“Can’t you just give me something for constipation?”
I rested my stethoscope on her wrinkled belly and heard nothing. I pushed down gently and she jerked in pain.
“I think you need to go the hospital,” I said. “You can barely stand me touching your stomach and you haven’t passed gas all day.”
“But, can’t you just give me medicine?”
“Victory in Tough Seasons BG” by Lee Steele (modified by Shannon Gianotti)
I hate moments like this. Medicine—despite how it seems on TV—isn’t a perfect science. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if someone need surgery or if they’re just backed up. And, no one wants to spend six hours at the hospital to find out that they were, after all, just constipated.
