Of Holidays and Typical Days...

[john_carter_md]

If you could invent a holiday, what and when would it be? What special traditions would take place on that day? If I could name a holiday, I'd make one for victims of cancer. There's two days that recognise AIDS, June 21 and December 1. There's not a lot of fan fare for either and they're not exactly holidays. But I'd give cancer awareness a day

Comments

[kathy_tm]

It's become typical o see, or feel, my brother hanging around. Bobby's been dead for more than twenty years. Closer to thirty. I used to imagine he was still with me when I was a kid. But lately, I feel like he's watching over me.

"As I'm sure he his."

[john_carter_md]

Startled, Carter spins around. Seeing Kathy, he breaks into a wide grin and moves to embrace her. "Kathy!" he shouts, lifting her off her feet and swinging her around a time or two before setting her down.

[kathy_tm]

Kathy grinned for the first time in seemingly weeks.

"Carter!" she replied teasingly, giggling as she was spun around and then set down again. "How are ye?"

[john_carter_md]

"Better, now that you're here," he answered with a genuine smile. "I'm good. Been trying to get out more. How are you?"

[kathy_tm]

"I'm glad t'hear it," Kathy responded. She thought a moment before answering Carter's question.

"I'm a little dizzy," she said with a grin, before her expression faltered slightly. "But other than that...well, Angel's awaken from 'is coma...so I s'ppose I'm just grand."

Her lips pulled upward into what she hoped was a convincing smile. In truth, she had not had a decent night's sleep in nearly a week, and it showed in her pale complexion and the circles under her eyes.

[john_carter_md]

Now that he's gotten over the thrill of seeing her, he's noticing she doesn't look all together well.

"Kath? What is it? What's bothering you?"

[kathy_tm]

Kathy bites her lip, considering a moment before responding.

"Everythin'." she confides. "I s'ppose I don't really have a-...a right t'be feelin' so sad..."

She sighes. "Angel's awake...but 'e doesn't seem...th'same. An' I just wish I could make 'im feel better, but I can't. I can't do anythin' except get in th'way."

She stops herself, realizing that perhaps she has said too much. She feels guilty to feel the way she does, as though by taking her own emotions into consideration, she is being selfish.

"I'm sorry," she says quickly.

[john_carter_md]

"Don't be sorry, Kathy. Talk to me. You need to talk. You need to let it all out. I'm here. I'm listening." He leads her to a place to sit, and he sits with her, holding her hands in his.

[kathy_tm]

Kathy nods, but hesitates before talking.

"I-...I'm not entirely certain..." she continues shakily. "I just do not want t'be a burden to anyone, especially Angel, after all that's 'appened. I don't want t'get in th'way, or make things worse. I'd rather die."

"I miss me Mam and Father. An' me brother, th'way he was before the-...accident."

Kathy shakes her head, blinking, as she tries to keep her composure. She hasn't spoken a word of anything that has been on her mind to anyone before Carter, and everything that she has kept bottled up inside of her for so long is finally coming to surface.

[john_carter_md]

"Unfortunately it is true that sometimes some people show a personality change after a coma. It's one of those medical mysteries, no one really knows why it happens. Usually the patient works his way out of the funk after a few days." Carter looks into her eyes, hoping his words might give her some comfort and understanding. Without seeing her brother for himself, it's hard for Carter to know just what's happening.

[kathy_tm]

Kathy nodded.

"I understand," she said. "Thank ye."

She smiled weakly. "I'd rather like t'change th'subject, if 'tis all right with ye."

[john_carter_md]

"Of course, dear heart," Carter touches her shoulder tenderly. "What do you want to talk about? Hopefully not my last shift because it was slow. I treated a little girl with the flu, and a woman who fell off a step ladder and sprained her anklle. I tihnk that was the high light of an eight hour shift." He smiles slightly.

[kathy_tm]

"D'ye prefer to have slow shifts or busy shifts?" Kathy asks interestedly. She has spent enough time in a hospital recently to learn of the 'routine', so to speak, but it is fascinating to her to know of an actual doctor's point of view.

[john_carter_md]

"It depends. Busy ones keep you, well, busy. So you don't have too much time to think. Or eat. or rest. Or anything. Slow ones, like today, there's too much time to sit around and do nothing."

[kathy_tm]

Kathy nods.

"I see."

"An' d'ye like bein' a doctor?" she asks, nearly sure that she already knows the answer.

[john_carter_md]

Carter smiles slightly. "I do. Most days I can't imagine ever doing anything else. Last year, when i went to Africa, I saw a whole new side of it when I worked in refugee camps and small hospitals with almost no supplies. It's definitely what I was meant to do with myself."