Diary of a Girl from Seattle

Hard Day's Night

2020 update: this story is super old but you can skip ahead to "Back Home Again" for more recent episodes/storylines and Station 19. If you wanna read early Grey's stories then feel free to start here haha

Author's Note: I own none of the Grey's Anatomy charactors or anything from the show.

Hard Day's Night

The ambulance doors open revealing a teenage girl about 13 years old doubled over in abdominal pain, a panicking mother by her side, and the paramedic attempting to calm them both. Dr. Miranda Bailey, a short but clearly in charge woman takes the case and gets details from the paramedics. At about 5 am the patient began experiencing severe abdominal pain in the lower right quadrant. An ultra sound and an X-ray of the area show that the girl's appendix has ruptured. She is rushed into emergency surgery to perform an appendectomy.

That's what my mom told me when I woke up from the anesthesia. That girl was me, Matelyn Rodriguez but everyone calls me Mattie. Dr. Bailey performed an appendectomy at 6 am. She told me that there were a few complications, all minor, but I would have to remain in the hospital for a few days for observation. Most kids would be anxious to be in the hospital, but I was only intrigued. Everything around me was fascinating, the heart monitors, the crash carts, the doctors in their blue scrubs. I began to ask questions. The first time a nurse came in to take my vitals I made her tell me what they were. The next time she came in I asked her to teach me how to measure someone's blood pressure. She showed me and I practiced taking my own blood pressure for hours until it came time for evening rounds. Dr. Bailey came into room 613 to see how I was doing. I asked if I could take her blood pressure. I asked her how an appendectomy was performed. I asked her if she did a more interesting surgery than mine that day. She allowed me to take her blood pressure, it was 117/78. She answered my questions then asked one of her own, why was I so interested? I had no idea why I felt the desire to learn everything I possibly could from my stay in the hospital. I didn't know why I found everything to be so extraordinarily fascinating. I didn't know why I liked learning about medicine and surgery and the human body, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was born to be a surgeon.

            The next day I heard that new doctors were coming to the hospital, the next group of interns. I learned that and a lot of other bits of information from listening to the conversations at the nurses' station, which was right outside my room. That morning Dr. Bailey returned with 4 new doctors in blue scrubs. Dr. Grey, Dr. Stevens, Dr. Yang, and Dr. O'Malley entered my room behind Dr. Bailey for morning rounds. I figured they were some of the new interns. Dr. Bailey presented my case, a fairly simple post-op. I was assigned to Dr. Stevens' care.

When Dr. Stevens came in later that morning to check on me she saw me taking my blood pressure. She asked me where I got the stethoscope and I told her that it had been my fathers. There are always cuffs hanging on the walls of every patient room. She asked me if I knew what my blood pressure was; I told her that it was 115/76. Just to check she took my blood pressure to find that it was in fact 115/76. She asked me where I had learned to take my own blood pressure and I explained to her that I had learned from one of the nurses, the one with the red hair named Olivia, the day before. I started asking her questions too. I asked her if she was an intern, why she looked familiar, what kind of doctor she was going to be, and if she could get me out of this room to show me something cool. She was an intern, she used to model, she was going to be a surgeon and I had to stay in my room. I asked her why and she said that those were the rules. I told her that my dad used to take me to the hospital he worked at when I was younger, so I didn't understand why someone couldn't take me around this hospital. She asked me who my father was and I told her that he was a doctor, a surgeon actually, which would explain why I want to be a surgeon it's in my blood. I told her that he used to work down in Los Angeles. She saw my last name in the chart and while it's common she asked if my father was the Dr. Pedro Rodriguez. The esteemed cardiothoracic surgeon famous for his technique on aortic repairs and sutures known as PR sutures. I told her he was and her face suddenly light up. She left the room shortly after promising to show me something cool.

About an hour later a tall man walked into the room. He was wearing a tie so I assumed he was the boss. He introduced himself to my mom and me as Dr. Richard Webber, Chief of Surgery. I thought that Chief of Surgery sounded pretty important so I straightened up in my bed and sat attentively. Dr. Webber said that if there was anything we needed that all we had to do was ask. I asked him to see something cool, and he told me that I could follow Dr. Bailey on her evening rounds. I couldn't wait. For the rest of the day I looked forward to getting to go on rounds with Dr. Bailey. I wondered if the interns would be coming too. I hoped so, I liked Dr. Stevens, she was really nice.

That evening I was the first patient during rounds. Dr. Bailey had Dr. Stevens present my case. She then told me that I could join them for rounds but I had to stay quiet and out of the way. I promised to do as she said and skipped along behind Drs. Grey, Yang, Stevens and O'Malley.

The next day I was told I was ready to be discharged. This would be great news to most people, but not me. To be honest I liked being in the hospital. I liked getting to look at everything that was going on. I liked going on rounds with Dr. Bailey and her interns. I liked the nurses coming in to check my vital signs. I wanted to stay in Seattle Grace Hospital forever. I told that to Dr. Webber when he came to tell my mom and me the "good news." He told me that when I got back to being 100% he would let me come to the hospital whenever I wanted and shadow whoever I wanted. I couldn't wait.

Authors Note: Flash forward to season 2. Much of the book will be told in the form of Mattie's diary entries. Each entry corresponding with an episode.