"Nurse Jackson, is there any news about Jordi?"
"Nothing yet."
"How can there be nothing? It's been hours."
"Kara, Emma. I promise as soon as we know something, I'll tell you." Jackson waved them away. "Please find something to do that isn't in my way so I can get my rounds done."
"Let's go hang out in my room," Emma suggested. Jackson noticed Leo standing in the doorway to his room. The girls and Dash had been avoiding Leo like he was a leper. Jackson had only heard part of the story, enough to know the three of them blamed Leo for Jordi's condition, not enough to know if it was a fair view of these. Unfortunately between Jordi, Charlie and the general chaos of the day, she hadn't had time to sit the all down and deal with their argument.
"I'll leave a note for Dash."
"Leave me a note about what?"
"We're going to go hang in Emma's room."
Jackson noticed Dash glance at Leo and Jordi's room. "Cool, let's book."
Their departure was cut off by Dr McAndrew stepping out of the elevator.
"Dr McAndrew, what's going on with Jordi? Is he okay?" The girls pounced as soon as they saw him.
Dr McAndrew motioned for them to sit in the small lounge area next to the nurses station. He saw Leo lurking nearby, but said nothing about the boy keeping his distance.
"What's up with J-Man, Doc?"
"He's okay. Not great but he's not in any danger at the moment."
"But . . ." Emma, always one to catch the subtly unspoken bits.
"Give it to us straight." Kara added.
"Jordi had a seizure. And his temperature jumped up far higher than it should have. Dangerously high. And there was his odd behavior. We haven't known Jordi for that long but he doesn't strike me as a fly off the handle kind of guy."
"J-man is definitely the moody quiet artist guy." Dash half laughed.
"Exactly." McAndrew nodded. "The fever was likely the cause of both symptoms. Once we got his temperature down both stopped. But what caused the fever. We haven't figured that out yet. There are three likely possibilities.
"First. We tried adjusting Jordi's chemo meds this round because he had such a bad reaction to the first round. The hope was to avoid the constant fevers and the vomiting so Jordi wouldn't e dehydrated or lose so much weight, both of which are bad conditions in general. The fever, the seizure could be a reaction to the new drugs. A reaction that is atypical but Jordi's body had an atypically fast and harsh reaction to the first round so it's not impossible.
"Second. Chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it also kills a patients immune system. So we have to consider an infection his body can't fight off. It could be anything from any upper respiratory infection to meningitis or even encephalitis. We're waiting for results from a battery of blood, narrow and spinal fluid tests to see if there's any infection. In the meantime Jordi is being kept in the ICU."
"So we can't see him?"
McAndrew shook his head. "He's being kept in an isolation room under high quarantine protocols. Besides he's basically out of it. We were able to lower his temperature out of the danger zone but he's still got a low grade fever."
"How long before he comes back?"
"I won't know until the lab results are back. Best case I don't want him brought back until he's fully rehydrated, fever gone. So likely another 3-4 days."
"Can he have his phone? So we can text him at least."
"I'll see what I can do."
McAndrew got up to leave.
"Wait up a sec, Doc. You said three reasons. What's the last one?"
"The last one is that we might be too late and Jordi's cancer has spread into his spine or even his brain." McAndrew said solemnly. "I'm praying that one isn't true because it's the one of the three we have the worst odds of treating."