The convulsions were much lessened that night, but the interruptions by nurses bearing blood tests were PERFECTLY scheduled to remove ANY chance of her sleeping. We were now at 5 nights without ANY sleep! And when Doctor L came in in the morning, Eve was hysterical!

WHY AREN'T YOU LETTING ME SLEEP!

ISN'T SLEEP NECESSARY FOR PROPER HEALING!

WHY DID YOU KEEP PAINKILLERS FROM ME FOR SO LONG!

WHY WON'T YOU LET US HAVE A HEATING PAD!

WHY DON'T YOU HAVE ANY THAT WORK!

As I said, Eve was hysterical, and was NOT waiting for answers as she buried Doctor L under an avalanche of accusations and insanities that we were encountering.

At which point Doctor L exploded at her, "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!".

At which point I exploded at him, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING! CAN'T YOU SEE SHE'S TERRIFIED!"

At which point Doctor L asked to be excused.

I've often thought about what was going on in Doctor L's head at this point. Whatever it was, I think it is indicative of the normal Doctor's state-of-mind at any given time of day at work. I think it worked something like this, though...

...Patient distressed...accessing standard re-assurance database...attempting to send re-assurance...aborted...retry...aborted... Accusation registered! Warning! Warning! Defense processors online! Emergency Search on Memory Circuits...Results Inconclusive! Attempting to track! Activate Denial mechanisms! Attempting to launch Denial...aborted...retry... aborted...New Accusation Registered against Hospital and co-workers! Memory circuits has no data! Cannot track new accusation! PRIORITY INTERRUPT! MUST SEND DENIAL TO PROTECT BASE! Attempting to launch Blanket Priority Denial! Aborted...retry...aborted...Tracking systems being overloaded with new accusations! Denials not launching! Systems crash...Overload!...Overload!..."WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!"

Or something like that.

Doctor L had been my doctor for about five years, though I rarely went to see him about anything. My problems have always been minor things that did not require anything like compassion, or caring, or understanding. Doctor L is a good doctor. He's just not human. And I needed humans to care for Eve.

The Doctor returned about an hour later. We had a list of questions that we were going to ask him that morning, and he had taken it with him when he left before. When he came back, he apologized for his actions, which he admitted were inexcusable. He then tried to answer some of the questions on our list, calmly. Eve was quiet, and didn't look at him.

Needless to say, he wasn't our doctor anymore after this.

And the fourth day was the day for the scoping. This was performed by Doctor C. He was a very friendly Doctor, or so I thought. And he may truly be nice. The only thing that started making me think different was when he was being assisted by his nurse. The 'Yes, Doctor C.', 'No, Doctor C." that she was saying freaked me out. To me, it wasn't being said with respect like Nurse Chapel always gave Doctor McCoy. I caught fear in that voice. A lot of it.

Maybe I'm just imagining it.

But he treated Eve kindly, though the procedure was painful and very uncomfortable. The medication that she was given was supposed to make her forget everything about it, but it didn't work well. Eve remembered a great deal of the procedure, unfortunately, and remembered how horrible it felt. I was allowed to stay with her this time, and hold her hand, but it didn't mean much as Eve was knocked silly by the drug and got little comfort by me being there. What they found was massive damage done by the infection. If it had been any worse, in fact, the doctor said that her colon may have burst. As it was, it didn't look as though there was going to be any lasting effect or condition.

But still, we were barred from leaving the hospital until the results came back from the samples taken.

That night Eve wanted to get out of her hospital room to wander around. Most hospitals have nice places for patients to go to relax and get away from the sterile environment that they were in. Not this one, though. Or to be more exact, St. Joseph's DOES have a wonderful room, filled floor to ceiling with tropical plants and a gorgeous skylight. Its the type of room you'd expect them to have imported exotic birds flying around in. But this room is off limits to patients. We could only look in through a small window on the door. Only doctors are allowed in this room. This hospital's continued contempt for their patients never stopped amazing me.