Act of Atonement by John Bishop

Author:John Bishop [Bishop, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-06T16:00:00+00:00

23

HOWARD PECK

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2002

Mary Louise had to beat on my shoulder to get me up Thursday morning. I was five minutes late for rounds, but no one commented. Rounds went smoothly, and I was able to convince a few folks to leave the hospital, some to their respective homes, but most to the rehab unit.

I made a special side trip to the VIP wing to see Princess Sara, to assess her progress and to inform her that I would be replacing her hip on Monday. I went to the nurses’ station first and, armed with the floor nurse and the charge nurse, we stepped across the hall and encountered the two bodyguards.

“Morning, gents, I need to see Princess Sara.”

They stared at me, then at each other, and spoke in what I would assume was Tamborinian, and stepped aside.

The room was enormous enough to be considered a suite, with a hospital bed and bathroom on one side and a sitting area with a pullout sofa on the other.

“There is room for all your family here, Sara, and a couple of distant cousins,” I said.

“Dr. Brady, I heard you coming down the hall.”

“Was I talking too loud?”

“No. I heard your boots clicking on the tile.”

“Oh. I left my horse at the elevator, ma’am.”

She giggled.

“Doc Moss has cleared you to have your hip replaced on Monday. You still good with that?”

“Yes. It’s been killing me lying in this bed. I keep turning from side to side, but it continues to ache all the time. I am ready, Doctor.”

“Well, I’ll put you in early Monday morning, so get a good night’s sleep on Sunday.”

“Thank you, Doctor, and I should say the same to you.”

Clinic came and went. It seemed to me that Thursday office hours were better than Tuesday hours. That was probably because my brain was telling me that I had the next three days off, and by releasing whatever endorphins were necessary to improve my mood, I actually experienced a mood elevation. I didn’t remember all the physiology from medical school, but better living through chemistry was my motto.

I cleaned off my desk, like a good little surgeon. I even called a couple of those nitwits from the insurance company, baffled them with some good ol’ Texas bullshit, and received approval to repair my patients’ orthopedic problems. The two surgeries were each postponed a month due to the insurance company’s delay tactics. Seriously? And what for? To control the surgeon and the hospital? Possibly just to enhance their bottom line? If an insurance company delays a thousand surgeries across the country for a month, or two, even, how much money in investment interest would the companies gain? Nope, the future of medicine was not bright, in my humble opinion.

Mary Louise was packing when I arrived home. I poured myself some Macallan 18, added one ice cube, and sipped the nectar of the gods.

“Jim Bob, do you want me to pack for you? And don’t hem and haw around and say you’re going to do it, and then it gets to be nine or ten at night, and I end up doing it for you anyway.

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