One Day At A Time




Helen and Stephanie decided to take the El into the hospital, that way they wouldn't have to worry about parking. They discussed Stephanie's new job, and how they would divvy up the closet space in Helen's apartment, until Stephanie found a place of her own. She had to pack up, which wouldn't take all that long, and rent a U-Haul for the journey to her new home, Chicago. Stephanie considered herself very lucky indeed to have "family" like her Aunt Helen. She had been more of a mother to her than an aunt anyway, and she loved just sitting and talking with her. Helen felt the same way. They had a very easy relationship, and both felt completely at ease discussing anything in the world that came to mind. They both thought the other one was completely off her rocker with their career choices. Stephanie with 30 screaming 6-year-olds, and Helen with all that totally gross anatomical stuff, and choice bodily fluids, but they loved discussing their work, and listened intently to the other.

"And you know..." Helen said, "You have breakfast duty, since I work mostly nights, and I'll take dinner duty, sound fair to you?"

"Perfectly." Stephanie said around a smile that just wouldn't quit. She had never remembered feeling so at peace with a decision she had made. She wanted to see John again, but the move was for her, not for him. She had fallen in love with the city, and wanted to be near the only family she had left. If she saw John occasionally, all the better, but she had told herself that it certainly wasn't the sole reason for the move. Just a perk.

*************************

"Grab the chart!" Peter barked to Lisa.

Lisa quickly moved toward the nurseserver and the item she needed....it wasn't there! Where the hell had his chart gotten off to! She could hear Dr. Benton yelling for her to "hurry the hell up!" She searched in vain, it wasn't here....

"It's not in the nurseserver, let me check at the front desk, maybe Dr. Corday left some orders." Lisa said, and hastily retreated the doctor's glare.

Lisa searched around at the desk, moving piles of papers, and numerous charts that needed orders to be placed for the day...no chart for Carter...."Damn!" Lisa muttered under her breath.

"Maggie, have you seen Dr. Carter's chart?" Lisa asked the unit secretary.

"Dr. Corday took it a few minutes ago." Maggie replied.

"Where did she go?" Lisa asked.

"Dictation room was where she was headed...what's up?"

"Thanks." Lisa said, and quickly moved toward the dictation room, if you could even call it a room, it was more like a closet, with a light and a phone...for the claustrophobic, this would be hell.

Lisa excused herself, "I'm sorry Dr. Corday, but we need Dr. Carter's chart, and you."

"What's the matter?" Elizabeth replied.

"His B/P is down to 60/40 and his pulse is down to 42 at last check." Lisa said.

Elizabeth was instantly on her feet and following Lisa down to the room, chart in hand.

***************************

"Peter what happened?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm not quite sure. He was fine one minute, then nauseous, vomiting and finally his B/P and pulse crashed. He's still hypotensive, and bradycardic." Peter had hooked up the EKG leads on the cart and the steady hum of the electrocardiogram paper pushing through broke the silence that had momentarily settled in the room.

Peter reached up and clamped off the Diltiazem, stopping the infusion. He reached for the chart.

"He's had Labetolol, Propranolol, and on a Dilt drip...we need to get a Diltiazem level stat." Peter said, "And I still want an abdominal film."

Lisa hurried to the desk, and entered the stat portable abdominal film, and grabbed the supplies she'd need for the blood draw. She hurried back to the room, hit the Dynamap again, and went about finding a decent vein.

"Make sure the lab knows that's a stat." Peter stated as Lisa put the label on the tube of blood.

"60/40, pulse still low...." Elizabeth glanced at the numbers on the Dynamap.

Lisa informed Dr.'s Benton and Corday, that the Diltiazem level was supratherapeutic, and that it would take the lab another 10 minutes before the exact numbers could be calculated.

Peter injected 1 mg of Atropine into the IV line, and watched as the heart rate, slowly rose to a more respectable 60.

"His B/P is still low Peter." Elizabeth noted. "Lisa set me up for a Dopamine infusion....let's start at 5 micg/kg/minute..."

Lisa felt she was about to have a cardiac arrest. She had never had a patient, "go bad" before, and never one that went from perfectly fine to really not fine at all so quickly. She gathered the supplies and returned to the room, her heat pounding furiously. She was a nervous wreck, but tried her best to keep her composure, as she went about setting up the infusion. She only had to look at her cheat sheet once.

**************************

"Let's do something tonight, since you're off." Stephanie said.

"Sounds good...I want to go out to eat. I have not been out for dinner in months, how does that sound?" Helen asked.

"Sounds good to me, and maybe if John is able to eat we can bring him something a lot more edible than hospital fare."

Helen glanced at Stephanie, grinning....Stephanie had been looking out the window, and didn't catch the look. Helen would love to see these two get together, but she certainly wouldn't push.

