Dr. Carlson and Lena looked at each other and smiled. Then the doctor looked at Jude. "Ok, so, you and Callie are biological siblings. So there is a higher probability that you and Callie share the same allergy genes. If your mom was alive we would be checking her medical history.
"You can't check them know?" Jude asked. He didn't understand why they couldn't just check.
"No, because we don't know who her doctor was or what hospital she went to. We need to know where to look." The Doctor responded calmly.
Jude thought about that for a minute. "How about my dad?" If they didn't know where to look for his moms medical information maybe his dad could tell them.
"We can get his medical history but he has to want to give it to us. And we can also ask about your moms information and what ever he remembers about you and Callie getting sick when you were little." Lena answered that one. She wanted to make sure that he knew they were going to do everything possible to help him and his sister.
Jude just nodded. He understood that. Ever since all this with Callie started he's been trying to remember more about his time with his mom, if they never ate anything or if he noticed his mom taking any medicine and stuff like that.
I don't think we have food allergies. But my mom did take medicine everyday. I remember because before the accident she was telling dad that they had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up the prescription.
Are you sure it was your moms? Could it have been your dads or Callie's, or even yours? Do you remember if you were sick around the time of the accident? The doctor asked.
"I wasn't sick, but Callie used to get sick a lot when we were little." That he did remember. They used to sometimes cancel trips they planned because Callie was sick.
"She did? Do you remember with what?" Lena asked now worried. Could it be that her daughter has some kind of condition and they didn't know about it?
Jude thought for a minute. "No, not really. But my dad would know." Jude said.
"Ok so how about this… what if when we get home today we call Donald and ask him about that." Lena really needed to make that call today. This was getting to be too much. Now her daughter might be sick? Sicker than she is now?
"Yeah, ok we can do that…" Then he looked at the doctor. "How much longer do I have to wait?"
"Let me see your arm." Jude put his arm on the desk so that the doctor could see it. "It looks like the reactions are done." The doctor said while checking his arm and all the test sites. "Nothing else reacted so you can go. I'll give your mom a list and everything she needs to know. How about that?"
Jude nodded and then looked at Lena. "Can I go see Callie too?"
Lena looked at Brandon, who had stayed quiet for the last few minutes. "B. if you like, the both of you can go up to Callie's room. Tell mom I'll be there as soon as I'm done with Dr. C."
"Ok mama. We'll see you up there." Brandon said as he motioned for Jude to follow him.
"Oh as soon as we are done here I'll walk up with you. I have to do my rounds and I might as well start with Callie." Leslie said to Lena.
As soon as Brandon closed the door, Lena turned back towards the doctor. "Ok Leslie, tell me about my kids."
"Well, we talked about the twins and Brandon. They are all fine, the allergies they have are very mild and will most likely not have any mayor symptoms." Leslie said while looking at the files.
"And Jude?" Lena knew, that since he was Callie's biological brother he would most likely share some of his sisters allergies.
"Well, Jude is actually a little more complex." Leslie said while looking at Lena. "He tested allergic to ash tree, river birch, cedar, Bahia grass and Timothy grass, ragweed, pigweed, dog fennel, cladosporium sphaerospermum, a mold, penicillium chrysogenum, penicillin, cats, dogs, dust mites, cockroaches and red top grass" she read off the paper work she had on her desk.
Lena got worried. "Oh dear. How bad are his allergies?" She didn't know if they could handle another emergency like they just have with his older sister.
"Well, they are bothersome." The doctor said. "He will have to go into an allergy treatment. We can either do just medication or we can do the injections. That is totally up to you guys."
"So they are not as bad as Callies?" Lena felt a like a weight had lifted off her shoulders. Just to think that Jude would have the same reactions as his sister worried her.
"No, Callie has severe, Jude has moderate. His will be more of a nuisance than anything else, but in his file we have that he suffered from asthma when he was a baby." She commented whole looking in his file. "As far as we can tell he out grew it but it's something we have to watch." She then looked at the test results again. "Some of the allergens he tested positive to could very well irritate this condition. Also since Callie is so sensitive to some of these allergens we should be careful with him because they could get worse with time. We don't have an accurate history at this moment for Callie so we don't know if she has always reacted this way or if this time was more severe or less."
"She could have reacted worse than this?" Lena asked worriedly. How could it possibly get worse than this?
