The Curve Ball - Samantha Lind Page 0,41
her stripped-down?” I ask.
“We need to be as accurate as we can get for her weight. So many medications are based on weight, and if we have a couple of pounds of clothes in the way, it could cause the doctor to miss-dose her, and we wouldn’t want that,” she tells us as she writes down what the screen says. “You can re-dress her now,” she tells Riley once she’s got the info she needed.
Once Evie is back in her sleeper, the nurse stretches her legs out and marks the paper sheet with her pen, both at her head and where the bottom of her foot reaches. “You can pick her up now,” she says, and I step in and pick Evie up. She’s stayed calm through all of this so far, and I’d like to keep it that way. I watch as the nurse pulls out a small tape measure and stretches it out between the two marks she made on the paper then note that on her note pad. “Follow me, and we’ll get you guys into a room.”
We do just that and follow her into an exam room just around the corner. “What brings you in today?” she asks.
“Evie’s been running a fever since last night. I noticed she was also tugging at her ear yesterday before the fever started, and she’s just been a little cranky the last twenty-four hours,” Riley tells her.
“Poor girl,” the nurse says, pulling her stethoscope out of a pocket. “Mind if I listen?” she asks, and I shift Evie so that she can access her chest. We stay quiet while she listens to her. “Any other symptoms?” the nurse asks, writing down a few more things on her pad.
“She’s been chewing on everything, so we weren’t sure if this all was related to her maybe teething,” I speak up for the first time since we entered the room.
“That’s definitely a possibility. Let me get all these notes entered into the system, and the doctor will be with you in just a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Riley and I both tell the nurse as she exits the room.
“She recognized you,” Riley says just above a whisper once the door latches. “Do you think that will be a problem?”
“You picked up on that, did you?” I ask, a little shocked she noticed, too.
“I did, but she recovered quickly.”
“She did,” I say as Evie starts to fuss a little bit in my arms. I shift her, so she’s lying on my chest rather than having her back to my front. Riley hands me the bottle she made and tucked into the diaper bag. I shift Evie once again, offering her the bottle that she accepts quickly. “I’d hope that she wouldn’t say anything to anyone about me being in here with my daughter. That would be quite the HIPPA violation.”
“You’re right about that. I don’t think you’ll have an issue. Jillian texted me this morning that this is the office that they bring the girls, and they’ve never had an issue with them leaking anything,” Riley says, reassuring me that we’ll be okay here.
“Knock, knock,” a voice rings out as the door slowly swings open. A youngish doctor steps through the doorway, looking at Riley and then myself. If he recognizes me, he hides it well. “Hello, I’m Dr. Shane, I hear Miss Evelyn isn’t feeling well,” he says as he heads straight for the small sink and washes his hands.
Once he dries his hands, he motions to the exam table. “Do you mind laying her down up here?”
“Oh, of course,” I say, taking the bottle from Evie and placing her in the middle of the table.
I stand close by as he listens to her, then checks her ears, nose, and mouth.
“She definitely has an ear infection going on, so I’ll call in some antibiotics for that. Her gums are a little swollen, so your assumption that she might be teething is probably correct. Once the tooth breaks the skin, things should get a little better, but she might also start pushing through a few at a time, thus stretching out that time that things will bother her. Tylenol, as needed to help with the pain and or fevers that can come along with it, is perfectly fine, but if you notice the ear tugging again, bring her back in so we can take a look at the ears.”
“Did you get all of that?” I ask Riley.
“Yes,” she says, a little chuckle escaping as she