Spring Proposal In Swallowbrook. Abigail Gordon

of septicaemia appeared.

      ‘Jeremy decided to wait until Monday morning when one of us was available, but before he could get in touch I called to see him on my way here, if you remember, and from then on it was all systems go to get him into hospital. I’m afraid that he might lose the leg through nothing more than his own negligence as he hadn’t taken the medication I’d prescribed.’

      ‘How could he have been so foolish with all the facilities of the NHS at his disposal?’ she exclaimed.

      ‘Yes, exactly,’ he agreed, and as the big hand of the surgery clock swung on to half past eight Ruby went into her own small room and picking up a patient’s notes from the top of a small pile on the desk went to find him.

      There were a few surprised glances when she appeared in the doorway of the waiting room and as she smiled upon them she wondered how many of them would shy away from consulting a doctor of her obvious youthfulness.

      But the spotty teenage youth who got to his feet in answer to his name didn’t care who he was being seen by as long as they could do something to put an end to the misery that a face covered in pimples was causing him.

      ‘I’ve come about these zits,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I can’t face going anywhere with my skin like this and I don’t know what to do about it.’

      Ruby flashed him a friendly smile. ‘Maybe you don’t, Dominic, but I do. You’ve come to the right place. It is acne that you’ve got, the teenage blight.

      ‘It will have started by blackheads appearing, am I right?’ He nodded sombrely. ‘Then the blackheads became zits, and if those zits aren’t treated they will become cysts that are infected with bacteria made up of dead skin and white blood cells, known as cystic acne, which can leave permanent scars. So we need to sort this out quickly as your problem is moving in that direction.’

      He had gone very pale. What he was suffering from was every teenager’s nightmare. The embarrassment of it would be unbearable.

      ‘I’m going to put you on an antibiotic capsule that is very good for this sort of skin infection. It should attack the bacteria, reduce the inflammation, and prevent it from progressing into what I’ve just described.’

      He was smiling for the first time. ‘That’s great! You’ve no idea how much it’s been affecting me.’

      ‘Yes, well, you’ll have to be patient, you know.’ she told him sympathetically. ‘The problem isn’t going to disappear overnight, but you should soon see an improvement. Come and see me again in a couple of weeks.’

      When he’d gone with less of the attitude of the ‘leper’ in his manner Ruby thought that no matter what age group there was always some health problem that could arise. She knew that only too well from what Robbie had to endure and his was for always, just the same as hers was.

      With regard to her first patient of the day his problem should clear up with the right medication and when his body had adjusted to the changes of adolescence.

      When the doctors stopped for a brief coffee break in the middle of the morning Libby appeared to say that it was the antenatal clinic in the afternoon that she was usually in charge of, but not today as she had an appointment of that nature herself at the hospital on the lakeside. So Hugo would be taking it instead and she, Ruby, along with one of the practice nurses, would be assisting him.

      ‘Have you done anything like that before?’ she asked with a smile for the young doctor who was now part of the practice.

      ‘I haven’t done antenatal as such,’ Ruby said slowly at the thought of being enclosed with Hugo for a full afternoon, ‘but I spent a month on a maternity ward during my hospital training.’