"I'm afraid so. It's always a possibility that the reactions can get worse." Leslie said while closing all the files she had on her desk. "For Jude I'm going to prescribe an antihistamine that he can take everyday for now until you decide what treatment you would like to follow and a albuterol inhaler for just in case. I know he doesn't really have symptoms right now, but with the change of seasons he will most likely start having reactions."
"Am I looking for some kind of reaction like Callie's?" Lena asked a little worried. She didn't want to go through this again.
The doctor shook her head. "As far as I know, no. Callies reactions are more sever than what I got out of Judes results. He shows normal allergic reactions. He may have some hives and maybe just sneezing or coughing. His asthma may come back. But, I don't foresee him going into anaphylactic shock like his sister." The doctor said while scribbling on her prescription pad.
"Thank God." Lena said. She was worried enough as it was with Callie, she didn't think her heart could take both of them being sick.
The doctor tore the script from her pad and handed it to Lena. "You said that you were going to contact their father. Am I correct?"
"Yes, we have the contact info for Donald. He might be able to shed some light on all of this." It's a good thing they decided to keep him and the kids connected. If not she didn't know what she would do.
The doctor nodded in approval. "That's great, if he comes through, the information he gives you could really help. Ask him who their pediatrician was at the time, if he remembers, of course. We could potentially get copies of their medical files. Any information about the kids or him and his wife would be beneficial." After talking a little more Lena and Leslie made their way up to Callies room.
Brandon and Jude left the office and made their way to Callies room. When they went in they found everyone laughing. Jesus and Mariana were sitting on the small window seat, and their mom was in the chair next to Callies bed. Callie was sitting up with the back of the bed raised.
"Hey what's so funny?" Jude asked as he made his way to Callie's bed. Brandon went and sat on the arm rest of the chair his mom was in.
"Mom was just telling us about stuff she used to do when she was little. Apparently she decided to climb a tree to get a kite and it did not end well…" Jesus said.
Jude made it to Callies bed and looked at his sister. "Hi Cal!"
"Hey baby." She moved over to make room for her brother and he happily climbed up on the bed.
"How are you feeling?" Jude asked his sister. She looked a bit better. But he was scared that something like this would happen again.
"I actually feel good. I guess I'm doing better and they might even let me go home soon…" Callie said happily. She was done with hospitals and doctors and medicine. She just wanted her room and her bed. She even wanted to go to school. Even knowing that her moms were going to handle the Kylie thing.
"Yeah, mama said Thursday if everything goes well." Jude said. Then he got really serious and looked at his sister with caution. "Promise me you'll be careful and do everything they tell you to. I miss you!"
"I'll try, I promise Jude." Callie said sincerely.
"You can't just try Callie! You have to promise!" Jude raised his voice. "I need you to do it not try!"
Callie flinched and looked down at her hands on her lap. "Jude I…" Callie tried to say.
"Jude!" Stef chastised cutting Callie off. "Just like we don't let Callie parent you, you don't get to parent Callie."
"No mom he's right. I have to do everything the doctor says so this doesn't happen again." Callie said hugging her brother.
"No! You try your best and that's all you can promise. There is no way you can promise that this will never happen again. And he has to understand that. Also mama and me are the parents, not the kids." Stef made her way over to her two kids. "Jude, Callie is getting better. She will go home when the doctor gives her the OK to go home. Even with Callie doing everything right she might even have to stay."
"Wait, what? I thought you said Thursday?" Callie said shocked. They had said Thursday. She remembered that clearly.
"No sweets we said Thursday at the earliest. It all depends on all your test results and how you feel. You don't have to worry about that report you just have to finish by Monday because we took care of it." Stef said calmly.
At this new information, Callie blushed, she felt the heat rise to her face and ears and ducked her head.
"Jude as I recall you weren't very forthcoming about your medical information either. And no I'm not saying this is your fault or your sisters, but you two are adopted, you have been with us for 2 years now, but you still don't trust us. First, all this health stuff with you two and then all of you with the whole Kylie thing." When she looked at her other 3 kids, she saw that their eyes were wide and that the surprise was evident in their faces. I guess that they didn't know she knew. "Yes, I know about the whole Kylie thing. Mama and I have already talked to Callie about it and we were going to wait until tonight to talk to you four." The kids all looked like they wanted to bolt.
At this Callie tried to changer her moms mind again. "Mom please… This really isn't a big…"
"No Callie, this is something that we have to discuss and we will. As soon as mama gets back from talking with the doctor, we are going to talk about this." Stef knew that this was a conversation that the kids didn't want to have.