****************************

John's eyelids fluttered open. The first thing he noticed was that he was back in bed, and his body was in a cold sweat...he thought he was going to be sick again.

"Carter?" Peter called.

John gave Peter a confused look. When did he get here?

"Feeling better?" Peter asked.

John continued give him a blank stare, "feel better from what?" he thought to himself. He felt the Dynamap inflate on his arm, and glanced over at the numbers. It was purely instinct.

"Uh...yeah I guess..." John muttered, "When did you get here?"

"A few minutes ago, remember you were sitting up in the chair?" Peter tried to jog his memory.

John just looked at him like he was crazy.

"You threw up on me remember?" Peter continued.

"Oh sorry...no, I don't remember that though." John tried to sit up. He was on his back again and uncomfortable as hell.

"Whoa no way, no you don't...you stay put for a minute." Lisa admonished.

"My back hurts, my belly hurts, my head hurts...." John complained. "Can't I just move over onto my side please, I think it would help."

Lisa glanced at Dr. Benton. He was occupied looking at the ECG strip and ignoring the patient completely. She then glanced at Dr. Corday hoping to get at least an affirmative nod.

"Dr. Corday?" Lisa finally asked.

"Yes, I suppose we can move him over onto his side. Let me do a quick check of your belly first all right?"

Elizabeth lifted the sheet and palpated his abdomen. She noticed that he hung onto the side rails and gritted his teeth. "Does this hurt?"

"No." John said a little too quickly.

"Carter, if it hurts, tell me...I cannot possibly help you if you're not honest with me." Elizabeth continued her examination.

"A little." John lied.

"His belly is awfully distended." Elizabeth looked at the Foley bag. It only contained 50 cc's.

"Did you just empty that?" Elizabeth asked Lisa.

"When I came on, probably an hour or so ago."

**********************************

Helen and Stephanie passed through the ER doors, and stopped at the front desk to say hello to Frank. Stephanie got a kick out of her aunt. She knew everyone. Helen introduced Stephanie, and then asked if anyone had heard how Carter was doing. Frank had no news.

"No news is good news." Frank said.

"You can say that again! Have a good day Frank." Helen said amicably.

"Aunt Helen...is there something you need to tell me about?" Stephanie asked as they waited for the elevator.

"Oh please! I'm way too old for that stuff! He's just a very nice man, ex-cop...does this for fun! Can you imagine?"

"Knowing you, yes, I can." Stephanie replied.

**********************************

Elizabeth irrigated the Foley, and within minutes the bag filled to 500 cc.

"Looks like you may have had a kink in the Foley." Elizabeth remarked.

Peter looked back at the EKG...heart rate was a very respectable 68. He hit the Dynamap again, and waited impatiently for the machine to spit out the numbers...90/60...definitely better.

"Well?" John asked.

"Much better....you'll live." Peter tried to keep any hint of relief out of his voice, he didn't want Carter to know how close he had come to crashing.

*************************************

Helen walked in first, while Stephanie hung back in the hallway. She had wanted to surprise him, but Helen had suggested that she hang back just a bit so she could make sure he was decent. Helen knew full well Stephanie had seen him indecent, but this was not the time or the place for that!

Her words of welcome caught in her throat as she viewed the open crash cart.

Peter glanced up quickly at Helen, and made the OK sign with his fingers. Helen finally let out the breath that had caught in her throat. She got Peter's message loud and clear.

"You still laying around?" Helen asked.

"Hi Helen! Yeah, the chair and I don't get along very well." John joked.

"I have a lap/choly scheduled in 20 minutes, Peter are you going to stick around for another half hour or so?" Elizabeth asked.

"Uh..yeah...no problem, I'm not supposed to be here anyway. Romano gave me three days for the conference." Peter replied.

"Looks like you're stuck with me today Carter." Peter checked the dressing on his belly, and noted no drainage, as he poked around at the incision site.

"Ow! That's fine, just don't keep poking at me okay?"

"That's a deal."

Elizabeth excused herself, and made her way out the door to her next patient.

Helen sat in the chair next to the bed and started taking some goodies from her "Goodie Bag."

"What's you got?" John asked as Helen slowly pulled the items from the bag.

"All kinds of nice things for you....a word search..." Helen said.

John picked it up, "Cool! Where did you ever find a medical word search puzzle?"

"That's my secret...and let's see...." she dug around a bit more...."a bag of hard candies...strawberry and peach, the Baskin Robbins ones..."

"Go easy on that Carter." Peter admonished.

"Isn't he a killjoy?" John said, mostly to Helen.

"And...I have a big surprise in here too.." She pulled out a picture of John and Stephanie from Stephanie's last visit. John hadn't seen the pictures yet.

He picked it up, and looked at his and Stephanie's smiling faces at Navy Pier. He was still holding the picture, as Stephanie quietly walked into the room.....



Part 16
Fanfiction Home