Corpsman and the Nerd (33 page)

Janine’s countenance took on the same
lines of worry Tina’s displayed. That meant they had a
problem.

“
He shows signs of infection
but otherwise has been improving rapidly. He should be responding
better to that antibiotic,” Janine said, frowning at the
chart.

“
I know. He’s no longer
coherent, either,” Tina announced, biting her lip and not quite
meeting their eyes.

KC and Janine looked at each other,
eyes wide, before turning to stare at the nurse.

“
Tina, why didn’t you tell
us that first?” KC demanded as she followed Janine out of the lab
and kept pace with her across the site. They barreled into the post
op tent and careened to a stop by his bed.

With his eyes closed, the huge man
looked to be sleeping, uncommon for him. “Lieutenant Peterson, I’m
Dr. Gilmore, can you tell me your first name?” KC shook him, but
the only response she got was a brief flutter of his eyelids. They
had a procedure they had to follow, and now they hurried through
it.

Swallowing, she glanced at Janine
whose face remained impassive, but KC thought she saw concern in
the amber depths of her eyes. Janine bent over and shook him
too.

“
Lieutenant Peterson, I’m
Dr. Morris, I work with Dr. Gilmore. Can you tell us your first
name?” She elicited the same nebulous response. A brief eye
flutter.

KC placed her fingers on the pulse in
his neck. “His pulse is erratic.”

The man began to choke and his hands
clawed at his throat.

“
Has he done this before?”
Janine demanded as she and KC leapt to his side, wrestling his arms
from his neck.

“
No,” Tina said, looking on
in horror.

“
The last med we ordered for
him was penicillin to stave off infection, right?” KC asked. Her
brain was racing, but if this was penicillin...

“
Right. That’s what his
chart says.” Janine used her chin to indicate the chart on the end
of his cot.

“
We prescribed that
antibiotic for him this morning. Check his dog tags. Is he allergic
to penicillin?”

“
There’s nothing on his
tags. Tina, epinephrine!” KC barely heard Janine rap out the
dosage. She’d never seen such a severe allergic reaction to the
antibiotic, but they had little time to save him if that was the
case.

“
He’s not breathing!” Janine
stated, busy checking his vital signs.

“
We’ve got to open his
airways.” KC fought with the man to remove his hands so she could
see his neck. They had to follow procedure but KC was certain this
was an allergic reaction. She didn’t want to have to perform a
tracheotomy, but he had to breathe. If they couldn’t counter the
reaction she would.

Tina, who had already anticipated what
they needed, inserted a needle into the bottle and hastily handed
over the syringe. KC inserted the needle and shoved the plunger to
release the entire dosage. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” she
muttered.

Janine monitored his reaction. “Hurry,
KC.”

“
It’s in. We’ve got to keep
his airways open
.”

“
The epinephrine should
clear them,” a veteran doctor, Dwayne Sutter, responded, and KC
breathed in relief. Obviously he’d heard the commotion and came to
help. “I’ve never seen such a severe reaction like this, but I
think you called it, Dr. Gilmore,” he said, and KC
nodded.

If this wasn’t an allergic
reaction...

“
Janine, is he breathing
better?” KC watched the patient and saw his hands drop from his
throat. His respiration appeared normal.

“
He’s not struggling to
breathe,” Janine crowed, and KC heard her relief. Which matched her
own.

“
No trach, then.” KC leaned
weakly against the bed.

“
Thank the good Lord for
strong men,” Dr. Sutter muttered as he shook his head, and his
cornrows flew in all directions. He patted each of them. KC took
the gesture as it was intended. She definitely needed the
comfort.

“
Tina, stay with him,
please, and monitor him. If there are any problems contact me
immediately.” KC wrote in his chart, fearful they missed something.
She also prescribed another antibiotic, and asked for the
penicillin bottle from which Peterson’s dose came from. Performing
a few tests on it was necessary and she thought she had all the
items necessary to do so.

“
I’ll notify you immediately
if there’s a problem,” Tina replied. The Marine’s breathing was
even now, he looked to have stabilized. KC nodded.

“
We’ll need to have his dog
tags changed,” Janine remarked.

“
Yes. Let’s avoid this
situation next time,” KC said dryly. Janine smiled ruefully and
nodded.

They moved on to the other patients,
watching for anything similar, in case a virus, bacterium, or
chemical had produced the symptoms they just witnessed.

While the problem could simply be the
antibiotic, none of them were willing to risk such a severe
reaction in the other patients. Their facility was limited and
remote. In the middle of a God forsaken land. God help them if this
was the start of something awful.

*****

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject: Two more
months!

Hello Max and
Ryan,

I miss and love you, and
am happy to report I’ve only got two more months! Which is such
happy news! I should be home soon. If you’re still ticking off days
on your calendar, you already know this.

We had a man have an
anaphylactic reaction to what we hope is an antibiotic. We’re
keeping a very close eye on each patient here now. Not knowing is
sometimes the hardest part, isn’t it?

Otherwise, we’re fine. The
work load isn’t easier, but the new medical staff is most welcome
and wonderful. They’ve helped tremendously! Our burdens aren’t so
heavy now. We’ve remained fairly full, so I’m still not able to use
my Lainy phone. Well, if I sneak out I can. But with this new
situation, I’ll probably hold off, at least for a little
while.

Things could get
especially crazy here, in that case. I’m hoping – praying, it
doesn’t come down to such extremes. We can handle a simple allergic
reaction, (although it didn’t feel simple in the midst of the
symptoms!) but an outright illness (virus, bacteria, ugh!) of some
sort would make our lives... quite miserable.

