Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 69

"Hey baby," I said, sitting on the bed beside Samantha, and holding her hand.

"What happened? Where am I?" She asked, looking around. "Why am I so cold? And wet?"

I felt her forehead and she felt cool to the touch. I pressed the nurses call button for them to come check Samantha's temperature. Samantha's forehead and the neck of her hospital gown were drenched in sweat.

"Do you remember coming home sick yesterday?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Well, your fever got really, really high. I put you in a cool bath but that didn't help. So I had to call an ambulance and bring you to the hospital. You're a pretty sick little girl right now," I explained.

The nurse came in just then.

"Hi there!" She said, brightly, to Samantha. "Look who's awake."

She went over to Samantha's other side and took her temperature.  Samantha complied with no argument.

"100.9. Almost down to normal. Looks like your fever broke," she smiled. "I'll let the doctor know. But for now, we can probably get rid of this cooling blanket, and I'll bring you a dry gown to change into."

The nurse left and I smiled down on my daughter.

"But, what happened? I don't remember going home from school. I remember getting to the car, but that's about it."

"Aw, sweetheart, you were so, so sick. I brought you home, got you in pyjamas and put you to bed. You were asleep right away. Apparently you were asleep before that. But, we got you here and they got you on some strong antibiotics and you're on the mend."

"We?  Is Dad here?  He didn't leave tour for me, did he?" She started panicking.

"Shh, shh.  No. He's still on tour. I've been keeping him up to date. He's going to FaceTime later before his show. Erin came over before the ambulance came and helped me with you. Mostly helped me to keep calm."

The doctor came in just then.

"Hi there, Samantha. How are you feeling this afternoon?"

Samantha shrugged. The nurse handed me a dry gown for Sam to change into after the doctor checked her out.

"So, you gave your mom quite a scare," he said. "But, looks like you're responding to the antibiotics. We're still waiting on the urine culture and we'll probably do an ultrasound on your kidneys in a couple of days. Now that you're awake, we can probably take that catheter out of you. I'll have a nurse come do that in a bit.

Samantha, were you having any pain or discomfort when you went to the bathroom?" He asked her.

"No. I mean, I went a little more often, but I was drinking more water anyway so I thought it was from that."

"Why so much water?" I asked, concerned her diabetes wasn't as well controlled as we thought and there was a problem with the CGM.

"Because we learned in health you're supposed to drink eight glasses a day. So I started drinking more water.  Even when I wasn't thirsty."

I breathed a sigh of relief, and laughed a little.

"Well, sure. Drinking water is good. But you get some of your water through food. Staying hydrated is still good. But not everyone needs eight glasses of water. So just be careful with that. In any case, you got yourself, we think, a nice urinary tract infection that got into your kidneys and then your bloodstream. It's called sepsis. It's not uncommon and luckily we got to you before it became something much more serious.

So, you're probably going to be our guest for a few days while we get your infection under control, and we'll probably send you home with oral antibiotics. I'll probably know more tomorrow. But, you do have pneumonia too, so, we're treating that as well."

He checked a few more things, wrote some notes on Sam's chart and left. Sam looked over at me.

"I'm sorry, Mom," she said.

"What for?" I asked.

"Getting sick and needing the hospital. This is going to be expensive," she said.

"Oh sweetheart. I thought we were past that. First of all, we have insurance. Second we can afford it and we are more than happy to make sure you get the best care. Please stop worrying about costs, okay?"

Sam nodded.

My phone beeped again and I saw it was Erin again.

'Sorry if I'm being a big. Jill texted on her lunch to ask how Sam is.'

'Her fever is down, it broke this morning, and it's almost normal. She's awake and doing okay. Tell Jill thank you again for helping her out to the car,' I responded.

'So glad to hear!' She responded.

I told Sam that Jill and Erin were checking in. And then realized I hadn't called the school, so I did that immediately.

"Hi, Miss Tracey," I said. "I'm so sorry. I know I should have called earlier, but as you likely already know, Samantha's going to be away from school today," I said when the secretary answered.

"Erin came in when she dropped Jill off this morning and mentioned that she'd been at your place and that you'd had to take Samantha to the hospital.  How is she doing?"

"She's getting better, thank you. It looks like we're going to be here for a few days, and I'll probably keep her home for a day or so once she's discharged. I'll call in again if that's what we decide. Could you get Jill to bring her homework home?"

"She already offered, but of course. Tell Samantha we all hope she's feeling better."

"I will. Thanks so much," I said, hanging up. I looked over at Samantha and saw she'd dozed off again.  I smiled because she did look so much better. 

I, on the other hand was getting bored. I had t brought anything with me, so I spent most of the time on social media. I found a video from last night's concert where Tyler had made some sort of speech about Sam?  So I clicked on it to see what he said.

"Most, if not all of you, know that my wife Jenna and I adopted a daughter back in November. She's such an amazing kid. We love her to pieces. She's been through so much in her young life, and she's so resilient. You likely heard about her kidnapping in November, and she has healed from that so amazingly well. And she takes such good care of her diabetes now, she's just amazing.  But, I just spoke to my wife and Samantha is really, really sick. She's got a fever and Jenna is really worried. Which means I'm really worried. And that means Josh is really worried."

"This is very true," Josh said. "She's my honorary niece, so I'm invested in her well-being."

"So, we're asking all of you tonight to send whatever positive vibes, prayers, good thoughts, whatever you believe in, out into the universe so maybe Sam will feel better soon. She's such an amazing kid, and I hate when she's not feeling well."

There were so many comments attached to that video. Mostly wishing Samantha well. I smiled. My husband. What a guy. What a dad.