Read Online Their Baby Surprise by Jennifer Taylor - Free Book Online Page A

listen to them and affording them the courtesy they deserved. He liked people and wouldn’t have chosen to do this job if he didn’t care.
    His next patient was a teenage boy called Adam Shaw. He came shuffling into the room, looking very ill at ease. Matt asked him to sit down and smiled encouragingly at him. ‘So what can I do for you today, Adam?’
    ‘I…well…um…’ Adam turned bright red with embarrassment. It was obviously an ordeal for him to explain the reason why he had come.
    ‘There’s no need to be embarrassed, Adam. I assure you that I won’t be shocked by whatever you tell me.’ Matt looked the boy firmly in the eyes. ‘Just spit it out and tell me what’s wrong.’
    ‘It’s down here, you see,’ Adam muttered, pointing to his groin. ‘There’s something…well, not right.’
    ‘In what way?’ Matt’s tone was businesslike because he knew it was the fastest way to extract the information he needed. At this rate they would still be sitting here at midnight!
    That reminded him of what he had planned for the evening but he managed to brush the thought aside. If he started thinking about Rachel and this dinner they were having, he would be in no better state than young Adam.
    ‘Can you describe your symptoms for me, Adam?’
    ‘I…um…I’ve had this sort of discharge ,’ Adam explained, his face turning even more fiery. ‘And everything feels sort of swollen , you know.’
    ‘I see. Right, I’ll need to examine you so if you could just pop behind the screen and remove your trousers etcetera, I’ll be with you in a moment.’
    Matt gave the boy a couple of minutes to get ready then examined him. Adam’s testicles were indeed swollen and he admitted that he experienced discomfort every time he passed urine. Add that to what the boy had told him about there being a discharge and Matt was soon able to make a diagnosis.
    ‘It looks as though you have non-specific urethritis, Adam,’ he told the teenager once they were sitting down again. ‘The urethra has become inflamed and that’s why you have these symptoms. My main concern now is to identify the micro-organism that has caused it, although most cases of NSU are due to a sexually transmitted disease like chlamydia. If that is the cause in this instance it means I shall have to contact all your sexual partners and check if they require treatment too.’
    ‘Oh, no! I can’t believe this is happening.’ Adam put his head in his hands and groaned. ‘Will you have to tell my parents? They’ll go mad if they find out!’
    ‘No.’ Matt shook his head. ‘You’re seventeen so there is no need to involve anyone apart from the girls you’ve slept with. It’s imperative that they are checked out too because if it is chlamydia, it can have serious repercussions for them in the future. For you as well as it can cause infertility if it isn’t treated.’
    ‘I’ve only slept with one girl and that’s the truth, Dr Thompson. It was my first time and I thought it was hers, too, but apparently not.’
    Adam was obviously deeply upset by the idea that he had been misled. Matt gave Adam a moment to collect himself then carried on, wanting to get all the information he needed. He made a note of the girl’s name and address then collected some samples to send to the lab for testing. He then wrote out a script for erythromycin and told Adam to come back to see him in a week’s time when the lab results would be back. He would explain then that Adam would need to make follow-up visits for the next three months to make sure he hadn’t suffered a relapse.
    He made a note to check if Adam’s girlfriend was a patient at the practice and buzzed in his next appointment, glancing at the clock as he did so. Just half an hour to go until surgery ended and he and Rachel could enjoy that dinner they had planned. Maybe it was only a working dinner but that didn’t matter. Being with her was enough, probably more than he should allow himself given