Powell Home: A Short Story

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When Jeanne Powell woke up in her freshman dorm room with a stuffy nose, but without someone to call in sick for her; with a surplus of mucous and phlegm, and a serious shortage of chicken soup on her bedside table, she may not have realized it at that moment, but growing up had become an inevitability. A terrifying chest cold plagued her sinuses and throat. Leaving her heaving and gasping for air like a fish on dry land. College is supposed to be a place for trying new things, and this was no different. Although her first time being sick without someone to care for her wasn’t on Jeanne’s list of college firsts to look forward to. It was undoubtedly a crucial one. Sniffles and sneezes had been taken quite seriously back at the Powell home, on account of Jeanne’s asthma. Which, although not crippling, had become an ever present blip on her radar for trouble, after it had landed her in the hospital, twice. Nearly ending her high school career, and dashing her hopes of being an engineer. Her mother, already a protective personality, responded in full force. Since then, nothing but the whole nine yards of treatment for anything worse than a sniffle would be expected from their family doctor. This was to ensure that Jeanne, a then nothing but A’s student, wouldn’t miss any school she didn’t have to. …show more content…

It was with an afterthought that Jeanne realized she would have to walk to the doctor’s office on her own, not easy to do for an asthmatic on the expansive Ohio State campus. The frigid November air provided another unexpected hurdle, forcing her to retreat back to her dorm momentarily, in search of a scarf to protect her sensitive throat and nose. Checking into the hospital could be added to the list of trials on Jeanne Ogden’s noble quest for diagnosis and treatment. Which was proving to become more tedious every

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