Emma (before Red Band Society)

Day One

I opened my eyes and readjusted my vision. I wasn't in the emergency room anymore. I felt really sore. I looked at the clock and it said 7:25. I was itching on my arm so I was going to scratch it but I was stopped due to an IV in my arm. It wasn't easy to move. Then I noticed I had tubes in my nose that went back around my ears. Only moving my eyes was tolerable.

A male nurse came in and said he was Kenji and he placed some food on the tray. "I'm gonna need you to sit up, honey." All I could was look at him like what he just said made no sense what so ever. He came around to the side of my bed and said he was going to help me out. He said he would raise the bed by 10 degrees and continue getting higher slowly until I was sitting up. I was okay with that.

We sat in silence again until he walked out. I thought he had come back in but instead it was a different nurse. "I'm Nurse Jackson. What seems to be the problem, Emma?"

"I can't eat that stuff." Eggs, ham, fruit, and milk. Bleh. "Well, sweetie, you're going to have to eat. Let me remind you that you're in a hospital being treated for an Eating Disorder and if you don't eat, you won't get out of here alive. Now don't you want to leave here alive?" I nodded. She was really firm and intimidating. "Then I suggest you pick up that fork and get to chewing, young lady." I looked at the fork. I wanted to move my arm but it was really frail.

I grabbed it and picked it up and jabbed a piece of strawberry and pulled it towards my mouth. I wasn't liking this. I smelled it. I slowly opened my mouth and took the strawberry off of the fork with my teeth. Nurse Jackson was staring at me. I started to chew but I just couldn't swallow. I grabbed a napkin and spit it out.

Nurse Jackson had this look on her face. "I'm sorry." She kept looking at me "Try again. Or I'm calling the doctor in here." I sighed. I shook my head. She walked out swiftly. I wasn't ready to eat. A few minutes later Dr. McAndrew walked in. "Hey, Emma. I heard you weren't eating your breakfast."

"I can't eat. This stuff is like poison to me. Are you trying to kill me?"

Nurse Jackson came in and said "That's a good question to ask. Are you trying to kill yourself?" I thought about it. Dr. McAndrew looked at her telepathically letting her know that he's got it under control. He looked at the monitor screen of my vitals. "May I speak with you a moment, Nurse Jackson?" They stepped outside.
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"Who ordered the food, Nurse Jackson?"

"I did. She's severely ill and needs to eat."

"Emma has basically consumed nothing for the last 10 days and I think making her eat too much too quickly is going to cause her to have refeeding syndrome."

"I didn't realize she hadn't eaten for so long. I'm sorry. I will remove the food."

"Also if you would, prep her for physical. And let her know she will be getting a DXA, an EKG, and a blood count. I'm calling her parents to come in for a meeting. And don't do this again; you could've killed her if she would've obeyed."

*Refeeding syndrome: feeding someone too much after they've gone without food for too long. Can cause heart problems, other organ problems, and can be fatal.

*DXA: dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. To measure bone mineral density.

*EKG: to study the heart beat. Is it too fast, is it too slow?
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Nurse Jackson came back in. "I'm sorry Emma." She took the food outside of the room and came back in. She explained to me what refeeding syndrome was and told me I had a lot of tests to do today. But first the case worker would come back and talk to me.

Nurse Jackson left and I turned on the tv. I watched it for about 45 minutes until the case worker came in. She sat down and asked me how I was. We went over a lot today and dug really deep into the past. She finished talking with me and said she would be back later to check on me and now she had to go speak with my parents and catch them up. Nurse Kenji came in with a wheelchair and said "Alright, let's get you to X-ray." He unhooked me from the machine.