A Tortured Soul

Chapter 11
Chapter 11

Laura held Eddy close, patting his diaper as she said, “It’s all done Baby....All done,” over and over. When he settled down she felt better.

When Eddy held his arm out, looked at her with tearful eyes and practically begged, “Boo boo, kith it?” she gave a gentle kiss to the bandaid they had placed over the puncture site.

“All better,” Laura comforted. “Look Sweety, you’ve got Elmo on your boo boo band,” using his toddler term from years ago. She smiled as Eddy looked at the bandaid and smiled around his pacifier.

A second later, Dr. Stevens stepped into the room. With a smile, he looked directily at Eddy and said, “Hi Eddy.”

Laura had always like the doctor; he was kind and gentle, only causing pain when absolutely necessary. But it was the way he interacted with Eddy that made her keep coming back.

“Hi,” Eddy replied with a fearful tone.

“Why don’t you lay him down so I can take a look at him?” Dr. Stevens asked.

Laura had to reassure her son it was okay several times before he would let go of her and allow her to lay him down on the exam table.

Things went bad right away when Dr. Stevens grasped Eddy’s bear and attempted to pull it out from between his arm and his chest.

“Nooooo!” Eddy cried, holding the bear tight.

“It’s okay Eddy, I don’t want to take your bear away, I just want you to move it to your other arm, all right?” Dr. Stevens asked.

Eddy move the bear from his right to his left, never letting go of it.

Dr. Stevens reached out to touch the bruise under Eddy’s chin. Eddy whimpered, “Boo boo,” as tears ran from his eyes.

“Yes, I see that. How did you get the boo boo little fella?”

“Wipey. I faww down.”

“He told me he fell out of bed onto the box of wipes,” Laura explained.

“Hmmm...” Dr. Stevens replied. Taking two steps over to the shelf, he picked up the box of wipes and brought them over to Eddy. The boy whimpered when the wipe box was brought up to his chin, and began trembling. “It’s all right, I promise Eddy. I’m just looking,” Dr. Stevens reassured him as he gently put the box to the mark under his chin. “Yep, that did it all right,” he confirmed, putting the box back. “He had to have fallen pretty hard though. I think you might consider bed rails for a little while.”

“I had already planned to pick them up on our way home,” Laura agreed.

“Better to be safe than sorry,” he added. The next couple of minutes, he examined Eddy’s arms legs and torso. Coming back to his head, Dr. Stevens shined a light in Eddy’s eyes, one at a time, and then asked the boy, “Can you open wide for me?” as he gently pulled Eddy’s pacifier from his mouth. When Eddy started crying, he put the pacifier in Eddy’s hand, telling him, “You hold on to that, okay?”

Laura wasn’t surprised when Eddy calmed down immediately, and opened his mouth.

Dr. Stevens shined an ottoscope into his mouth, and asked, “Can you say AHHHH for me?” After Eddy complied, he asked him to say it again, but this time used a tongue depressor to push his tongue down. He pulled the wooden stick from Eddy’s mouth and threw it in the trash.

“All right little boy, I want you to say AHHHH again.”

“AHHHH.”

Laura wasn’t sure what the doctor was doing, because he wasn’t even looking in Eddy’s mouth.

“Say OOOOHHHH this time,” Dr. Stevens instructed.

“OOOOHHHH,” Eddy complied, and Laura understood then when she saw Eddy try not to smile.

“All right, now how about OOHH OOHH OOHH?”

Eddy smiled then as he made the sounds, sounding like a chimp.

“Hmmm...” Dr. Stevens said, as he tapped his index finger to his chin several times. “I think I know what the problem is,” he said as he took a hold of Eddy’s arm and began looking it over very carefully.

“What?” Eddy asked, curiosity plain on his face.

“Well, I don’t think you’re a little boy at all,” the doctor answered, moving his hands to Eddy’s chest. “I think you’re a monkey dressed up in a little boy suit,” he added, tickling Eddy as his hand pretended to look for something. “I know there’s got to be a zipper somewhere!” he exclaimed as he continued to tickle the boy.

Laura had to laugh as she watched Eddy giggling wildly while Dr. Stevens looked for the imaginary zipper. She was so thankful that Dr. Stevens was his doctor. Eddy looked worried for a moment when a noise sounded from the back of his diaper, but the anxious look disappeared almost instantly when Dr. Stevens said, “Well, I guess I look in your diaper last then,” with a chuckle, and continued to tickle him.

A full minute of laughter later, the doctor took the pacifier from Eddy’s hand and offered it to him. “You nurse on that and I’ll get some gloves, all right?”

Eddy smiled as he took the paci, and nodded his head. The anxiety was gone now, and Laura was grateful.

When Dr. Stevens moved back over to Eddy, he set the wipes and a bottle down, pulled the tapes free on his diaper, and began wiping Eddy’s bottom clean. Laura saw Eddy close his eyes and snuggle his bear as he nursed.

Once the messy diaper was out of the way, and a clean one under Eddy’s bottom, Dr. Stevens said, “Eddy, I need to check inside your bottom. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but it won’t hurt, I promise. Understand?”

