Page 68 of Booked for Murder

That got a scowl out of him. “Yes, they’re calibrated. We only noticed you were having difficulties when we were going to put you to bed and you started to wheeze. You were fine upright, but once we went to lie you flat, that’s when the trouble started. At that point, I called my doctor, who told me to call your doctor, and Dr. Mansfield had me call an ambulance. Since all of the prescriptions were verified, that part of things is fine.”

“Honestly, I would have authorized that sedative myself because I know you’re usually fatigued. Now I’m thinking that fatigue is due to you constantly manipulating your own body with your magic without being aware you’re doing it. It would also explain why you managed to score on your rating test like you did. You’ve been constantly tapping your magic, so your reserves are low. Your blood chemistry has always been exceptional when there’s evidence it shouldn’t be. I may have taken advantage of the situation to do some preliminary checks on your internal organs.”

“That doesn’t sound promising.”

“Well, your lungs will need some more work, but that’s something physical therapy can address. We’ve already done the critical work on them. Your cardiovascular system is all right, but you’re having some problem with your kidneys and liver.”

The thought of something being wrong with my lungs worried me, but I decided to focus on my other poor, abused organs first. “Wait. My kidneys?”

I understood the potential problems with my liver, as it held a lot of responsibility for blood health and chemistry.

“It appears you have been using your kidneys as a general disposal of toxins, including infections, from your blood stream. I am not fully clear on how you’ve been doing this, but I’m assuming your magic has somehow been depositing the various wastes to your kidneys. While it’s contained to your kidneys right now, you have a rather nasty little infection as a result. You will be on an antibiotic for the next three weeks. One of the other surgeons kindly purged your kidneys for me, but we’re going to have to figure out how to prevent you from experimenting on your body. You need your kidneys. They serve a very specific function. That function is not as a depository for infections sourced from your foot.”

“But how is my spleen?”

“Your adopted spleen is fine. Yes, we checked it. I had neglected to mention you have an adopted organ before the operation, as I was expecting a foot operation not a full-body exploratory surgery, but it is what it is. One of the surgeons got very, very confused because he’s specialized in transplants. Spleens are not typically transplanted. Unfortunately, there’s only one successful spleen transplant on record.”

Crap. “Can I please have a pass on that? I’d also like to mention I love that you’ve taken to calling it my adopted organ.”

“You can have a pass this once. You were honest enough with me on how your foot was mangled, you told me you had a transplant done unrelated to your foot, and I recognize severe trauma when I see it. If your method of coping with trauma is to take on a new name and bury the circumstances, I’m certainly not going to argue with that.”

I could work with it. “Technically, I got the spleen as a result of the same accident that mangled my foot.”

“And because of your specific type of magic, and as we don’t know what the lack of a spleen would do to your abilities, you were fast-tracked to be the first recipient of a spleen donation.”

“I guess there’s a lot of spleens available, aren’t there? That part of it bothers me.”

“Your donor didn’t need it anymore, and he made it clear he wanted to give all of his organs to science or to people in need. His heart went to a young lady in Europe, both of his lungs were donated, as were most of his other organs. He had brain cancer, and why waste the chance to give life to others? There wasn’t anything wrong with his other organs. He took the case to court because he wanted to make sure he had recipients lined up and prepared. You were the surprise recipient, as the accident happened during the window for donation. Your medical file is extensive, and I spent most of this morning reading through it for a better idea of what I’m working with. You’ll have a few other doctors on your team, as I want to make sure there’s no issues with your donated organ. It’s been a few years since your last checkup for your spleen.”

“Well, yeah. My adopted spleen would make it easy to figure out who I am,” I mumbled.

“Don’t worry about it, Janette. We take patient confidentiality seriously here, and it’s none of my business if you’ve opted to take a different last name. I’m primarily concerned about making sure you heal without impairment. Mr. Hampton has volunteered to help handle the matters of your care, although he’ll have his hands full helping you into his vehicle. The wheelchair we have for you folds, so it’ll fit in the trunk of his car, but it’ll make things a little more difficult on you. You won’t be in the wheelchair long enough to justify a customized van. Try not to wreck this wheelchair. You cannot roll them up or down the stairs ahead of you and hop after it on one foot.”

“That was the only way I was getting it up to my apartment.”

My doctor sighed. “Mr. Hampton will be handling the details, so please do not trash this wheelchair.”

“I fixed the last one.”

“You duct taped it.”

“It worked.”

“Please do not break this wheelchair.”

I sighed. “I’ll try not to, but if I do, he’ll replace it. And if he has to replace it, it’s because he wasn’t carrying it down the steps for me so I could hop down them at my leisure.”

My doctor did not look impressed with me.

“Don’t worry, Dr. Mansfield. I’ll do my best to limit her chances to break the wheelchair.”

“I wish you the best of luck with that.”

Seventeen

This sucks.

To my shame, I’d been doing a lot more work on my own body with my magic than I’d realized, and with the various medications doing a good job of disrupting my abilities, my doctor couldn’t get my blood oxygen levels where she wanted, which meant I got to stay an extra night in the hospital for observation.