Invisible String

Chapter 2: The Very First Page

"This is me praying that this was the very first page, not where the story line ends..."

🦷

A white coat and a set of light purple scrubs were carefully laid on her bed, both had her name along with "Chicago Medical Center" embroidered on it, just waiting for her. As she brushed her teeth in the morning, Elizabeth tried to calm down.

This was her first day. The three days since she arrived in Chicago seemed like a trial period that had just ended and she was thrown back into reality now. She had to look for a house, put her finances in order, learn how to walk around the city again...

Elizabeth poured some cold water into her face, trying to push her anxiety away. Her phone rang, but she declined it after seeing the name on the screen. To fill the silence, she opened the music app and put on one of her playlists; she had the habit of creating playlists for everything, and this one was her most recent.

The upbeat notes of a bubblegum pop song started and she felt better instantly, and the playlist was still going on her earphones while she made her way to the hospital to start the day, the songs about new loves taking on a new meaning while walking through the city.

The ED was chaotic, what she assumed it was usual. She spotted Will from a distance working on a patient along with Dr. Manning; Maggie and April were at the nurses' station talking and reviewing some paperwork. From a distance, she heard sirens and they sounded like they were coming closer. It seemed like they were about to get even more busy.

Walking out of the elevator, she saw Dr. Montgomery was already waiting for her at the station, smiling happily while talking to the nurses.

"Good morning, Dr. Halstead. Are you ready for rounds?"

"Good morning. Yeah, I'm ready." Elizabeth smiled. Ready sounded more like an exaggerated word, but that was what she was going for today.

"Great! We'll start off by the ICU floor, see the patients, check on them and supervise a few oral hygiene procedures on intubated patients. I'll show you our clinic, where we do follow ups and procedures on patients that have already been discharged but still need to be checked on regularly. Then we have consultations to do on the cardiology wing." She listed, excitedly. "Oh, and I have to teach you a few protocols and guidelines, and give you your schedule for the week."

Elizabeth nodded, doing mental notes on everything her chief resident was saying. It seemed like a lot of work to do, but she was excited for the change of rhythm. Sure, putting herself through dental school while working two jobs, studying and caring for patients was exhausting at the very least, but then she graduated and the clinic she briefly worked on had a lot of calm, quiet days. She somehow longed for more to her days than simply restoring a few cavities and cleanings and then going home to a tiny, half empty apartment waiting for someone that couldn't bother to look her in the eye.

They did rounds on the ICU patients, evaluating all of their cases. Most of them already had oral treatment plans set by doctor Brown, but Dr. Montgomery had Elizabeth review every case and treatment plan, eventually filling in blanks when needed. Elizabeth also watched the nurses performing the oral hygiene procedures on some intubated patients, since they were more at risk of developing ventilator associated pneumonia.

"And this is our clinic. It's equipped with everything a regular clinic has, where we can see patients after their discharges. Some need follow ups, and some cases have to be treated in a hospital environment by us because of their health issues and associated risks with dental treatments." Dr. Montgomery opened the door and started to guide her around the space. It was a consultation room quite big, bigger than her previous clinic back in Missouri, but also quite simple. She understood it was mainly to perform only treatments that dental clinics would deem too risky for patients with previous health issues and risk factors for infections. "Can you tell me why we work mainly with cardiac patients?"