Something Just a Little Different (Jasper Hale)

I'm No Doctor

By Wednesday, Arri hadn't felt any better, not to mention the burning stiffness she was starting to develop in her back. She hadn't been back to school yet, but she hadn't passed out again, either, so she counted that as progress.

It was still early that morning, entirely too early for her to be awake when she didn't have school, but her sleep cycles were becoming few and far between. Arri chalked it up to being pent up in bed for practically a week, but it still bothered her.

Today was the day she was supposed to get her blood results back and she would have to go back up to the hospital, her mom taking the day off work to drive her up there.

All she could think about was the horrible news the doctor was probably going to give them. After scouring the Internet for entirely too long, she was already convinced she had some form of cancer or brain tumor.

It was weird to think about it; Herself with some horrible, life-threatening disease growing inside of her body. But she couldn't bring herself to be scared or distressed because all she could feel was the pain and the emotional numbness that came with it.

After she was showered and dressed in her sweats, she made her way down stairs, heading straight for the pancakes her mom had set out.

"Dr. Cullen called, he said we could come up there around 9, there were some things in your blood results that they need to check with an MRI." Her mom said, pouring another cup of coffee. Arri had started to notice how tired her mom was looking, and she was glad she had the day off today.

The drive to the hospital was quiet, not even the radio was on to fill the silence, but Arri didn't really notice. She was incredibly uncomfortable. The annoying stiffness had moved up to her neck and into her shoulder, like all of her muscles were turning to stone, and no amount of rolling or stretching would offer any relief.

They didn't have a long wait once they arrived, being put into a sterile white room almost immediately. There still hadn't been a lot of talking since they had left the house, and the only time Ms. Wills opened her mouth was to let out a yawn

After a while, Dr. Cullen came through the door, a warm smile on his face. "Good morning Arri, Ms. Wills, nice to see you again." He wasted no time walking over and going through the motions of checking her pulse and pupils.

"So, how are we feeling today? Any improvement?"

Arri contemplated lying and saying yes, although it wouldn't have been a total lie, but really the only improvement had been in her headache, which was now only head-splitting, and not head-exploding painful, but instead, she was honest.

"I see. Well, your blood results show an extreme decrease in red blood cells, which is why we want to do an MRI, to see what's causing it."

Arri really didn't understand all of the medical jargon Dr. Cullen was saying, so she decided to just start her playlist in her head. He was mainly talking to her mom anyway. She really didn't start paying attention again until a nurse walked in with a needle that made her incredibly uncomfortable.

"This is the contrast dye. It will help us see the blood vessels better during the test. You'll be in the machine for about an hour, since we're doing a scan on most of your upper body, but don't worry, the procedure is painless." The nurse was very pleasant as she went through all of the details, but stuttered when Arri raised a very skeptical brow at her.

"That needle looks like the exact opposite of "painless," Arri eyed the metal syringe, "maybe we could just forego the whole dye thing?" Arri suggested, with as much plea in her voice as she could muster.

The nurse looked like she was about to put the cap back on the needle, whether out of pity or just playing along with Arri, until Dr. Cullen laughed, "Now, now, we can't do that, we wouldn't be able to see any of the important stuff without that. It's not so bad. Really."

The nurse gave a small laugh as she swiped the alcohol wipe over Arri's skin, counting down from three as she injected the dye.

Arri flinched, but it really wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be. "Alright, we'll give the dye about 10 minutes to spread, so you can go ahead and put on your gown, make sure you take off any metal, jewelry or piercings, things like that, and the nurse will take you back."
---------------------
"Okay, Arri, the machine is fixing to start. It gets pretty loud, so don't be startled." Carlisle Cullen spoke to his patient through the com-system behind the glass.

"Okay, Doc, what are we looking for?" The technician asked, starting up the machine, the large cylinder spinning to life around Arri's still form.

Dr. Cullen watched the screen as the first images showed up, "Any kind of abnormality in the blood stream, heart, veins, or arteries. She has become severely anemic seemingly over night, so we want to find out what's causing that. Look for masses or tumors that could be blocking blood flow from the heart. "

The technician spoke to Arri over the com as the machine progressed, telling her when to take deep breaths, when to hold them, and when to breathe again.

It took about fifteen minutes to reach her chest, where they saw her heart pumping less blood than it should. "Okay, so her heart is pumping at a way slower pace than normal, which can be attributed to her anemia, but there hasn't been anything that can explain why." The technician continued to scan through the images as they came through the screen.

At about the 30 minute mark, they reached her lower abdomen. "Whoa, Doc. Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" Dr. Cullen leaned over to inspect the image, a look of great concern on his face.

On the screen was her stomach, but as they were watching, all the veins and capillaries surrounding it and the lower esophagus were bleeding into her stomach cavity, where the lining was absorbing it.

"Now... I am no doctor... But I am almost positive that that is not normal," everyone turned to the door, greeting Mrs. Cullen with acknowledging smiles and nods.

"Esme, dear, I didn't know you were stopping by." Carlisle embraced his wife as she entered the room before going back to the computer screen.

"Well, we found the cause, but I think now we have more questions than answers."

Dr. Cullen sat thoughtfully for a moment, before placing his hand on the tech's shoulder, "Let's not mention this to anyone just yet. Keep it between you and me only." He was smiling, but the tech could feel how serious the man was being, so he nodded his agreement. "Good. Finish up the scan and send the results to me right away." With that he and Esme left the room.