Day 2
Wednesday morning.
Blaisdell home
"Mom, you need to rest. I'll sit with Peter until Daddy gets there tonight," Carolyn Blaisdell attempted to reason with her parent. Three broken fingers and stretched tendons had put her mother into a splint. Knowing her brother, Carolyn suspected he'd blame himself for Annie's illness. It didn't matter if Annie didn't blame him, she knew he couldn't control the seizure that had gripped his body, but Peter wouldn't see it that way.
Feeling tired, Annie gave in. "But I want to visit with him for an hour this evening. I'll have Kelly drive me over after her cheerleader practice is done."
Carolyn kissed her mother's cheek and went to her car. It was a short drive to the hospital and a long day to stand vigil over her brother.
7:45 p.m.
Hospital
The report on her patients from the shift before hadn't changed much. One had gone home, another was being transferred to the university hospital sixty miles away. Neither vacant room remained empty long before being filled with two more patients.
"Peter Caine, 508," Mayben had begun. "He's not had any more seizures and his temp is holding. He had a chest X-ray today. We're waiting on the doctor's report now. Dr. Sanders wants you to call him when it does come in. Family is at the bedside."
"Janet said you've been here all day." Rene broke the silence that filled the room.
Carolyn gave a weak smile. "I did leave for an hour when my mother and sister came over."
Hanging a new bag of fluid, Rene looked at the visitor. "You going to be here all night?"
"No. Daddy is supposed to be here in a bit. He just called." Carolyn then changed the subject. "What's that you're doing?"
Following the visitor's gaze to the clear plastic bag in her hand, Rene smiled. "This is IV fluid. This is what we call ½ normal saline. It's what we use when the body has lost fluid. Your brother has been losing fluid and some electrolytes with his fever." When Carolyn tilted her head slightly, Rene switched into teaching mode. Teaching health care had been one of her reasons for going into the medical field. "Do you know much about cars and radiators?"
Carolyn smiled, having no idea where this conversation was going. "A little. Both my father and brother made sure I knew how to do basic maintenance on the car. Why?"
"Well, the body is a lot like a radiator in a car. As the radiator gets hot, water inside it will evaporate sometimes, which causes the radiator to get hotter, thereby losing more of the liquid it needs to keep cool. The body is the same way. As Peter's temperature grows, his body tries to cool off by letting his body fluid evaporate on the skin surface. Since he's not replacing the fluid, then he's running dry and, like with a car, will run hot, causing his temperature to rise more…"
"And so the body tries to cool itself more," Carolyn finished, understanding dawning on her. "It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? I always wondered why Mom had us drink lots of water and stuff when we ran a fever."
Rene's smile faded as her beeper went off, calling her to check on another one of her patients. She had been thankful when the hospital bought the in-house paging system. The old way of finding personnel by calling over the patient call box on the wall was disruptive to the patients and visitors "I'll be back later. You need anything?" Rene asked, checking the IV pump and fluids one more time.
Carolyn shook her head. "No, but thank you."
2:00 a.m. Thursday morning
Rene quietly checked on each patient, gently pushing doors open to look inside. Looking in room 508, she found her patient struggling weakly against the soft hold his father had on him and the sheet that covered him. Sweat glistened off Peter's skin, matting his hair. Even the low watt light over the mirror allowed her to see the paleness of the young man's skin.
"N-noooo." Peter's pleading moan was so soft that the rustle of his sheet almost made the sound negligible.
The worried father released his hold on one of Peter's wrists to brush wet hair away from Peter's face. "Shhh, it's all right, son."
Reaching over, Rene checked the reading from the temp pad. The device had two functions. One was to monitor the patient's internal temperature and the other function was to help cool the patient, thereby bring down the temperature.
"Sometimes fever causes a person to have nightmares," she offered, wanting to soothe the older man's worry.
Without thinking, Paul answered, "He has always had them. Even as a boy, I'd wake up to hear him scream or moan. His room was just across from ours. He once told me he would have dreams when he lived with his father. Said his father called his dreams dragons and they lived under his bed." Paul smiled faintly at the memory. "Guess that's better than the boogy man living under it."
Seeing an unasked question on the nurse's face, Paul explained, "I'm his foster father. His father was killed when he was twelve and his mother had died long before that."
"Oh. No one would be able to tell, I know I didn't." The night had been slow, all the charting had been done, and the two o'clock meds had been handed out so Rene took her time. As long as Mr. Blaisdell was up, she might as well find out more about the young man in the bed. 'He is kind of cute,' she thought with a smile.
"Has his fever come down any?" Paul asked.
"By two-tenths of a degree. I think the antibiotics are finally starting to win the war. They told me in the report that he's a cop. Doesn't that frighten you?"
Paul's steel blue eyes held merriment for a moment as he understood that curiosity was something all people shared. "Only when I send him out on dangerous cases."
"You mean you're a cop, too?"
"Yes, I'm his Captain." Paul then went on to answer the nurse's questions, thankful for the diversion from his worry over losing Peter to a disease.
6:35 a.m.
"508 is better. His temperature had come down a full degree by four this morning. He has an interesting family life," Rene told the oncoming nurse. She was new to this group of patients, having been off for three days. "You'll like them." Rene went on to finish her report, telling of IV's, vital signs, and future tests for Peter and the other patients she had taken care of the night before.
After turning her charges over to the oncoming nurse, Rene stopped in Peter's room. "Phyllis will be his nurse today."
Paul nodded. "Will you be back tonight?"
"No, I get to take tonight off, but I'll be back tomorrow. Take care," she answered and went to say good-bye to the rest of her patients.