. "It's alright, Paige. I wasn't sleeping anyway." she reassured the nurse, a girl that looked like she had just gotten out of nursing school. "I'll go see him in a minute."

Mr. Sheffield was a man in his late forties, red-faced and prone to complaining of absolutely everything. He had been admitted a few days ago for a valve replacement surgery, and he already had other health problems. Elizabeth had treated him earlier that day, extracting two severely decayed molars with periapical lesions that were infection points. He was one of the last patients she had treated before going home, and he was fine the last time she saw him, with no excessive bleeding and pain controlled by oral meds.

"Mr. Sheffield?" she called, carefully opening the curtain on the patient's room. "The nurses called me back, they said you are experiencing some pain."

Her patient was seeming very comfortable, arm stretched with the remote while he searched for something to watch. She tried her best not to judge by appearance, but he wasn't presenting any swelling and his vitals were absolutely normal.

"I went down for a nap and woke up with this stabbing pain in my cheek. I told that little blondie that she better get you back here to fix it, I ain't sleeping like that. I need my beauty rest, sweetheart."

Holding back a scowl, Lizzie ignored the pet name she so hated. Only Rob used to call her that, especially right before telling her she was wrong about something.

"Okay. And can you rate your pain on a scale of one to ten for me?"

"An eight. No, a nine."

Once more, she tried not to judge. Pain was subjective, she told herself. But there was no reason for him to demand to see her when the resident on call could just prescribe him pain medication to last until the morning.

"Has the ibuprofen I prescribed after the procedure helped with your pain?"

"Uh, only for a while. Now it's worse."

"Alright, then. Just to confirm, Mr. Sheffield. Are you allergic to any pain medication?" she asked, even though she had just reviewed his medical records and knew he didn't have any allergies or history of substance abuse. "I'll write you a prescription for Vicodin, we'll start with a lower dosage and you'll be given one every eight hours, until tomorrow."

Elizabeth wasn't too fond of prescribing opioids, she always preferred to try and manage postoperative pain with ibuprofen or paracetamol first, and use opioids as a last resort. It was a delicate balance, between not prescribing unnecessary medication and not allowing the patient to be in excessive pain.