My Entry-Cold Sensation

Cold Sensation

I felt horrible.  My throat was scratchy and I could feel my sinuses blocking up.  I even had a slight wheeze.  This was not good, especially since I worked in a hospital.  I had to stop in the hallway to blow my nose into a tissue.  My friend Mary came up.

“You sound terrible.  You know there is a bad cold going around.  Suzanne had it and I haven’t seen her for days now.  She didn’t even call in sick so she must really be sick.  You should make sure you don’t get too run down.”

Mary was always chatty.  This cold was probably a highlight for her and the fact that Suzanne was gone was only the frosting on the cake.

“Thank you Mary for your concern.  My shift only lasts a few more hours and then I will go straight home and take care of myself.”

“You should because the next thing you know you will have pneumonia.  These days we’re all at risk from these viruses.  Now they are resistant to everything, even microwaves I heard.  Who knows what might happen next.”

Well, even if Mary didn’t know she would make something up.  I kept saying “yes, your right”, “definitely”, and so forth, as I backed away down the hall.  By the end Mary was practically shouting to get her message to me but I slipped into the ultrasound room and found sanctuary. It was cool and dim in here.  It was such a nice contrast to the chaos out in the main hall.  Then I sneezed again and ruined the whole effect.  I wiped my nose with a tissue and went back into the tech’s office.

I was really starting to feel worse.  My head was throbbing and my stomach was even a little queasy.  It couldn’t all be because I had an encounter with Mary. No, I was definitely coming down with something serious. 

I had never liked the fact that we were right next door to the Bio Lab.  They had all sorts of microbes in there.  We were one of the few hospitals with a rating of Code 3 viral contagions.  Not small pox but the next worse thing.  I saw Sam sitting at the desk writing a radiologist report.

“How are you doing?  Everyone seems to be coming down with the cold from hell.”

He looked at me and I gasped.  His eyes were watery and bloodshot.  His nose looked like a Santa figurine and he was definitely wheezing.  I took a couple of steps back.

“You need to go home!”

“I will but I have to get this report to the doctor before I go.  It is a number one priority.  I’m almost done.”  Then he turned back to his work and I noticed that he dropped his pen.  He went to pick it up and dropped it again.  “I’m going nutty!”

“Can I help you?  Write while you dictate?”

“It hasn’t gotten that bad yet.” Then he grabbed his pen firmly in his hand and started to write again.

I wished him luck and then went to the front counter and looked at the case load.  We had a patient coming in ten minutes.  Just as the patient arrived, I had to turn away and sneeze five times in a row.  The patient looked at me like I was the last thing she needed.  It was an ultrasound of a kidney stone so it should be over fairly quickly.

I got her on the table and was half way through when I went into a coughing fit.  I sounded like a three pack a day smoker.

“Can someone else help me here?  The last thing I need is to get sick.  I’m already in agony!”

She looked pretty bad but it would take four times longer if we switched half way through.

“I’m through with your right kidney and it will take an hour longer to change at this point.  I promise to be fast.  Can you roll over on your right side so I can get a good picture of the left kidney?”  Just as she rolled over the probe fell through my hand and onto the patient.  I stopped and just looked at it.

“Are you going to do this or not?”

“Yes. I’m sorry that was just strange.”  I finished her procedure and sent the film up to the radiologist so he could make a report.  The patient was wheeled out and I walked back to see how Sam was doing.

When I got to the office I was dumbfounded.  The report was there half finished with the pen sitting on top.  I picked up the pen and it felt sticky.  I quickly put it down and then went to find out if Sam had left and who could finish the report.  No one had a clue where Sam was.  They all said he was going to finish the report and then go home. 

I picked up the report to see how far he had gotten when it fell through my hands.  It didn’t fall from my hands but right through them.  I took a step and my feet were sticking to the floor.  I sneezed again so many time that I couldn’t keep count.  The next thing I felt was a wind sensation and then I was gone.  I had fallen through the floor and was falling further.  I felt as insubstantial as air but air doesn’t fall through the ground.  I was being pulled into the core of the planet and there was nothing I could do.

****
“Have you heard we lost about five lab monkeys?  The cages were intact but the monkeys were just gone.”

“Oh God the FDA will pull our license.  By the way have you seen Mary?”

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