Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,75
town. Hopefully, they’d see her even though she didn’t have an appointment. If they turned her away, she didn’t know what she’d do.
Thankfully, they weren’t sent away. Instead, after Sophia had filled out several forms, the nurse showed her to a room and said the doctor would be in soon.
“Will he hurt me, Momma?” Bryson asked as he curled up in her lap.
Sophia ran her fingers gently through his curls. “No, baby. He will want to look at your ears, though, but it shouldn’t hurt.”
She hoped that she wasn’t lying about it not hurting. The last thing she wanted was to layer fear on top of the pain he was dealing with. It was bad enough that she was worried and scared. She didn’t know how to deal with this. In the compound, if he’d ever been hurt or needed some medical help, someone else provided it for him—though never an official medical person.
As she sat there, holding Bryson close, Sophia realized that God had answered at least one of her prayers while they’d been in the compound. Each morning and each night, she’d prayed that God would keep Bryson safe and healthy. She’d known that if he had gotten really sick, there would be no doctor or hospital to care for him.
She had seen what had happened to others who had gotten sick or hurt there. Sometimes they were able to get better with the care they got from others in the compound. Sometimes…they didn’t.
Bryson had always been on the small side, more fragile than a lot of the other kids his age. But thankfully, he’d still been relatively healthy.
So while she was upset that he was sick now, Sophia was very grateful that it had taken this long and was after they had left the compound that he had gotten sick enough to require the attention of a doctor.
When the doctor finally showed up, he was a she with a warm, friendly smile.
“So how are we doing today, Bryson?” the woman asked as she settled on the chair at the desk, then rolled herself a little closer to them.
Bryson lifted his hand and gestured to his ear. “Hurts.”
“How long has it been hurting?” The doctor’s gaze flicked to Sophia for a moment before focusing back on Bryson.
He shrugged, pressing further into her, so Sophia answered for him. “He mentioned it for the first time yesterday though he’s been a bit out of sorts for a couple of days.”
“Can I look into your ear, Bryson?” the doctor asked. “It will help me see why your ear is hurting.”
Bryson’s body tensed, and he tilted his head to look up at Sophia.
“It will be okay, baby.”
“How about I look in your mom’s ear first?” the doctor suggested. After Bryson nodded, the woman looked at Sophia. “Will that be okay, Mom?”
“Sure,” Sophia said with a nod.
The doctor got to her feet, washed her hands, then pulled a black instrument from a holder on the wall. She fitted a tip to the pointed end, then sat back down and rolled her chair closer to Sophia, going to the side opposite where Bryson was sitting.
Sophia had to admire the woman’s patience and skill as she explained to Bryson what she was doing as she checked Sophia’s ear. By the time she switched out the disposable tip and approached Bryson, he was more relaxed.
The doctor checked his good ear first to let him feel what it was like before going to the ear that hurt him. He tensed up and whimpered a bit as she moved his ear around, but he didn’t cry.
“You’re such a good boy,” Sophia whispered to him. “Momma’s so proud of you. I love you, baby.”
He gave a little sniff and clung to her more tightly. “Love you too, Momma.”
The doctor put everything away, then rolled back to her desk. “On the info you gave, you didn’t list a pediatrician for Bryson.”
“No. I just moved back to the area a few months ago and haven’t gotten him a pediatrician yet.” Which she realized now was a mistake—yet another bad decision on her part.
The doctor made a note on the chart. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a pediatrician here in New Hope, but I can give you some names for doctors in other clinics that aren’t too far away.” She paused again, her attention on the papers in front of her. “Is he up to date on his vaccines?”
Sophia hesitated, aware of where her answer might lead. “No. He hasn’t had any vaccinations.”