Chapter 7

Interview number one was with the female orthopedist. She looked good on paper, but as Sandra Galloway sat across the desk from Mason, he had a bad feeling. He asked her the usual questions about background and experience. Nothing stuck out as stellar or awful.

On an odd gut hunch, Mason picked up the top patient file from the stack on his desk. The files were ones he hadn't quite finished adding notes to. He pulled out the pages with his diagnostic thoughts and treatment plan and handed her the part with just the new patient information.

"Have a read through that and let me know what you think of the case," he said.

Galloway sat there for a couple minutes reading the file before she answered. "The woman is over forty, fat, and has fairly severe arthritis in her right knee. She's going to have to have a TKR at some point. At the moment, the only option that might help is a Hylagan injection."

Mason was caught between annoyed and disgusted. "And?" he prompted.

Galloway gave him a questioning look. "And… I'm not sure what else you're looking for."

"Other options maybe?"

"No. If she loses fifty pounds it'll help prolong what's left of her knee, since she's really not in the right age bracket for the replacement yet."

"Did you happen to notice her four page drug allergy list? Injectables usually aren't the first choice for a patient like that."

"That's all just BS. Lots of people think they have allergies if they so much as have heartburn from an NSAID. If she's really wound up about the idea, let her bring an epi-pen with her."

Mason just about dropped the ink pen in his hand. The idea of knowingly risking having a patient go into anaphylactic shock in the office floored him.

"Did you even glance at the rest of the history? The woman is a biochemistry professor at one of the local colleges. I think she probably knows if she has drug allergies. Also did you read the MRI report or notice her three separate injuries to that knee?"

"An MRI doesn't always tell you everything," Galloway replied.

From the change in the expression on her face, Mason could tell it was slowly dawning on her that she had tanked the interview. "No, but they can point you in logical directions. You'll be notified of our decision within thirty days."

She gave him a weak smile and shook his hand before she left.

Mason sat back down. Jesus Christ, there were days when the blasé attitude of Steve Villetti got on his nerves because the guy had an iffy beside manner on the best of days, but this woman… Mason wrote her off as a malpractice suit waiting to happen. At least Mason trusted Steve's competence. This woman… no, just no. At least there was another candidate who looked good. After this, though, Mason was reserving judgment until he met the guy.

***

Candidate number two looked like he belonged in high school, or so Mason thought. Graham Chin was in the last wind down phase of his residency and actively job hunting. Mason had been there and done that. He had ended up working for a practice with twenty-three other orthopedists for a couple of years before the sheer get'em in and get'em out mentality drove him up a tree. That had led to the formation of the practice he now shared with Steve and Kyle.

Short, slender, dark haired, wearing wire frame glasses, the man was dressed in a suit and a conservative tie. Mason sensed a thread of nervousness and found himself slightly cheered by the idea that the young doctor wasn't so full of himself that he expected to ace the interview.

"We're a small group, I'm sure you noticed," said Mason. "So it's important that anyone who joins us is willing to have a certain amount of flexibility regarding scheduling and patient load. We also want to find a good fit in meshing all our different personalities together." Mason picked up the same file he'd given to Galloway. "Have a look through this and give me your opinion on a treatment plan."

Chin spent several minutes longer than Galloway had, perusing the file. "She's not an easy case," he began. "I see there are three injuries spread over… wow, I initially misread one of those dates, spread over three decades. She doesn't appear to have had a lot of success with the arthroscopy that was done. Is she doing physical therapy?"

"Yes, she's been going for a couple of weeks now."

"Hmm, it's probably too soon to tell what help that is, given her history. I see that she had a really bad reaction to dexamethasone, so steroids shots are probably not a good idea. I might do another scope, but not until I see what six to eight sessions of PT do for her. There's also Synivisc or maybe PRP. The grade IV chondromalacia might respond well to the PRP. I would definitely go conservative first, since it appears she's still able to walk with only some pain."

Mason was pleased. Chin's approach was similar to his own, minus the healing Talent of course. Someone who actually considered patient history and whose first thoughts for treatment didn't involve a scalpel for a long term and complicated injury was a real plus.

"I find your ideas very sound." Mason asked Chin several more general questions about his back ground and preferences. All of the answers sounded sane and reasonable. "Would you be available either tomorrow or the next day to talk with Kyle Marin and Steve Villetti? I'm sure they will have some questions for you."

"Tomorrow would fine."

***

It was three days until New Year's and Cam wasn't exactly looking forward to facing Mason when he got home. The carrier was going out for two weeks, leaving on January second. It could be worse. It was a pretty short assignment, but Cam was only just getting used to the calm bliss of coming home to Mason every night. Telling Mason that he was going to be gone for a couple of weeks was destined to be an unhappy moment.

Cam pulled his motorcycle into the driveway, feeling half frozen despite a decent winter riding jacket and electric gloves. He'd spent all of last winter deployed, so hadn't had to cope with the frigid east coast weather. Riding in this kind of cold brought him one step closer to buying a second hand car just so he didn't have to freeze his ass off riding to and from work in the winter.

The Mustang wasn't in the driveway, so Mason must still be at work. Cam hurried inside to shed his gear and try to thaw out.

Half an hour passed before he heard the front door open. Cam looked up from the computer in his lap.

"I think I have a winner," Mason said.

"Winner of what?"

"Our orthopod position. I talked to both candidates this afternoon. The first one was a not just a 'no", she was a 'hell no.' The second one is named Graham Chin. He just finished his residency, which makes him a little green, but he seems to be really level headed and pretty bright."

"You gonna hire him?"

"As long as Kyle and Steve agree, yes I think so."

"Cool, that will take some of the stress off you, especially when you get yanked by Division P."

Mason flopped down on the sofa beside Cam and pulled him into a kiss.

"Oh, and on the topic of work people, Tyra and Ross are throwing a New Year's Eve party and expect us to at least put in an appearance," Mason said. It was almost a mumble against Cam's lips.

"Oh, um okay," Cam responded.

"That didn't sound very enthusiastic." Mason pulled back a bit to look at Cam's face.

"I have to leave on a short work-up cruise on the second."

Mason sighed a little. "It's not like we didn't know something like that was coming our way eventually."

"It's only for about two weeks."

"I'm glad it's not the six month version."

"Yeah, me too." Cam set the computer on the coffee table and leaned back across the cushions of the sofa, pulling Mason down on top of him.

"How long until we have to face that issue?"

"Eight or nine months."

He felt Mason heave a sigh, as Mason lay spread on top of him. "I'm not looking forward to that." Their foreheads were pressed together.

"Me neither. I've never had somebody waiting for me at home before."