After a few more minutes of all of them just sitting quietly the door opened and Lena poked her head in. "Stef, honey can I see you out here for a minute?"
"Sure Babe. Then she looked at the kids. "We will talk in a minute about everything that's going on." She then made her way to the door.
"Cal? You told moms about Kylie?" Jesus whispered.
Callie looked nervous. "I'm sorry. Moms backed me into a corner."
Mariana understood that. Their moms were like bloodhounds when it came to stuff like this. "When did this happen?" She asked after a minute.
Callie looked down at her lap embarrassed that she caved infant of the moms. "This morning, right before my physical, I got tag-teamed by both of them. I was trying to finish Kylies project so I could give it to one of you guys to give to her, but they kept trying to get me to rest. They didn't want me to work on it. Mama kept saying that she had already talked with my teachers and they weren't expecting anything from me."
"Wow mama called the school so that you wouldn't have to turn in homework… she's good. "Marianna commented.
"I told you guys that we should have told moms when it happened. See now we are all in trouble." Brandon said snidely. Everyone sneered at Brandon. He was always acting like a saint infant of the moms. If only they knew everything he had been up to…
"You guys have to help me." Callie pleaded
"Help you with what?" Brandon asked
"Mama wants to have an assembly about bullying and talk to our teachers." Callie whispered.
"What? No way, is she trying to get us all beat up?" Jude said outraged. Kylie had told him that if Callie was late turning in the work that he was going to be first.
"No one is going to beat us up." Jesus said.
So what should we do? How do we convince her to leave this alone?
"Oh come on…" Brandon spoke up. "You know she's not going to leave this alone, neither of them will. Moms are going to pursue this till the end. You guys know how anti-bullying they are. Plus ones a cop and the other a vice principal… this is going to get worse before it gets better." He said sounding a little frustrated. He had wanted to go to the moms when he found out about this whole thing, but no one listened to him. Now it was all out of hand and they were panicking.
When Brandon finished talking, everyone except Callie, started talking all at the same time, trying to defend why they didn't want the moms to find out.
Stef followed Lena out to the hall way. "Is every thing ok?"
"Yes we just wanted to talk to you about the kids results without everyone trying to hear." Lena said while turning to look towards Leslie.
"Oh, ok. So what's the verdict?" Stef looked at Leslie and Lena.
Lena looked at Leslie and Stef and then started with what Leslie had told her. "Well Brandon and the twins are fine. They just have really mild allergies to normal stuff like pet dander, dust and pollen. Nothing to worry about. In fact she doesn't see any of them actually having any symptoms."
"Oh good at least we don't have to worry about that with them. So what about Jude?" Stef asked.
Leslie took over this one. "Well, Jude is Callie's brother."
"Oh no, I don't think I'm going to like this." Stef said worried. That fact that she started with Jude is Callies brother did not sit well with her.
Leslie was quick to calm Stef down. "No, no, no… he's ok. No where near the type of reaction that his sister has, but nonetheless, he does react."
"How bad?" Stef asked.
Lena spoke this time. "Well, she said he may sneeze, get a mild rash, itchy eyes, stuff like that. But she saw in his file that he suffered from asthma when he was little, she said that what he's allergic to might irritate his asthma and make it come back."
"Asthma? Oh no. how could they not have told us?" Stef asked no one in particular. "so what can we do?"
"She gave him a prescription for an inhaler just in case and allergy medication. She wants us to get him and appointment to discuss possible treatments for Jude. To help alleviate the symptoms."
"Ok. So then all we are missing is to find out exactly what Miss Callie is allergic to and we can do the order for the medical ID bracelets." Stef wanted to order that sooner rather than later.
Leslie nodded. "Yes. And remember that Callie is getting a more extensive test."
Stef and lena nodded. "Yeah we remember."
"We have to be careful that day with her too, she might end up in the hospital again. We are expecting a couple of sever reactions from her." Leslie was explaining.
The tree of them started to discuss the action plan for when it was time for Callie to have her test when they heard all of their kids arguing in Callies room. They looked at each other opened the door and saw Callie in her bed looking exasperated with her head in her hands and the other 4 kids arguing.
"Hey, hey, hey! What is going on here?" Stef said as soon as the moms opened the door. All the kids looked like deer caught in headlights. All except for Callie. She looked exhausted and relieved that they had interrupted her siblings. "Need I remind you that you are all in a hospital. And in your sisters hospital room at that?"
Lena excused herself form Leslie and made her way to Callie's bed to make sure she was feeling all right while Stef rounded up the other four kids to find out what the problem was. "So what started this?"