Laura began running her fingers through Eddy’s hair again, the second she heard him start to whimper. “It’ll be all right Baby, I promise.”

Eddy looked at Dr. Stevens through tear filled eyes and nodded.

“That’s a good boy. It’ll only take a second.”

Laura watched as the doctor put some clear lubricant on his gloved index finger, and slowly inserted the finger into Eddy’s bottom.

“When I take my finger out Eddy, I want you to try not to go poop, all right?” he instructed.

When Eddy nodded, Dr. Stevens removed his finger and quickly pulled the diaper up between Eddy’s legs. The sound of fluid squirting could be heard a second later. “Did you try to hold it?” the doctor asked.

Laura felt bad for Eddy when he looked away and nodded his head, fresh tears running down his cheeks.

“It’s okay little guy, you did a good job of trying,” Dr. Stevens said with a pat to Eddy’s leg, just before taping the diaper snugly to his bottom. After washing his hands, he asked Eddy, “Do you like grape drink?”

“Uh huh.”

Dr. Stevens poked his head out the door and asked someone, “Can you get me some grape Pedialite?” and then returned to Eddy’s side. “I want you to do something very important for me, okay?” When Eddy nodded, he picked up Eddy’s bottle and said, “I want you to drink one of these every hour you’re awake for the next two days. Can you do that?”

“Yeth,” Eddy answered with a smile.

“Good boy,” Dr Stevens told him. Turning to Laura, he explained, “Be sure he does, or he’ll get dehydrated. I’m going to give him a bottle of Pedialite in just a moment, and I want you to go to the pharmacy and pick up enough for him to drink a bottle every hour. If he doesn’t drink fluids he’ll get very sick. Make sure he has one just before bed, and takes one to bed with him.”

“I’ll make sure he drinks it,” Laura assured him.

“All right. I don’t see anything obvious of a physical nature that’s wrong, but just to be safe, I want to order a scan of his head, and his abdomen. I’ll have someone schedule this with the outpatient center. It’ll probably take a couple of days to get him in, but again, I don’t think this is a physical problem, so I’m not concerned.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure he gets there.”

“Good.” Just then, a nurse entered the room with a bottle of purple fluid. Dr. Stevens took the bottle from her, said, “Thank you,” and transferred the liquid to Eddy’s bottle. Once he screwed the nipple back on, he offered it to Eddy and told him, “I want you to drink this all gone, okay?”

“Aww gone,” Eddy repeated and began nursing the bottle.

“Good boy.”

Laura took the bottle from Dr. Steven’s hand, holding it for Eddy. She didn’t understand why Eddy didn’t take it himself, but left the issue alone.

“All right, I think we’re done here. When he’s done with that bottle, get him dressed and see the receptionist for the prescriptions for the scans. You know where the pharmacy is, and I wouldn’t leave here without getting some Pedialite first. It’s probably cheaper at Walmart or Target, and I’d get the bulk of it there, but pick up at least two bottles here before you go,” he instructed.

“Okay, I’ll make sure he has at least two as soon as we leave the office here.”

“Good.”

When Dr. Stevens left the examination room, Laura sat down on the edge of the table, and wasn’t really surprised when Eddy scooted closer. She decided if she was going to hold his bottle for him, she was going to be more comfortable, and picked him up, laying him across her lap. He seemed to like that better as he snuggled closer, still not attempting to hold his own bottle.

The bottle was half empty when Eddy made another mess in his diaper. Laura knew then that she would need to get some more diapers for him. At this rate, she would be changing him every hour. She thought, “I better get some Desitin as well, or he’s going to have a very sore bottom before this is over.”

When the bottle was three-quarters empty, she told him, “Hold your ba-ba, Sweety, I need to get you dressed so we can go.”

She saw Eddy get anxious as he asked, “Bye bye?”

“Yes, Baby, we need to go bye bye now,” she answered with a kiss to his cheek. When he took his bottle, she shifted him back to the examination table, and quickly changed his diaper. She slid his short up his legs, and over his diaper, buttoning them in place. His shirt was next, and then his socks and shoes. By the time he was fully dressed, he had replaced the bottle with his pacifier.

“All right Baby, let’s go bye bye,” Laura told him as she picked him up and sat him on her hip, giving him several gentle pats to his padded bottom.

She had kissed his forehead before she realized it. Thinking for a moment, she decided it was just as well that she was responding to him this way. He was clearly behaving like a toddler, and to interact with him as if he was older seemed to just make him cry.

When they got to the receptionist’s desk, the lady had Laura sign a paper, and then handed her the prescriptions. “The earliest appointment I could get was Monday.”

“Well, then Monday it is,” Laura responded. She didn’t like having to wait almost a week, after all it was only Tuesday, but there was no help for it.

The receptionist smiled at Eddy, pointed to his bandaid and said, “Elmo.”

Eddy replied, “Boo boo band,” in a solemn tone.

“Mommy kissed it and made it all better though, huh?” Laura asked.

“Mmmm hmmm.”

“Well that’s okay then,” the receptionist offered.

“Say bye bye now, we have to go Sweety.”

“Bye bye,” Eddy told the woman.

“Bye bye Sweety.”

Eddy snuggled close to Laura as they passed through the door to the waiting room.