Role play with Nurse Karen

“I’ll go with Nurse Karen.”

“I think that’s a great choice, Lauren.”

Dr. Sheryl picked up her phone.

“Hi, Karen? We have a special favor to ask you. We? Lauren and I. We’d like you to help her role play some events from yesterday. Thank you, that’s very sweet.”

She hung up the phone and Nurse Karen arrived shortly thereafter.

Lauren smiles when she saw her. The first person she really trusted.

“Lauren, it’s so good to see you again.”

Lauren hoped she really meant that. She was feeling so fragile and these two had been her first real support in years. Dr. Sheryl handed nurse Karen a chart.

“I’ll see you later Lauren. Take care of yourself, and I mean that.”

Lauren nodded and got up. She was reminded her butt was partially exposed as she felt air on it. She exited the room on her bare feet alongside Nurse Karen. There was someone waiting outside. A very skinny girl, in fact she was too skinny. She saw Lauren and Lauren saw her. They both averted their eyes. Lauren realized that she wasn’t the only one with body issues. Maybe she could really be helped.

Nurse Karen took Lauren down a hallway.

“How was your appointment?”

“It was good but really hard.”

“If it was easy you wouldn’t be here.” Karen said softly.

“I guess that’s true.”

They went into a room that was empty with no windows. Karen pulled down a curtain on the door’s window so no one could see in.

“Are you ready?”

“I... I don’t know. It’s still all so fresh. I don’t even want to think about it let alone try to do it again.”

“That’s completely fair, Lauren. However because it’s so fresh we might be able to stop it from being a permanent trauma by reworking how the memory processes in your mind.”

Lauren wasn’t an expert in psychology by any means but that actually sounded reasonable.

“Okay, I can... try.”

“Do you know what you’d like to do?”

Lauren tried to think but her mind felt like it was on fire. Even just trying to pick one of the memories felt like too much let alone acting on it. She felt like she was going to freak out but she didn’t want to upset Nurse Karen.