Ties that Bind part 6

Gabe walked over to the door to the exam room and frowned. "Acute Pericarditis… It's severe, but generally it's just a complication linked with other conditions. I might have to look into this further after these tests." He opened the door and walked over to his chair. As he was sitting down, he cleared his throat.

"Well, I've narrowed down the candidates, and it looks like you really do need an Echocardiogram and a CT scan." He looked over to Lisa, who was raising an eyebrow at him curiously. "RONI, get approval, will you?"

"Yes, Doctor. One moment, please."

Lisa cleared her throat. "So, what do you think I have?" She asked in a slightly demanding tone.

Gabe looked over at the computer, and then back at Lisa. "… I'm sorry. I can't say for certain until we run these tests. But I can say that it is definitely a heart condition." Lisa looked away.

"A… heart condition…" Lisa mumbled. "Will I… need surgery?"

"That all depends on what condition it is." Gabe stood up. "For now, there's no use worrying about it." He turned to the computer. "RONI, are those exams ready yet?"

"One moment, please. Approval seems to be incoming now." RONI responded. "Yes, Doctor. The CT exam is now available."

"… Just the CT? What about the Echocardiography?" Gabe raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"The Echocardiography will be performed after the CT exam," was the computer's response. "I will now call an assistant to escort the patient to the image exam room. Doctor, please head to the image analysis lab."

Emma walked into the room about a minute after RONI said that. "Doctor Cunningham, I'm here to take your patient to get her CT done, is that alright?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll be in the lab in a minute." Gabe watched as Emma led Lisa out of the room. After the door was closed, Gabe turned and headed back into his office. Joshua was sitting in his chair, spinning around in circles. The second he saw Gabe, though, he immediately stopped.

"Oh! D-Doctor! I thought you had to go run some tests on my mom, so…" Joshua jumped out of the chair and stood sheepishly by the desk.

"Yeah, I do." Gabe couldn't help but laugh inwardly at Joshua. He tried to act mature, but Gabe could easily tell that he was still a little kid on the inside. "I just wanted to know if you wanted to come help me. How about it?"

"H-Huh? Really?" Joshua's eyes lit up again. "You bet, Doctor! I'd love to!"

"Alright, then come with me. We'll be going to the lab to look at your mom's test results." Gabe walked over to the door and motioned for Joshua to follow him, which he did eagerly. The father and son walked across the hallway to the image analysis lab, where Joshua once again sat on Gabe's lap as they viewed Lisa's images.

"Okay, Joshua. These are called CT scans. They let us see what the inside of the body looks like." He pointed to one of the CT images. "You had a CT done when I diagnosed you, remember?"

"I remember!" Joshua said excitedly. "So, that big machine lets you take pictures of the inside of the body?"

"That's exactly right, Joshua." Gabe smiled. Joshua was one smart kid. "And when I click on this button, I can see what a normal image looks like." He clicked on the toggle switch and brought up the sample image. Joshua's eyes widened.

"So, we compare them, and if my mom's is different, then that's a symptom?" Joshua asked.

"That's right. You catch on pretty quick, kid." Gabe smiled down at Joshua, who looked extremely proud of himself. "Let's look at these images and see if we can find a difference." Joshua immediately glued his eyes to the screen, trying to pick out any abnormalities. Gabe chuckled to himself, and then turned his attention to finding what he was looking for.

"From what the information said," He thought, "there should be some obvious swelling around the heart. Let's take a look…" Joshua suddenly pointed at the screen.

"T-There! I see it, Doctor!" Joshua exclaimed.

"What do you see, Joshua?" Gabe looked at the CT, which he hadn't had the chance to thoroughly examine yet.

"This part is a little bit bigger than it should be." Joshua pointed to the spot on the CT where the heart was located. Sure enough, it was swollen. Gabe compared the sample with Lisa's image and came to the same conclusion.

"Good job, Joshua. Maybe you should be the doctor instead!" Gabe patted Joshua's head, then turned his attention back to the symptom. "But if the pericardium's this swollen, then we'll need to act quickly. RONI, record the symptom."

"Yes, Doctor. New symptom observed: "Swollen Pericardium"." The symptom flashed on the screen. "Also, the Echocardiography is ready."

"Great, let's have a look at that." Gabe closed the CT images and opened the newly added Echocardiography, and looked down at Joshua. "Shall we take a look at these, too?"

"Yeah!"