She's Not a Fan

Chapter 7

*** Shout out to Robin Weaver for her excellent POV and editing suggestions!  Thank-you very much, Robin!  Check out her website at www.AuthorRobinWeaver.com! ***  

  

On Monday morning, Sarah headed to work at the Family Medicine Clinic.  She worked full days on Mondays and Fridays, booked a half-day clinic on Wednesdays, and used Wednesday afternoons to deal with paperwork.  Charts, requisitions, consult letters, forms…big tedious yawn.  It needed to get done though, or patients wouldn’t get very far.  And spending an afternoon was better than staying late into the evening.

Danni picked up the other days.  She had her own roster of patients, but if a problem was urgent, the day and roster didn’t matter, the patient was seen. 

Sarah shivered.  No snow yet, but time to pull out a warmer jacket.  Brrrrrr.  it wouldn’t be long before the leaves started to fall and there’d be a ton of raking to do at the clinic.  They hadn’t really thought of that when they searched for a building to renovate.  Bright, cheerful, big enough for both of them.  That made the list.  And charm. 

Charm?  The first real estate agent had looked over his glasses at them with a you’re kidding, right? look.  Sure, he wouldn’t be spending half his week there, sharing good news, or worse, bad news with anxious patients. 

Luckily the second agent got it.  And they found the perfect little bungalow in a quiet charming neighbourhood.  

The front doors of the clinic opened to the waiting room.  They painted the walls a soft blue.  Sunlight streamed in through a large picture window and plenty of glass separated the waiting room from the reception area, so Teresa, their receptionist, got plenty of vitamin D. 

Teresa was their lifeline, ‘call a friend’ and fifty-fifty, all rolled into one.  Best surgeons, smartest clinicians, fastest appointments for a referral?  No problem.  She knew medicine in Clarington.  Just don’t try to figure out her filing system.

Beyond the reception area, were three examining rooms, similar in layout and painted pale green and soft yellow, and their offices.

Sarah slipped in through the back door, and into her office.  She could sit at her Shaker-style desk with its simple lines, in her down-filled, ‘try not to fall asleep reading medical journals’ office chair, and see across to Danni’s antiqued curley-cew stuff.   Too bad the clean lines didn’t extend to the surface of her desk.  It wasn’t exactly a mess.  Well, maybe it was.  But it was an organized mess.  An in-box, out-box and a large area of need to read journals.  Stacked by date.  It was a time saver system.  They were probably out of date by the time they reached the bottom and then, really, there was no point reading them.  

Sarah leafed through the papers in her in-box. 

Her day sheet. Fifteen patients and two physicals.  Busy morning.   

The lab results.  She added her signature and jotted a note on two of them.  One needed antibiotics called into the pharmacy and the other a follow-up appointment.  Make that sixteen patients, if Teresa managed to reach them.  Back to the out-box.

Someone knocked and her door opened further. 

“Your first patient is ready,” said Megan.  Megan was their nurse.  She retired from a hospital job, but had far too much energy to stop working.  Which was perfect for them.  Megan could poke patients with a needle and still have them smiling.  She was that good.

“Thanks, Megan.  I’ll be right there.”

She shrugged on her lab coat, grabbed her stethoscope and threw a prescription pad in her pocket.  Apparently doctors didn’t wear lab coats anymore.  She still couldn’t believe the editorial in the paper.  Apparently doctors didn’t wear lab coats anymore.  Tell that to the two month old who peed into the air the moment the diaper came off.  Yeah.  She’d keep the lab coat.