Chapter 5 #2
“It’s no problem at all,” Ted said, touched by her effusive praise. People like Peg and her adorable, precocious daughter were what he loved best about his job. “Page me if you have any problems during the night.”
“I will. Thank you again.”
“See you tomorrow.” Ted hung up feeling like he had finally done something positive with this miserable day.
The next morning passed in a blur. After signing the discharge paperwork on the re-hydrated Matthew Janik, Ted saw nine patients in the clinic—seven of them frequent fliers and two of them new kids who were just beginning their journey with cancer—before he got to Hannah an hour later than scheduled.
Knowing how worried Peg was about a recurrence, he hated to keep her waiting, but he had taken the time to coach one of his residents through his first-ever “day one” chat in which parents are told their child has cancer and are given the planned course of treatment.
These all-important conversations were handled with the utmost delicacy and compassion.
Since there was a right way—and a wrong way—to do it, Ted was pleased with the job his resident had done.
He had hit on all the most important points and had used the word “cancer” several times so the devastated parents were left with no doubt as to what they were being told.
The resident had included statistics about the cure rate and had given them the cold, hard facts about what to expect during treatment.
Ted had been part of hundreds of day one conversations, but it never got any easier to watch a family’s plans and dreams be derailed by cancer.
After he left the family in the capable hands of his resident, Ted took the time for a quick cup of coffee to decompress before he continued with his clinic.
He pushed the exam room door open to find Peg chewing on her thumbnail as anxiety all but coursed through her slim frame.
“Good morning,” he said. “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting.”
“It’s no problem. You snuck us in.”
“Didn’t you bring Miss Hannah?” Ted looked around the room at everything but the girl sitting Indian-style on the exam table. He washed his hands and pulled on latex gloves.
“I’m getting far too old for that game, Dr. Duff,” she said with a dramatic roll of her soft brown eyes. Her dark curls were corralled today in a high ponytail.
“Then I’ll just have to take my game up a notch in the future.” He sat on a stool and scooted to the exam table. “How’s the fever?”
“Gone. I feel fine. I told my mom that, but she still called this weekend.”
“That’s exactly what she should have done.” Ted did a quick but thorough exam. He was only slightly concerned by the pallor in her cheeks, but it was enough to confirm his decision to order a complete blood count.
“Are you going to stick me?” Hannah asked, sounding more like a frightened nine-year-old and less like a bored pre-teen.
“I’m afraid so, but we’ll make it quick and painless. I promise.”
“Will you do it yourself? It never hurts when you do it.”
“Sure,” he said, even though it would put him further behind schedule. “I’ll be right back.”
He went out to the desk to ask one of the nurses to set up the blood draw for him.
“I can take it from here,” said Kelly Hopper, one of his favorite nurses. She was a pretty blond with bright blue eyes and an infectious smile. The kids loved her, and she was very devoted to them.
“Miss Hannah requested a Dr. Duff special,” he said with a self-deprecating grimace.
Kelly grinned, and Ted noticed for the first time that she had dimples. Cute dimples.
“Jeez, you’ve even got the little ones falling at your feet, don’t you?”
“Oh yeah, there’s a regular line forming.”
“Are you going to Joey’s funeral?”
Sobered by the reminder of his recent loss, he nodded. “John called this morning and asked me to say a few words at the service. Are you going?”
“A few of us from the floor are going. You can ride with us if you’d like.”
“That would be great, thanks. I wasn’t thrilled about going alone.”
Remembering his plan to find a girlfriend, he studied Kelly like he hadn’t seen her almost every day for six years.
“What?”
Ted cleared his throat. “Oh, um, sorry. I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“Would you like to have dinner some night?” he asked before he could chicken out.
Kelly’s eyes widened into an expression of shock that probably wouldn’t have been all that different if Ted had knocked her over the head with a baseball bat.
“Or, um, if you think it would be too weird, I mean because we work together . . .”
“No.”
“Oh, okay.” Ted felt like a bumbling fool. Clearly, this dating thing was going to take some practice. “I understand.”
She held up her hand and shook her head. “I meant no, I don’t think it would be weird. I’d love to have dinner with you.”
“Really?”
She nodded.
“Great. How about Thursday?”
“Thursday’s good.”
“Think about where you want to go.”
“I’ll do that, and I’ll get that stick ready for you.”
“Oh, yeah. Right. Thanks.”
Ted watched her walk away and wondered if she always did that thing with her hips or if she had done it for his benefit. Either way, it had his attention. “Nothing to it,” he whispered as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.