The Patient Read Free

meetings with four clients lined up and then they had Anne Marie and David coming for dinner, so she was supposed to shop and cook in the afternoon. Jonathan was forever making generous gestures that Tracy always seemed to end up having to fulfil. Anne Marie and David were nice enough, but this was a school night and she’d told Jonathan she was facing a busy week. He’d said, ‘Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll arrange it all – shopping, cooking. You relax.’ As usually happened, he had had a last-minute meeting scheduled that was ‘really, really important’, so the job had fallen to her. Situations such as this had caused conflict during the course of their married life, but never to the extent that it diminished Tracy’s love for him. Many of their friends were already onto their second marriages, but Tracy and Jonathan still shared a wonderful marriage, even with the frustrations that Jonathan created.
    â€˜I’ll ring and cancel dinner,’ she said as she brought in the coffee. ‘You’ve got the board meeting on today, haven’t you?’
    â€˜Yeah, I have to make that presentation. I’ll be finished about six – don’t cancel dinner. Honestly, I’m fine. I feel OK. Thanks, Trace,’ he said as she handed him his coffee.
    â€˜Uh, Jon, are you nuts? You’ve just peed blood everywhere and you want to have some people over for dinner that you hardly know? You must be kidding.’
    â€˜It’s just that I think Anne Marie could wind up being a big client for me. And you enjoy her company. She’s just like you – intelligent, professional …’
    The sweet talk was getting Tracy even more irritated. ‘I’m cancelling dinner. And you’re going to the doctor.’
    Jonathan could tell when Tracy was not to be swayed; he gave up the notion and they finished their coffees in silence.
    He rested his cup on the bedside table and realised he once again felt the need to urinate. Tracy followed him into the en suite. They stood over the bowl, waiting to see the colour of his urine.
    â€˜If there’s more blood, we’re going straight to the hospital,’ Tracy said.
    â€˜I can’t pee with you standing here looking at me.’
    â€˜For God’s sake, just do it.’ Tracy was impatient now. Impatient and scared. Thoughts of disaster flashed through her mind. What if her husband was sick with something serious?
    Jonathan was grunting now, trying to force urine out. Finally, he urinated. It was lighter than before, but it was still bloody. The sight made him feel faint again.
    Tracy got him back to bed, called her mother and asked her to come and sit with the girls. Her mother and father lived two streets away and were used to filling in the childcare gaps. They were early risers, so they were awake when the phone rang – but still, they were understandably shocked.
    Tracy dressed quickly, threw Jonathan a tracksuit and explained to the girls what was happening. Jonathan still looked a little pale, so when her parents arrived Tracy wasthe one who got in the driver’s side of their new car. She had not mastered the gears, and it was a clunky ride to the Victoria Hospital. She dropped Jonathan off at the front door of the Emergency department and went to park the car. The bright-red signs inside the building left him in no doubt about which way he was meant to go.

2
    Fuck , I thought as my beeper went off again. I was just finishing off in theatres. A boy of 12 who’d had a sore left testicle for the past day had been admitted. This was a urological emergency, because if he had torsion of the testis – when one of the testicles becomes twisted within the scrotum – its blood supply would be compromised. If that lasts for longer than the magic number of four hours, the tissue dies and the testis has to be removed. The only real option was immediate surgery to explore his