When I'm on the night shift, all the department heads can't sleep.

Lin Ye reached out and moved the chair closer to her, his tone showing no impatience: "Auntie, could I take a look at the box of medicine in your bag? If the wrong medicine is prescribed, you might feel unwell after taking it, which would only cause more trouble."

The aunt immediately tightened the cloth bag around her chest, her brows furrowing even more: "That's some other medicine I took, it has nothing to do with blood pressure! What's wrong with you all? You're making excuses, I've been out for almost an hour, and my husband is still lying in bed waiting for me to feed him!"

Her voice was already loud, and the people in line behind her chimed in, saying, "Yeah, why are you taking so long to get a prescription? Don't you see they have other things to do at home?"

Lin Ye ignored the whispers behind him and just looked at her: "It'll only be a glance, two minutes. If there's really no problem, prescribe the necessary medications. If the medications conflict, and your dizziness worsens, then your uncle will be left without anyone to care for him, wouldn't that be even more troublesome?"

They were talking about things that Auntie was most worried about.

The aunt paused, her anger subsided a bit, and she hesitantly loosened the cloth bag, rummaged around for a while, and finally pulled out the box of medicine in blue and white packaging and handed it over.

He muttered to himself, "It's just a medicine for treating blood clots. My daughter bought it for me, and I've been taking it for almost a year. What kind of conflict could there be?"

Lin Ye took the medicine box, which was labeled "Warfarin Sodium Tablets," and looked up to ask, "Who gave you this medicine? And why?"

"My legs were swollen like radishes back then. I stayed in the hospital for half a month. When I was discharged, the doctor told me to take this, saying I would have to take it for a long time. I can't remember such a long name, I just know it's all white pills. They said the same thing when I came to get my blood pressure medication before, and they still prescribed it for me."

Have you ever missed a dose?

"Hey, people get old and their memory gets worse, how could I not forget something?" The aunt waved her hand.

"If I forget to take it, I'll just take an extra one the next day to make up for it. It's fine, as long as I take enough."

Ma Hao, who was leaning against the triage desk, heard "If you missed a dose, take another one" and turned to walk towards the treatment room. Within two minutes, he came back with a blood pressure cuff and a folding wheelchair. He didn't say a word and stood quietly next to Lin Ye.

Lin Ye then asked, "Have you taken any other medications recently? Like painkillers or fever reducers?"

The aunt thought for a moment and said, "I had a toothache a few days ago, and it hurt so much that I couldn't sleep for half the night. So I went to the pharmacy and bought some painkillers, something like ibuprofen. I took one pill whenever it hurt, and I've been taking it for three or four days. What's wrong?"

Have you had any bleeding gums recently when brushing your teeth? Is there any blood in your snot when you blow your nose?

The aunt paused for a moment, then reached up and wiped the corner of her mouth: "Now that you mention it, it's true. I've been getting a little blood when I brush my teeth lately. I thought it was because I was feeling hot, so I drank more chrysanthemum tea and didn't think much of it."

"Have you had black stools? Is your urine reddish?"

The aunt shook her head: "No, everything is fine. It's just that I've been feeling dizzy these past two days. I thought it was high blood pressure, so I came here to get some medicine."

Ma Hao finished tying his sleeve and quickly reported the number: "One hundred and forty-five eighty-two."

Lin Ye glanced at the reading; it wasn't particularly high. He clutched the medicine box in his hand and turned to look at Nurse Zhu.

Nurse Zhu, who had been listening to their conversation, knocked on the window glass. Her voice was clear enough for everyone in line to hear: "Please wait a couple of minutes. We need to make sure we know what medication this lady is taking before we can refill it. If you really can't wait, you can go to the self-service machine over there to register for a regular appointment. There are fewer people there, so please don't block the aisle here."

She was used to maintaining order at the triage desk, and as soon as she spoke, the people who had been making a fuss behind her quieted down. Two people who were in a hurry turned around and went to the self-service machine, and the rest didn't rush her anymore.

Lin Ye then looked at the aunt: "Auntie, give me your daughter's phone number. I'll talk to her about the situation. Your dizziness might not just be a blood pressure issue. You need to get a blood test, otherwise if something really happens when we get back, your uncle will have no one to take care of him."

