“Me too, Phoebe, me too,” I reply, kissing her temple. “Now go to sleep.”
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Phoebe
Leavingmy bestie and Thelma is so bittersweet. Once again, I wonder if there’s a way for me to get the best of both worlds—travel nursing and working in a hospital environment. Sighing, I walk over to where Ella is standing, wringing her hands. “Hey, bestie, whatcha doing?” I ask.
“Thinking about how much I’m going to miss you,” she replies. “I wish there was a way to keep you here.”
“Well, we’ve got FaceTime, email, phone calls, texts. Oh, and memes,” I tease. “The only difference is we won’t be able to hug, and you know you’re always welcome to come visit me during your downtimes.”
“It’s not the same as working alongside you,” she admits.
“We’ll figure something out one of these days,” I tell her. “But now, I need to get ready to leave so come and hug me.”
As we wrap our arms around each other, I can feel her shaking and I realize there’s more going on than the fact that I’m leaving.However, with Ella, it’s best to let her figure things out on her own. She’ll reach out to me when she’s ready to talk and I’ll be ready.
“Cortez, let me swap out your wound cover before you go. That’ll buy you a few days to get home,” Thelma instructs.
“So bossy,” I murmur.
“Definitely, now get over here so we can get this done.”
As she works on me, I realize that the topical lidocaine is sufficient against the debriding she’s doing. Thank heavens, because I really haven’t enjoyed being loopy whenever I’m given the morphine. Even now that I’m taking the oral pain meds, I try to wait as long as I possibly can, and whenever possible, I just take Tylenol. It’s not that I’m worried about becoming addicted, I just hate not being in control of my faculties.
“Thank you, Thelma,” I say as she attaches the outer seal. I’ve got a new canister and even though the wound is still ridiculously big, when we’ve measured it, we notice how it’s gotten smaller, so I have high hopes that it’ll heal. Maybe I’ll have Eli put a tattoo to cover the scar once the skin is fully healed. It’s something to consider.
“For what?”
“Calling me in on this one,” I reply. “I didn’t realize how much I missed doing the travel gig, to be honest.”
“It would be harder now that you’ve got a man,” she warns.
“Somehow, I think we’d figure it out,” I reply. “It’s something to think about down the road. He has no problem with me going back to school to get my NP license.”
“Once you get that under your belt, you know I’ll be hounding you to join me, my friend,” she says. “And before you say you can’t, understand me when I say that I’d much rather have a team I trust, one that has the ability to diagnose and write ‘scripts, than pawn the patient off to a doctor who spends maybe five minutes with them. Weknowthe people we’re treating, Fee, and that makes the difference as far as I’m concerned.”
I think about the patients at the hospital. Some are only there for a day or two, some are there far longer, especially those in ICU. Over the years, I’ve found that the more exposure I have to a patient, the more I get to know them as a person, not just a bed number. I think it’s helped me keep the compassion that this job will beat out of you if you’re not careful.
“I get it and I promise, I’ll think about it.” When she starts looking excited, I hold up my hand and say, “That’s not a yes, Thelma, so don’t start planning to add me to any schedule you’ve got in your head. I like being at the hospital, and it’ll give me the clinical hours I’ll need when I get to that point in the NP program.”
“Fine, fine, but a girl can dream, right?”
I giggle as I hop off the table and pull her into a hug. “Yes, you can dream, but right now, that’s all it is, okay?”
“You ready to hit the road?” Eli asks.
“Yeah, are we caravanning with everyone?”
“It makes the most sense,” he replies.
“And Cami? Is she with us or Rebel and Holly?” I question.
“She’s with us during the day and she’ll sleep over there at night,” he says. “It’s not perfect, but I know you still need your rest, and she’s apparently got some more teeth coming in so you know she’s not sleeping well.”
“We’ll need to keep an eye on things,” I warn.
