The Dental Student

V e i n t e

W i l l o w

I woke to distant voices talking in the background.

I was able to make out something about heart transplants. Wait, heart transplants, they can't possibly talking about me. Me and my nosy self need to find out what's going on.

I slowly open my eyes to see the Chief talking with my parents and Noah standing on the right  side of the Chief, wearing his scrubs and looking professional.

They were all outside of my room and didn't seem to be paying me any attention.

I saw Noah solemnly look over at me and his eyes met mine before he rushed into my room.

Everybody else close in pursuit behind him.

The Chief immediately walked over with his stethoscope handy and ready to check my vitals.

Once he was done with that, a look of relief came over his face.

I was waiting for him to speak up, and I was starting to become impatient as he just silently looked over my chart and back at my vitals.

"What?"

"It appears that you may need a heart transplant after everything that has happened from your surgery to you just recently passing out, which is also why I informed your parents. I've put you on the transplant list, but it may take some time to find a heart for you, you have an uncommon blood type that makes it difficult to find a perfect match." 

Uh, I need a heart transplant? What?! How am I supposed to be a dental student and continue my classes?!

"Chief, what am I supposed to do about my classes? What if they don't find me a transplant?"

The Chief almost looked baffled and full of worry, "Well, we'll monitor you while you wear a portable heart monitor and we'll give you a transplant pager so when we find one we can contact you right away. We'll also schedule monthly checkups with me and the Cardio Chief to make sure your ticker is working well and you are stable."

I waited for him to continue about my classes, since I've already missed so much.

He took a deep breath before he began again, "As much as I hate to say this, I'll let you continue your classes starting the day after tomorrow if you are stable enough. AND you have to continually wear your heart monitor so that if something goes wrong or if your heart rate drops lower than I want it to, I'll know."

Thank god, at least he is letting me go back to my classes, maybe I can actually get my DDS.

"BUT, you have to promise me that you'll be careful, I'm sure Mr. Grey here will take care of that."

I nod my head as the Chief smiles to all of us and leaving my room.

My parents started to pester me with multiple questions about why I didn't tell them, and that they missed me, and how dental classes were going, and that I should go visit my uncle sometime for a checkup, and who in the hell Noah is, all of which I answered, except for not knowing what to say about Noah.

At some point my parents bid me farewell since they knew I could take care of myself and they had to fill out a little bit of paper work for the transplant list.

Noah and I basically talked and laughed at stupid memes for a good part of the afternoon before he had to go do work for his classes and work at the clinic later.

When he left, I was all alone, left to freshen up my dental skills if I was going to go back to class soon.

The Chief occasionally came in to check on me, along with nurses until I fell asleep until tomorrow morning.

I felt a cold metal on my chest that awoke me.

I opened my eyes to see the Chief concentrating on listening to my heartbeat.

"Your heart rate has been stable and nothing has concerned me, so I brought your portable heart monitor to show you how to work it so you can get discharged later. But, you have to rest when you're not in classes, and I'm being very serious about this. I don't want you to have a relapse and weaken your heart even more." He explained as he went to go grab an ugly, small, black machine with wires.

He went to turn off the heart monitor and unplugged the wires that were on my electrodes, sand replaced them with the wires that belonged to the portable heart monitor.

He pulled out his phone and made me download an app on mine that connects to the monitor and creates an instant messaging program between the Chief and myself.

Which is a pretty cool app invention, if you ask me.

"Don't ever decline a notification on this app, ever. It will always be important whether if it's a low heart rate or me, don't decline it."

He handed me a black satchel with certain holes in it, to carry the portable heart monitor and make it less noticeable.

"Now, I'm going to get your discharge papers that you need to sign and then once Noah gets here, you can leave." The Chief began to explain, but noticed my curiosity when he mentioned Noah.

"He didn't tell you did he? Your "boyfriend"  is picking you up to take you back to your apartment."

"Oh. No. Chief, he's not my boyfriend." I tried to defend myself. I mean I wouldn't mind being his girlfriend, but we're not official or anything like that.

"Uh huh, sure." He said sarcastically leaving my room before I could explain to him that we aren't actually a thing.