Turn Around - An Adopted By O2L Story

Chapter 13

Zoe Franta

I woke up again at about 12:30 p.m. I went into my bathroom and took a quick shower, going back down to my closet and throwing on something random. It was my over the shoulder shirt and sweatpants. Perfect. I then went downstairs and into the living room. I sat right between Jc and Connor. I put my head in Connor's lap and my feet over Jc's.

"I'm so tired." I groaned.

"What time did you go to bed?" Connor asked me.

"Um, about 10:30 or around there." I said. 

"And what time did you wake up and go back to sleep?" He asked. 

"I lost about an hour." I said. 

"You've been asleep for about thirteen hours!" Connor exclaimed. 

"I think it's the pills. They have been making me a lot more tired and less hungry these past few days." I said like it was no big deal. 

"Zoe, maybe we should go to the doctor. You may be taking too much of it or may need to take a different kind of medicine." Connor commented, now looking a bit nervous. 

"Fine. You're right. This happened before and they had to alter it a little bit. Whenever you take me I don't care." I agreed after a little bit, sighing. 

"We're going now. When was the last time you ate?" Connor asked as we walked out to the car.

"I ate the two tacos yesterday. That's about it besides a little bit of breakfast. Before that, nothing for about two days." I said, shrugging. 

"Two days?!" Connor asked. 

"Yeah. It's not that bad." I replied like it was no big deal. 

"Not that bad?" Connor asked, backing out of the driveway. "This could be serious."

"I know. I was just afraid to admit it." I mumbled, embarrassed. 

"Don't be. We are here to help you." Connor answered. 

The rest of the ride to the hospital was silent. Once Connor pulled in and parked, we quickly got out and scurried up to the entrance. He opened the door for me and the smell of hospital came rushing through my nose. I shivered and walked in, going up to the front desk with Connor. 

"Hello. How may I help you?" The young girl who was running the administration asked, winking at Connor.

"Um, my daughter here has been on medicine for a while now and she has been really tired all day and she got a lot of sleep last night. She also isn't that hungry anymore and this has happened before and they just needed to alter the amount of medicine she got." Connor replied. 

"Okay. The doctor will be out in a few minutes. Please fill this out and bring it back to me." The girl said, winking again. 

"Okay, and by the way you may wanna get that eye checked out." Connor answered, turning around and walking over to the seats. 

"Her face when you said that!" I laughed, remembering the face. 

"Eh, it annoys me when that happens. It actually happens a lot. Anyhow, help me answer these." Connor said, showing me the questions about medical information and such. 

For the next five minutes, I was helping Connor answer the questions. I brought the clipboard back to the girl and sat back down next to Connor. The doctor came out a few minutes later and called me. Connor and I stood up and walked over to him. He led us into a room and sat down. 

"So what seems to be the problem today?" The doctor asked. 

"Well I have been feeling extra tired a lot and haven't had an appetite for food for a few days now. This happened about a year ago and my medicine I am on needed to be adjusted." I replied. 

"Oh. What pills are you on and why are you on them?" The doctor asked. 

I handed him the pill bottle that I used then said,"One of my ribs would never heal properly so it was either pills or surgery but I didn't have the money for the surgery."

The doctor nodded and went to go take a look at the pills. He came back a few minutes later frowning. I was now nervous. 

"It seems that because you have been on these pills for so long, they could be affecting your body. We are going to have to get x-rays on your ribs so we can see how much we will have to adjust the medication. We wouldn't have to do this usually, but we actually haven't gotten to see the problem behind this because there are no records in your file." The doctor said. 

"Okay." I said. "I thought that could have been the problem."

"Well you were correct. Follow me into a different room to get the x-rays done." The doctor said, holding the door open for Connor and me. 

"Thank you." I said as I walked out. 

He led us into a special x-ray room and had me lay down on the little bed thing. Knowing the drill, I lifted my shirt up and the doctor did what he had to do with the x-ray machine. I was so nervous as to what is going to happen. Once he got what he needed, he led us out to the waiting room. 

"Do you have the time to hang out here for about an hour?" He asked us. 

"That should be no problem." Connor answered. 

"Great. I will come back out as soon as the x-rays are finished developing." The doctor said, going back into the back of the hospital, probably to work on some other patient. 

"How are you feeling?" Connor asked me. 

"A little better I guess. I'm not as tired, but I'm still tired. I'm still not hungry though." I replied. 

"Well they'll be able to fix it." Connor said. 

I hope they will, I thought. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the game Flappy Bird. It was my first time playing it. I got zero. I then realized you had to keep tapping it. I kept playing it, eventually getting to two. I did a mini cheer and Connor just laughed at me. My goal was to now beat my hi-score. I tapped on the screen and got six! Yes! That was all I did for an hour. When the doctor came, my hi-score was twelve. 

The doctor led us back into the room we were first in. I was really nervous to find out what they are going to do. I bit my lip and leaned into Connor's shoulder. 

"Okay, after close consideration, we have decided that you are going to have to get the surgery. The medication won't work on you anymore because of how much you have in your body. You have taken it so long now that your body is too used to it and it won't help." The doctor said, looking at us. 

"Could you please explain?" I asked. 

"Okay, let's use a cough drop for example. Many people will take one just because of the taste, but what they don't know is that when you actually do have a cough and try to use one, it won't work if you have just been using cough drops every day just for the taste. The body will be used to it and think that it is just a normal thing going into your body and it won't have any effect. It's the same thing with your medication. You have used it so much that your body thinks it's a normal thing. It will numb the pain, but have extreme side effects. We were talking about upping the dose you take every day but it could be unhealthy for you and could potentially harm you." The doctor explained. "Which means that really, your only option to make sure you are safe would be surgery."