A Consultant's Special Care. Joanna Neil

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      ‘What about your family? Are your parents able to help out?’

      Jessica shook her head. ‘We had a big falling out when I married Colin. They didn’t like him and they warned me against marrying him, but I went ahead anyway, and they were angry with me. I haven’t had much contact with them over the last few years. At first I was loyal to Colin, and later I was too proud to admit that they had been right all along. It got more difficult to get in touch as time went on.’

      ‘I’m sorry.’ That seemed so sad to Abby, to be isolated from your family when they were still around, but there was no time for her to talk about it now, and Jessica was looking poorly again.

      Abby said quickly, ‘Look, you don’t look at all well. I’ll have a word with Mrs Matthews next door, shall I? She seems nice and friendly, and she’s on her own. She’ll probably be glad to help out if you’re in a fix.’

      Jessica was probably feeling too ill to disagree, because she bent over as though she was in some pain. Abby stayed with her long enough to see that she wasn’t about to collapse, and then hurried away to find her other neighbour.

      Mrs Matthews’s eyes widened when Abby explained the situation a minute or so later. In her sixties, she was a widow, and she generally kept herself to herself, although she was friendly whenever Abby spoke to her.

      ‘Of course I’ll go round there right away and help out. You get yourself off to work, love. They’ll be all right with me. Don’t you worry.’

      Relieved that she had resolved the situation in part, Abby got in her car and set off for work. After all these delays, she was certain that she was going to be late, and she was sure that Jordan wouldn’t take kindly to that.

      She had half hoped he would be too busy attending to a patient to notice her arrival when she finally hurried into the accident and emergency department, but she was out of luck.

      ‘So you’re here at last, Dr Curtis,’ he said tersely, subjecting her to a laser-eyed scrutiny. ‘I would have expected you to at least make an effort to be here on time on your first day.’

      ‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she said. ‘I would have been on time, but my neighbour—’

      ‘Please, don’t give me any excuses,’ Jordan said crisply. ‘I don’t want to hear them, and I’m sure the patients don’t either. You’ll find the first one waiting for you in cubicle three.’

      ‘I—I’ll go and deal with it now. Right away.’ She backed away from him, feeling flustered and out of sorts, then turned and headed for the cubicle. He could have at least let her explain.

      As the day wore on, she settled uneasily into her role as senior house officer. The summer season was on them and, as well as the usual number of local people who attended A and E because of traffic accidents or work-related injuries, there were many holidaymakers who found themselves in trouble of one sort or another.

      Abby did her best to stay calm and clear-thinking, and deal with everything that came her way, and after a while she began to feel that she was coping reasonably well. Then a child was brought in, suffering from flu-like symptoms, with muscle and joint pains.

      The boy was ten years old, and complained of a headache. ‘He has a fever,’ the nurse said quietly, and Abby nodded acknowledgement.

      She smiled reassuringly at him, and said gently, ‘I just need to examine you, Fraser. Can you tell me where it hurts most?’

      ‘My knees,’ he said, with a hint of breathlessness. ‘I hurt everywhere, but my knees are the worst. My chest hurts as well.’

      ‘OK. Let’s take a look at you.’ She ran the stethoscope over his chest and heard a faint irregularity of the heartbeat. ‘We’ll do an ECG,’ she told the nurse in an undertone. ‘There may be some inflammation around the heart that’s causing his breathlessness.’

      The boy’s knee joints were swollen, she discovered. Frowning a little, she tried to work out what it was that was causing Fraser’s symptoms. ‘Let’s do blood tests as well to see if there’s an infection.’

      Turning to his mother, she said, ‘We’re going to do tests to find out what could be causing his illness. As soon as we have the results, we’ll be able to consider our treatment options. In the meantime, we’ll need to admit him for observation.’

      Jordan appeared at her side just then, and indicated that he wanted to talk to her privately. She wondered how long he had been watching her. Throughout the day, she had been conscious of him in the background, and she was sure he was keeping an eagle eye on her progress. The last thing she wanted to do was to let him know that she was floundering, but she didn’t know quite how she could avoid it.

      ‘Are you having trouble making a diagnosis?’ he asked softly, when they had retreated outside the cubicle, leaving the boy with his mother.

      ‘It isn’t anything I’ve come across before,’ she admitted. ‘I think it may be an infection of some kind, especially if it’s affecting his heart in some way, as well as his joints.’

      ‘May I take a look?’ he enquired, and she agreed readily enough.

      Jordan introduced himself to the boy and his mother, and made a careful examination, just as Abby had already done. ‘On holiday, are you?’ he asked Fraser, and the boy nodded.

      ‘We came here about ten days ago,’ his mother said.

      Jordan smiled. ‘It’s beautiful around here, isn’t it?’ He glanced back at the boy, and said lightly, ‘Have you been taking the coastal walks hereabouts, or do you think you might have been overdoing the football?’

      ‘No football,’ Fraser answered, struggling a little for breath, ‘but we’ve done lots of walking.’

      Jordan gently examined the boy’s calves. ‘Did you keep to the paths, or have you sometimes wandered through the fields?’

      The boy looked puzzled, and said anxiously, ‘Both. Did I do something wrong?’

      ‘Nothing at all,’ Jordan answered cheerfully. ‘I like to take the coastal walks myself. There are some lovely views over the bay.’ He turned to Abby and pointed out a slightly reddened area on the boy’s calf. ‘Do you see that?’ he asked.

      She had missed it. It was fairly insignificant, and it wasn’t something that she would have paid much heed to under normal circumstances. Now, though, she sent Jordan a questioning look.

      ‘What is it?’

      ‘A tick bite, most likely. Sometimes they’re quite pronounced, but if this happened a few days ago the area around the bite might have settled down a bit.’ He showed the child the reddened patch and said quietly, ‘I think you might have been bitten by a tick when you were on one of your walks. They’re usually found on sheep or deer, but walkers can suffer from their bites occasionally. They can pass on an infection called Lyme disease, which may lead to symptoms like yours. We’ll know for certain when the test results come through.’

      ‘What does it mean?’ Fraser’s mother asked. ‘Can you treat it?’

      ‘We can. If it is Lyme disease, we’ll start him off СКАЧАТЬ