The aunt immediately waved her hand: "No, no, my daughter is busy at work. Her company deducts her full attendance bonus if she takes leave, which is several hundred yuan. I can't trouble her. I'll go back as soon as I get the medicine. It's fine."

"I'm not letting her come over right now." Lin Ye softened his tone a bit. "I told her to go home first, feed your uncle, and then come pick you up slowly. It won't deduct much from her salary. If you go back now and faint on the way, no one will know, and your uncle will be left unattended at home. Does that make sense?"

After hesitating for a long time, the aunt finally reluctantly recited a string of phone numbers.

Lin Ye took his phone and walked to the side to make a call. He didn't turn on speakerphone and kept his voice low so that the people next to him could only hear a few words: "Hello, this is the emergency room of the First Municipal Hospital... Yes, your mother is here now... You don't need to rush over. Go back and feed your father first... Yes, drive slowly. We'll keep an eye on things here for now."

After hanging up the phone and walking back, he said to the aunt, "Your daughter said she's on her way home now, and will come over after feeding her uncle. Please sit down for a while, don't rush."

The aunt breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back in her chair, and stopped making a fuss about leaving.

Qin Hai had just come out of the regular clinic area to get his thermos water when he saw a crowd gathered there, so he walked over and asked, "What's wrong?"

Lin Ye handed him the warfarin box and reported the situation clearly: "The patient is 62 years old. He came to the clinic because of dizziness and asked for a prescription for his usual antihypertensive medication. He carries warfarin sodium tablets with him. He started taking it after being discharged from the hospital last year due to lower limb thrombosis. There have been instances where he missed a dose and then took double the dose the next day. Recently, he has been taking ibuprofen on his own for three or four days due to toothache. He has a history of bleeding gums and blood in his nasal discharge. He has no black stools or hematuria. His blood pressure was just measured at 145/82."

Qin Hai checked the expiration date on the medicine box, then looked down at the old medical records his aunt had brought. There was indeed a discharge record from the vascular surgery department last year, which stated that he needed to take warfarin orally for a long time and have his coagulation monitored regularly.

He nodded: "I'll order coagulation function tests, complete blood count, and bedside blood glucose tests. The coagulation test will be done urgently. We won't continue the antihypertensive medication right away; we'll wait for the results. We also need to check her previous anticoagulation records."

Ma Hao helped the aunt walk to the blood collection chair next to her. Lin Ye picked up the old medical record book and warfarin box that the aunt had placed on the table, put them together in the hospital's transparent bag, and placed them in her hand: "Take good care of these. You can give them to your daughter when she comes. Don't lose them."

The auntie clutched the transparent bag, nodded, and stopped muttering.

The nurse who drew the blood worked quickly, and after drawing the blood and attaching the label, she immediately had the support staff send it to the laboratory for urgent testing.

Lin Ye returned to the triage desk and wrote down what had just happened in the triage record book. Not long after, the laboratory called to report the coagulation results.

Lin Ye hung up the phone, took the printed results to Qin Hai, and Qin Hai glanced at the number in the INR column, 3.2. He frowned, looked up at Lin Ye and said, "Go and call the emergency second line to take a look, and then contact the vascular surgery department to find out which outpatient clinic to go to for review."

"Okay," Lin Ye replied, then turned to make a consultation call.

While he was on the phone, he caught a glimpse of his aunt sitting on the blood collection chair, clutching the transparent bag in her hand, glancing occasionally toward the emergency room entrance, her face showing some anxiety.

The triage system was still beeping in an orderly fashion. Nurse Zhu was typing on her computer, occasionally looking up to call out a number. Ma Hao had already returned to the triage station and was organizing the stack of triage slips he had just collected. Seeing Lin Ye come back after finishing his phone call, he leaned over and whispered, "It's a good thing you asked one more question. If she had just followed the standard prescription, and then she had taken warfarin on her own, who knows what might have happened when she got back."

Lin Ye didn't reply, but turned to look in the direction of the clinic area. The white coats of the emergency second-line staff had already appeared at the entrance of the corridor and were walking this way.