"Mom is it true what Callie said? That mama is going to have an assembly about bullying?" Jesus asked without beating around the bush.
Stef looked at her wife that was by the bed tending to Callie and raised her eyebrows.
Lena was giving Callie some water and rubbing her back to calm her down. All the yelling and arguing had her agitated. When she heard her name she looked up. She then looked at her daughter on the hospital bed and sighed. "Ok guys sit down. We need to talk."
Everyone started to argue and talk over each other again. She felt Callie tense under her hand. "Guys, please quiet down, before the nurse comes in and make you all leave." At that they all quieted down and started to settle in a spot. Some took chairs other the window sill and the floor. Stef made her way over to the bed also and put her hand on her daughters back reassuringly. Callie looked up at her and gave her a small smile. She looked worried. "Ok listen up everyone. Like I said earlier, we know about Kylie and her threats to make Callie do her work."
At this point Lena started talking. "I went to the school and sat down with Callies teachers and we pulled the work that they both turned in this year and we saw the difference. The teachers could tell that it was Callie doing the work and that it wasn't Kylie. But when they asked Cal, she said that it was Kylie, that she was just helping her." Lena said this and looked at her daughter. Callie's cheeks were tinted red and she was looking at her hands folded in her lap.
"Mama please don't do the assembly. Everyone is going to know it's because of us." Jesus said.
"Actually they'er going to know it's because of me." Callie said in an angry mumble.
"Yeah but you're not going to school any time soon. You don't have to sit there and have everyone stare at you." Mariana said angrily.
"What do you mean. If I can go home Thursday, I get to go to school on Monday! Right moms?" Callie asked worried.
"Honey, like we said before, that is up to the doctor." Lena said taking a stray hair behind Callies ear. "It all depends on how you feel and all your test results."
Stef looked at Lena and took a deep breath. "Remember, you still have a low grade fever and to be able to go to school you have to be fever free for 24hrs without medication. Even if you get sent home, if by Sunday you still have any temperature over 99.9 you are staying home, and that's a big if. You just had your physical done, the fever you have, its low grade but that's with reducers."
"What? Moms, that's not fair." Callie argued. She wanted to go to school. If they were going to have this assemble the least she could do was be there with her siblings to share the burden. After all, it was her fault.
"Callie you know that we love you. We are going to do what ever the doctor says is best for you and what ever we feel is best for you." Stef said calmly.
Oh, come on. Mom, Im really fine. I want to go to school on Monday.
Honey…
"No I want to go to school. Im falling behind in my classes." Callie started to raise her voice. She was starting to get agitated and they could tell by looking at the monitors they still had her connected too.
Callie we talked about this. We are going to do what ever the doctor says. You rushing your recovery is not going to work. It will just make you sick longer. You need to take it easy. You need to rest and take care fo your self.
At this point Callie was sitting in her bed with her arms crossed over her chest and a pout on her face. This is so not fair. So, what am I going to do about school work? Are you planning on homeschooling me now?
Of course not Bug. You will go to school as soon as the doctor give the go ahead. And remember that from now on you have to be careful with bees.
"Mom I know. Gosh I'm not stupid. I know. I've seen bees at school. I'll stay away from them." Callie said exasperated.
Lena sighed. This was going to be harder than they thought. "It's not just staying away from them. You have to let us know If you see any so we can call and get rid of them."
Great so now you're going to use your position as school Vice Principal to cater to me. How many kids in school have a deadly allergy are being bullied and you don't even now it.
Stef at this point just had to intervene. "Callie watch your tone. You can't speak to mama that way."
Lena looked at Stef and stopped her from continuing. "No Stef, it's ok." Then she looked at Callie. "You're right honey. I never even thought about that. It's just that, you're my daughter, and I worry about you. I almost lost you this weekend and I don't want to go trough anything like that ever again. And then I find out that someone is bulling you, and right under my nose. I am the school VP and I didn't even notice that all of this was happening to my own kids. I feel like I need to fix it somehow."
"No mama we should have told you." Jude said. "We should have gone to you in the direst place."
"Yeah moms, he's right. We should have told you. But when Callie said that Kylies mom was on the school board and had said she could get you fired, we freaked out. We didn't know what to do." Brandon tried to clam thing a little.
At this moment the door opened and Dr. Carlson knocked on the door. "Sorry to interrupt but I need to check on Callie. I have the results of all of the tests we ran this morning."