Brittany Darcy called Sylvia Wasser on the phone.  “Can you come back here?”

“Sure.  Did I do something wrong?”

“No.  I think this is a good time for you to see what we do.”

“Let me see if someone can cover.”

“Call me back if you can’t.”

A few minutes later Sylvia crutched up to Brittany.  “I’m here.”

“Look at this chart.  We have a fifteen year old girl who had her leg trapped in an auto accident.  They had to amputate it.”

“Which leg?”

“Good question.  Right.”

“Bummer.  Makes driving harder.  Was it above or below the knee?”  Brittany didn’t like the word bummer that Sylvia used often but then it was probably not a bad description of the situation.  Some day she would suggest a better term.

“Good question.  Above.”

“Bummer.  It helps if she has the knee.  Short or long stump?”

“Very short.”
“Big bummer.  That makes fitting and walking a whole lot harder.”

“Good again.  What should I look for?”

“The cut, I mean incision, healed up, clean, not red or puffy.  There can’t be any sore spots.  The stump can’t be swollen or full of fluid.  Edema or something like that.”

“Good.  Then what?”

“If they are all good you schedule the casting.”

“She was in last week.  It looked almost ready.  I scheduled the casting if it was OK.  Let’s go.  Just you stand and watch.  I’ll explain a lot of what I am doing.  Let’s go in.”

Brittany pushed the door open.  “Hi Marta.  Mrs. Kennedy.  I want to introduce Sylvia, she is one of our associates.  She works in the office but we want them to see what we do back here so they can help our patients better.  If you agree we would like her to stay.”

Mrs. Kennedy looked at Marta.  “Is it OK with you?”

“Yes mom.”