We continue to enjoy the
videos. I’ve watched them all several times now. I feel closer to
you both then. How I miss you! Spuds is staying out of trouble, I
hope?

Oh, and thanks, Max, for
updates on Lainy. She should be past the throwing up stage and
feeling better by now. And with the first baby, she might not
really show until the last few weeks. She could very well be one of
those women who barely looks pregnant.

Let’s hope that’s not the
case, because we’ll probably need something to encourage them NOT
to reproduce as rapidly as Laurie and Greg have in that case. More
rellys with eight children is not necessary. (I guess Morrisons
take populating the earth seriously!)


I’m glad you’re enjoying
Dory’s new son. It’s probably good John doesn’t mind getting
squirted in the face. Ryan did do that to me, although not often.
Since you didn’t come along until later, he probably figured he had
to nail someone, and as I was the primary diaper changer... Let’s
just say I’m relieved you’re in his life to explain certain male
things to him.

Believe me, I
know
he’s got questions.
And you’re the perfect man with those male answers, Dad!

Some of them I
couldn’t answer because I’m not male. I think I asked one of the
older doctors at work and he helped me with them, but I’m awfully
grateful you’re available now for those questions.

I love knowing you and
Ryan are together. I love knowing you’re marking off a calendar,
awaiting my arrival home as eagerly as I am. That you’re together
gives me comfort. Ryan going to my parents simply wasn’t an option.
No way could my son go there for eight months.

Could you imagine? Such a
sterile, cold world and Ryan wouldn’t understand. It’s hard enough
having me gone, but to live with my parents was simply not about to
happen! This way, he has you, his dad. Which helps me to make it
through another day.

I love and miss you
both!

I can’t wait until I come
home!

Two more
months,

KC

Chapter 41

KC shoved the last of her things into
her bag. She smiled at Vanessa, the doctor who took Janine’s place.
Vanessa held the bag shut so KC could zip it. “Thank you,” she
declared once she couldn’t move the zipper any further.

“
You’re welcome. I see you
struggling with your overfull bag and realize I’ll be doing the
same when I leave.”

Her eyes shifted to the picture by her
cot. There, smiling out at them was Vanessa’s family portrait. Two
adorable kids and a handsome man grinned at them. Vanessa had left
her family, just as KC. And now, KC realized with yet another jolt
and thrill, she was returning to her men.

“
Yes.” KC smiled at the new
doctor. “But your time here will go quickly. Especially if another
virus comes through like the last one.”

“
I heard about that. How bad
was it?” Vanessa’s smooth features pleated into a frown.

“
Fortunately, it was simply
the flu, but still wasn’t pretty. We did have a man go into
anaphylactic shock over penicillin, and were afraid it was
biological or chemical warfare for a time.”

Vanessa shuddered.

“
Yes, our sentiments,
exactly
.” KC suppressed a
shudder of her own. It had been shaky there for a while.

“
How many of you got
sick?”

“
Only a few of the new
personnel, fortunately. But things were so busy, we didn’t sleep or
eat.”

“
Ah. Residency all over
again.”

“
Exactly. Not fun,
at all
.”

“
No, I don’t imagine it was.
But things have settled down now, right?” KC didn’t miss the hope
in her colleague’s voice.

She laughed. “Yes. Everyone is either
through the flu, or they’re rapidly recovering. This is the very
tail end.”

“
Should you be worried about
taking it home?”

“
No, my fellows have already
had it. If I get this virus, it’ll be once I go home, of course.”
KC blew out a frustrated breath, because she knew that’s probably
what would happen. These last two months had slipped by in the
blink of an eye, because they had battled the flu, and a stomach
virus, with less medical staff, since some of them fell prey to the
nasty viruses. This increased everyone’s
responsibilities.

“
There was a stomach virus
in there too?” Vanessa sounded alarmed.

“
Yes. That was before the
flu. Someone kindly brought it along from the states. Because that
germ went through home too.”

“
Ah. Yes, I remember that
one. Dehydration, fever, vomiting, and left everyone weak, but was
treatable with extra fluids?”

“
That’s the one. Once we
figured out it wasn’t biological warfare, we all relaxed. My
partner told me in an email that most of his family, the kids
mainly, ended up sick. And a few of the others mentioned their
families were in bed with a digestive ailment. We were then able to
conclude, after some tests, it was a typical virus.” KC shuddered.
Not only had she cared for patients, she also ran many of the
tests. By herself since her lab help had fallen victim to the
virus. She hadn’t had a full night of sleep in two months. Before
that, it was still sketchy.

“
And you no sooner got over
that virus than the flu arrived for a visit?”

KC groaned. “It’s been a hectic two
months.”

“
I’m sure,” Vanessa said and
laughed. She shook her head. “I’d say I’m sorry, but to be honest,
I’m happy this didn’t happen on my watch.”

KC giggled, as she found herself doing
more and more lately.

“
Whoa. You need to go home.
You’re a giggling mess,” Vanessa concluded.

“
Yeah, I know.” Not about to
argue that point, KC nodded instead.

“
So, who’s the person in
charge?”

“
Um, we’ve got a new
Captain, well he’s flag selected, so you’ll probably get to witness
his promotion. You know, I’m so tired now, I can’t even remember
his name. Admiral Richard O’Riley went home last month.”

“
And you’ve been too busy to
pay much attention.”

“
And how. Like I cared,” KC
said with a snort. She’d been up to her eyeballs in vomit, mucus,
and blood – none of it hers. A shudder wracked her body. She would
quite happily go back to her research and development job. Much
less in the way of bodily fluids in that discipline.