Altered States
+Chapter Six+
Tests and More Tests
~Flashback~
Brian sat in the small waiting room waiting quietly for Dr. Allen. This had been
his family doctor since he was a little kid. He trusted him completely. Dr. Dan
was the man that pretty much saved his life by correctly diagnosing his heart
condition.
Left alone in his thoughts, he wished he hadn’t convinced Nick that he would be
okay and to just stay back at the hotel. Brian was beginning to wonder if this
“something” that was happening to him was more serious than he was allowing
himself to think.
“Okay, now you’re just starting to sound completely stupid,” Brian reprimanded
himself for allowing those thoughts to enter his mind.
He stiffened up in his seat when the door clicked open. Dr. Allen entered the
room, his silver wire-rimmed glasses perched halfway down his nose.
Dr. Allen took the seat next to Brian. He placed the folder containing the health
history on his lap.
“Brian, I’m completely stumped on this. What you describe for your symptoms,
the headaches, dizziness and memory lapses mimmick a head injury, but the
x-ray of your head came back negative.”
Brian listened quietly as Dr. Dan ran through his theories outloud.
“How long has this been going on again?”
Brian thought for a second. “Oh, I guess probably like five or six months. It used
to be probably once a week but now it’s happening everyday.”
“Are the headaches severe?” Dr. asked as he started scribbling notes on the tiny
pad of yellow paper.
“Yeah sometimes they are, I get the dizziness with the headaches.”
“I see. Does your speech get affected? Do words come out wrong?”
“No, I just sometimes forget things, stuff I should know and remember,” Brian
replied anxiously.
“I’d like to have you checked into the hospital for some tests--”
“No! I can’t be doing that, isn’t there any other way?” Brian protested.
Dr. Allen tapped the pen on the pad of paper as he thought. “Well, I suppose we
could rush this through STAT, but you should plan on being there for a good 12
hours or more, could you manage that?”
“Do I have any other options?”
“No. I need to have tests ran and the hospital is the only place that has the type
of diagnostics available to me.”
“What kind of tests are you talking about?” Brian asked warily. He didn’t
especially care for hospitals and wished he could avoid going there.
“Well, besides blood work, and depending on what the lab results show, I do
want to start out with an MRI of your brain. Are you clausterphobic?”
Brian’s eyes widened. “Is....it isn’t that tube thing is it?”
“Okay, I take that as a yes.” Dr. Dan patted Brian’s knee. “Don’t worry, we can
give you a mild sedative before you go in.”
Brian looked a little relieved, but still apprehensive.
“Will someone be accompanying you?”
“No, I really don’t want anyone to be with me, just in case this is something
worse than what I’m thinking it is. But it won’t be, it’s probably just stress or
something,” Brian added, trying to reassure himself.
A faint knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Dr. Dan reached behind
and opened the door while he was still sitting. An older nurse popped her head
in holding sheets of papers.
“Here’s the results of the patient’s labwork,” the nurse said in a hushed tone as
she handed the papers over to the doctor.
The doctor took the papers and thanked the nurse. He flipped through the
sheets once and then re-read them a second and a third time. Without saying
anything to Brian, he rose from his seat and walked over to the phone on the
wall and punched in four numbers.
“Marty? Dan Allen. I need to have some diagnostics done on a patient of mine
STAT......MRI and CT of the brain......bone scan.......we might need an
ultrasound.........no, all outpatient.......one more thing, this is a high profile
patient, the strictest confidentiality is required......okay I’ll send him over right
now, thanks.”
Brian held his breath as the doctor hung the phone up. The doctor turned around
to face him, his face was grim.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“Brian, the labs that came back indicated to me that there is something going on
for sure, but we have to find out where and what it is.”
Brian tried to swallow the lump that was forming in his throat. “What is it
showing?”
“I really don’t want to say anything until I know the results,” Dr. Dan replied.
Brian closed his eyes. “Please just tell me.”
“Your labs had a specific elevation and your wbc’s were low as well as your
rbc’s.”
“I don’t understand,” Brian replied.
“It’s pinpointing that there may be a cancer.”
Chapter 7
