QOTD: A pet peeve?

AOTD: poor hygiene or being stuck behind slow people.

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~3rd person ~

"I can't believe you brought me here.." Jack hissed through gritted teeth, bouncing his leg at a rapid pace.

Mark sighed for the millionth time, "it's for your own good, I'm not just gonna sit here and watch you wither away like this"

Before Jack could make an argument a lady came from behind a closed door with a clipboard in her slim hands.

She pushed her glasses up looking down at her clipboard. "Sean?" The lady spoke, looking around the room.

Jack winced at the name he has longed to forget. He looked to Mark with anger and fear in his eyes. Mark gave him an apologetic glance, "I'm sorry, I told them to call you Jack."

Shaking his head in annoyance, Jack got up and went with the middle aged lady to a room with only a desk and a couch. Pretty plain if you asked him, only thing that was remotely interesting was the dark blue walls. To him it made the room less eerie.

As Jack sat down attempting to get comfortable, a much older lady with blue eyes walked in and shut the door. Casually dressed and hair put up in a messy bun. She walked over to her desk and sat down with a sweet smile.

"Hello Sean-"

Jack winced but worked up the courage to kindly correct her.

"It's Jack.." He mumbled, continuing to bounce his leg.

"Oh I'm sorry, Jack, my name is Jen" she smiled.

"I'm going to ask you some questions, and I'd like it if you'd try to answer them as best you can, okay?"

Jack nodded looking down in his lap, clearly not wanting to be there. He just wanted to go home and lay down.

"I'm glad you let us do a few tests, usually that would be enough for us to get the answers we need, but I always like to get to know my patients better by doing this kinda thing" said Jen.

Jack remained the same, his arms crossed over his chest and avoiding eye contact while his leg bounces rapidly. Jen took note of this.

"Why is your leg bouncing Jack?" She asked.

Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, Jack thought to himself.

"It's a nervous tic" he shrugged.

Jen nodded as she scribbled something down in her note book.

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"Okay Jack, final question. Do you find yourself moody on a daily basis? Extremely happy one minute, depressed or angry the next without the reason being valid?" She asked.

Jack pondered on the question, he knew he acted this way around others but why couldn't he admit it to himself? When he tries to think about why, he gets worked up and he no longer has control over his own voice and body.

"Jack?" She asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Uh..I guess so" he replied shrugging again.

Jen nodded, writing down a few more things in her notebook then stood up thanking Jack for his cooperation and showed him back to the waiting room where Mark sat.

Jen then pulled Mark aside briefly.

"I will call you when the results from the psychiatric office come back, would you like to schedule another appointment to discuss the results?"

"Sure, but I'm not certain Jack will come with me this time if that's alright" Mark replied.

She nodded and said goodbye as they walked out to their car, starting it up and heading home.

--- 1 week later ---

Mark sat speechless in the uncomfortable chair, looking down at the paper in front of him, saddened by the results. Too much to read, yet only five stuck out to him.

Bipolar disorder and Absent minded seizures.

Mark struggled to find words for a few moments, running his hand through his hair making it disheveled.

"I..I've done my research on Bipolar disorder before," said Mark.

"but I've never heard of absent minded seizures..." He admitted sadly.

"It's alright. Absence seizures causes a person, or in this case, Jack, to blank out or stare into space for a few minutes. I was a little surprised by the results myself since they are most common in children but it's not impossible for it to occur in teenagers or adults" Jen explained.

"What's the cause of them?" Mark said taking a deep breath.

"In general, seizures are caused by abnormal electrical impulses from nerve cells in the brain, but no underlying cause can be found for absence seizures. Hyperventilation and/or stress can trigger this type of seizure, but the main cause is unknown" she explained.

Mark only nodded.

"What are the causes for his bipolar disorder?" Asked Mark.

"Well, Jack is not a young boy anymore so it's not caused by hormonal imbalances, the environmental factors are abuse, mental stress, a significant loss, or some other traumatic event may contribute to the disorder" said Jen.

Mark put his head in his hands, he was almost brought to tears by this whole thing.

"What can I do to help him? He can't just suffer like this" Mark felt a stray tear run down his face but quickly swiped it away with the back of his hand.

"Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about his seizures, but we are sending you home with Olanzapine, it is an antipsychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder"

Mark looked at her puzzled, "but he doesn't have schizophrenia?"

Jen gave him a look of sympathy, "the test results did conclude that Jack has a very small percentage of schizophrenia but not enough to harm him at this stage..It may affect him in the future"

All Mark wanted to do was break down, he wanted to yell at the world and say why? Why do this to the one he loved the most? But instead he thanked Jen for everything she's done and got Jacks prescription and drove home.

How the hell am I gonna tell Jack? This will break him.. Mark thought to himself as he pulled out of the parking lot.