He first asked me where the pain was and then touched around my groin to locate the worst area. My scream of agony made that clear to him The Price to Pay- Vol. 1.2 - Relief? by Alys

I was floating on a soft white cloud, it was a beautiful feeling. There seemed to be peace and harmony around me. The world was one of clouds and a pastel sky.

Something discordant began to impinge on my consciousness. A continuous faint blueness coming and going in intensity. There also seemed to be a sound, a very faint wailing that also seemed to increase and decrease in a regular pattern. I tried to push these unwanted intrusions out of my perfect world. To my disappointment, instead of being banished from my private nirvana they encroached even more.

I became aware of another sensation, a touching feeling, another's skin in contact with mine, but this person was invisible to my perfect world. It was a conundrum. Suddenly my idyll was penetrated by different sounds, ones that carried a message, I found them hard to decipher, then some of them began to acquire a meaning.

"Celyn....not long now...be ok..."

I opened my eyes. My senses were assaulted by loud sounds, dazzling lights and the shape of an attractive face very nearby. I felt overloaded by sensations and closed them again trying to regain my place of refuge. To no avail. I opened my eyes again. The words began to make more sense.

"Don't worry Celyn we'll be in the hospital soon", came the voice of my attractive companion.

Understanding and awareness flooded into my mind just as pain began to slowly appear as a factor in my life. I was in an ambulance. This ambulance was travelling very quickly. The sound of the siren within the ambulance was almost ear shattering, the flashing blue light was quite dazzling. The face looking down anxiously at me was Meryl my girlfriend of two months. She was sat in a chair next to my stretcher holding my hand while holding on to the side of her chair to steady herself against the continuous rolling of the ambulance travelling over the bumpy roads.

"Thanks Meryl," I mumbled.

She squeezed my hand and smiled at me.

"Is OK...sorry you hurt so much"

My watch beeped. I held my wrist towards me to look at it. It was only five in the afternoon. Three hours ago I was celebrating winning a football match and now I was being rushed to the local general hospital, Ysbyty Frenhinol Gwent. But at least the pain had mostly gone thanks to Meryl dialling 999* and the paramedics arriving in a very short time.

A sharp pain shot through my body, I groaned.

"The painkillers are wearing off can't you give him some more?," asked Meryl urgently, looking at the other person with us in the back of the ambulance, a young paramedic in the usual green uniform.

"If he can hang on it would be better so that he can describe the symptoms to the doctor in A and E**, it's only a few minutes to the hospital," he replied.

The pain came back, I writhed and groaned. Meryl held my hand and stroked my forehead.

"Not long now"

The ambulance suddenly slowed and came to a rapid stop. I felt the gust of air as the back of the ambulance was opened and then my stretcher was put on a trolley and wheeled quickly through the automatic hospital doors to a cubicle. A young, tired looking male doctor rushed in. He first asked me where the pain was and then touched around my groin to locate the worst area. My scream of agony made that clear to him.

"Do you need to do that?," I asked angrily

"Sorry for the pain but I am trying to confirm my initial suspicions. You may have something called testicular torsion"

"What's that," asked Meryl

"When the blood supply to one of the testicles is cut off. It is easily treatable and since we have caught it early there's a good chance of a full recovery and no damage to the testicle, first we will need an ultra sound to confirm. In the meantime I'll give your boyfriend a morphine shot to take the pain away"

The soft white clouds and peace returned. The world around became a daze of activity as I was moved from place to place. I was dimly aware of cold gel being wiped over my scrotum and some sort of probe being moved over it. Meryl became a bit embarrassed seeing my private parts. She blushed and turned away but continued to hold my hand. I was then in a ward and I noticed that my parents and goth-girl, my sister, had arrived. The doctor came and waved some papers at my father's face and then after a quick glance he signed them.

"I want you to breathe this in and count back from ten" said the woman in the blue scrub suit she placed the black face mask over my nose and mouth a few minutes later as the surgeon and nurses prepared themselves to operate.

The faint 'thump..thump...' of someone's MP3 player near to me drifted into my blankness. I opened my eyes to be momentarily blinded by late afternoon sunlight that was shining through the large hospital window next to my bed. My eye's adjusted and I made out the familiar black outfit of Goth-Girl, Taran my sister, sitting in a chair next to me.

"Hey Sis," I said quietly.

She stayed lost in her music retreat. I sat up a little to try and attract her attention.

"Hey Taran!," I said louder.

She jumped up in her chair in surprise, and looked at me, smiling. She took the earphones out.

"Hi Celyn, you surprised me. How are you feeling?"

I took stock of myself and realised to my relief that there was no sign of the excruciating pain from earlier, although there more some soreness around my scrotum.

"A lot better thanks," I replied.

"You had me and Mum and Dad mightily scared there you loony. I thought that something really serious had happened when Meryl phoned me to tell me that she had had to call an ambulance for you."

"Did you call Mum and Dad?" I asked.

"Yes"

"Where is Meryl by the way? She has been fantastic"

"Mum and Dad took her home. She is really nice you know, I know I've not said that before but I really like her" replied Taran.

"Thanks"

There was silence between us for a little while and eventually I dropped back to sleep. The next time I opened my eyes my Mother was looking down at me.

"Hi Celyn, how are feeling now?"

"Good thanks Mum. Where's Dad and Goth-Girl?"

My Mother laughed

"You shouldn't call your sister that, you know, it's rude."

"You and Dad do all the time," I protested.

"OK, point taken. Taran has gone to the hospital cafe for a break, she sat here for a long time while you were asleep. Your Dad is talking to the doctor who did your surgery"

I looked up to see my Father at the ward station talking to the doctor. I noticed the doctor shrugging and shaking his head. He then shook hands with my Father who then turned and walked over to my bed.

"Hi Dad, did the doctor say that I go could home?"

My Father paused, exchanged a glance with my Mother, and then replied.

"I'm sorry son, he said that they'd like to keep you in hospital overnight for further tests, they found some small lumps on your testicle."

*emergency number in the UK, same as 911 in the US
** A and E - Accident and Emergency - same as ER in the US