Sister, Sister¹

Worms

Ivy makes her way to Edwards and the screaming patient, "All right. Edwards?"

Edwards tries to do an ultrasound, "Uh, Mary Parkman, 25. Complaining of gradual onset severe abdominal pain. History of previous appy. She's moving around so much, I couldn't really get a read."

"Hi. Mary, I'm Dr. Shepherd-Avery and I'm gonna gently palpate your abdomen to check for tenderness, okay?" As soon as Ivy touches her abdomen, Mary groans, "Yeah, abdomen distended."

She screams out before what seems to be her boyfriend says, "Hang in there, noodle. You're doing great."

Mary shakes her head, "I hate that you're seeing me like this."

He tells her, "You hurt, I hurt, sugarbear. I'm here for you."

Ivy looks to Edwards who rolls her eyes, "They do that a lot."

"Mary? Uh, Mary, can you tell me if the pain is localized in any part of your abdomen, or is it-"

"No, it's-its everywhere. Its-ow!"

"Okay. All right. You are doing great. Can you breathe?" Ivy takes out her stethoscope, "Deep breaths. In. Good. Out. In," Ivy coaches.

Mary explains, "Dennis made me breakfast in bed. It was...so sweet. Pancakes, bacon, a-" Mary then sits up and throws up right on Ivys shoulder, "Oh, my God. I am so sorry."

Ivy leans away, "No, it's fine."

Edwards hands her one of the throwup bags, "Here you go."

Taking off her stethoscope, Ivy gives Edwards directions, "Edwards, um, admit her, and, uh, page Dr. Webber. I'm just gonna go-"

"Go wash the puke out of your hair? Got it."

Ivy quickly walks away and heads to the showers, passing Jackson on her way, "Shut up."

Jackson holds his hands up, "I wasn't going to say anything."

She glares at him, he smiles, "I love you."

"I love you too."

○○○○

As Ivy is washing her hair in the sink, she finds a worm, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"

She quickly runs to Mary's room and tells Webber, "Worms!"

"Its worms," he says at the same time.

"Its just- I, um- I just found a worm from her stomach in my hair. It was really long," Ivy has to keep herself from throwing up.

"And there's one in the suction canister, too," Webber looks over.

Mary looks at the canister, "A worm?!"

Edwards turns to the scans, "Wait. So that means that's..."

They look at it, "A whole lot of worms."

○○○○

Ivy and DeLuca walk into the scan room to see Edwards and Webber looking at the scans, "Do we know what they are?"

Webber says, "Ascaris lumbricoides, the intestinal roundworm. Can grow to the length of half a meter. It's rare in the US, but an estimated ⅙ of the human populations infected."

Edwards chuckles, "Yeah, and our patient has half of them."

They chuckle as DeLuca asks, "Is there a world record for these?"