Childhood Dream

Chapter 2

This time as I slowly opened my eyes I was disoriented by my surroundings. Loud sirens were going around me and I wondered 'when is that ambulance going to pass by only to realize that I was in the back of an ambulance this time. As I looked around, there was an EMT looking at watch while holding my wrist while another was talking to my mother. Before I could absorb what was being said about me the EMT taking my pulse noticed I was awake.

"Well Abigail it's good to see you're with us once more! Now that you're awake can you tell us where the pain your experiencing is?"

I looked up and said, "umm.."

Then I proceeded to throw up. Luckily there was a small waste basket near me and I managed to make it all in there. After I finished puking I tried to speak once more, "Right now, my stomach just really hurts," I sort of moaned.

"She's tachycardia. 120bpm and rising." one of the EMTs says as I clinch my side in pain.

"Well good thing we're here," another one of them says.

The ambulance doors opened with a click and the two EMTs suddenly appeared on both sides of me. They rush me through the ER doors and another doctor rushes up next to them. "What have we got?" The doctor asks.

"18-year-old female with hypertension and pain in the lower abdomen. Lost consciousness twice and threw up in the ambulance. Possible ruptured spleen or appendicitis," the ambulance doctor says next to me.

"Okay take her to exam room 3."

Then the EMTs proceed to push me towards what I assume is "exam room 3".

Once I was inside the room, the doctors and EMTs surrounded me and lifted the blanket I was on onto the exam table. After this happened I was approached by two doctors and a nurse while my mom was being ushered out of the room and into what I assume a waiting room. When my mom was out of the room a bustle of activity started to happen. One of the doctors, a male who looked to be an intern put a blood pressure clip on my finger while the nurse wiped my elbow crease with an alcohol pad, then proceeds to put an IV in and pushes some medicine into it. After that was finished the doctor closest to me sits down on a stool, looks at a chart and and says, "Okay Abigail, I'm Dr. Karev, that's Dr. Tyler, and over there is Nurse Annie," he says as he points to the different people in the room, "When did the pain first start?"

"Well, I was climbing up the stairs into my old tree-house and I missed a step and fell off of it and landed on my stomach. I think I passed out and then this pain engulfed me and my stomach hurt worse than anything I have ever experienced and then I woke up in the ambulance," I say as I start crying, "I'm sorry I don't know why I'm crying.

"Our bodies react in many different ways to trauma and I suspect that yours is just now catching up to you and everything that has happened. I know it hurts and we can give you some morphine for the pain. I'm just going to exam your stomach to see if you have any internal bleeding," Dr. Karev says.

I nod and he motions to a nurse as she pushes a syringe of morphine into my IV. Then Dr. Karev proceeds to prod around my stomach and when he is finished he lifts up my shirt to see a large purple and blue bruise over a large part of my stomach and says to a nurse, "abdomen feels distended and with discoloration that large I suspect blood loss. Prep an OR for an emergency splenectomy." Nurse Annie rushes out of the room after he says this.

Dr. Karev looks at me and says, "Abigail, you're bleeding internally, your spleen ruptured when you fell and it's getting worse as you can see by the bruise on your stomach. We're going to have to surgically remove it to prevent you from losing too much blood."

After what he said sunk in, I don't know if it was blood loss or the shock of the news but I passed out again. When I came conscious again, Dr. Tyler was looking very concerned at me as he rubs my forehead. I looked around and see Dr. Karev talking to my mother. I could overhear parts of their conversation, ".... good you brought her so soon.......passed out three times now......needs emergency surgery......low blood pressure and looks very pale..."

I just stopped listening and looked up at Dr. Tyler and say, "What are they talking about and when is the surgery?"

Dr. Tyler responds with, "Dr. Karev is just going over the details with your mom and you'll head to surgery as soon as he's done talking to her."

"Oh okay," and as soon as I said that, Dr. Karev comes in and we head off to the operating room.