Ch 28 Hospital-bred abilities
Slowly, but steadily and surely, Eliza continued to get better. At the end of that week, she took her first tentative steps across her room, supported by her mom and physical therapist. At one point, Eliza looked up and saw her mom silently crying. She reached up and hugged her. The walking progress continued.
A few days after that, all her tests came back normal. More tears, this time from both of them. "We'll wean you off the medication slowly, just in case," Foreman told them. "But if all goes well, you'll be out of here by the beginning of next week."
"That's great," said Eliza. "But I'm going to miss the food here. Have you had the Reuben from the cafeteria? It's the best! Uh... someone recommended it," she added, seeing her mother's puzzled look.
"Wait, you like hospital food?" exclaimed Foreman.
"Well, not all hospital food," admitted Eliza. "The trick is you just have to find the thing the hospital makes well. The hospital in Boston has great chicken fingers, my clinic has a great turkey sandwich, and another hospital I've been to has amazing oatmeal cookies and vanilla pudding."
"So you're a hospital food coniseur," stated Foreman with a now-I've-seen-everything voice.
"Pretty much," said Eliza smiling. "It's really by necessity. I'm in the hospital so much, and while I'm stuck there, I might as well enjoy the food, right?"
"Makes perfect sense to me," agreed Foreman with a chuckle. "I've got to go, but we'll be tapering your medications and continuing to monitor your counts and vitals."
"Thank you so much for everything," Mary told him.
"You're welcome," responded Foreman.
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Returning to the conference room. Foreman told Chase and Cameron about Eliza's enjoyment of hospital food.
"That's nothing," replied Chase. "I went in there the other day and told her what kind of blood tests I needed to do, and she told me what color test tubes I would need!"
"Don't we draw the same blood every time?" Foreman asked.
Chase shook his head, "No. I was doing kidney and liver functions and she even knew what those were."
"There must have been a lot of blood to draw," said Cameron.
"She didn't seem phased by it," explained Chase. "She told me that at NIH, they took 13 tubes from her."
"Thirteen! She is something, isn't she?" Cameron said. Chase and Foreman agreed.
"I hope she pulls through this," muttered Chase. The other two nodded. They all sat thinking a while about their patient, and what Chase said. Because it wasn't just the polio he was referring to. They were all thinking, hoping, wondering if she was going to survive to grow out of her hospital-bred abilities.
