Chapter
11
The doctor who was treating Brian at St.
Paul's, Dr. David Ashmore had called Dr. Simms at St. Joseph's in Lexington.
Dr. Simms had insisted that Brian be brought back to Lexington. So, the next
day, everyone made plans to go back to Lexington. Alexa and Brian's parents had
stayed at the hospital overnight. The Boys had gotten a hotel room. They still
had their tour bus with them, so everyone decided to ride back on that. They
insisted Brian be taken in an ambulance instead of riding on the bus, just in
case. Alexa wanted to ride with him, but his parents did too, and all three of
them couldn't fit, so she let his parents go, and she rode in the bus with the
rest of the guys. The trip took about four hours. Finally, they arrived in
Lexington, safe and sound.
Brian was immediately checked into the
hospital. Dr. Simms gathered them all together in Brian's room so he could talk
to them.
"Ok, everyone," he began,
"the first thing I want to do is run some tests on Brian to check on the
condition of his heart. Many times, when transplant patients get an illness
like this, they go through a period of rejection." Alexa's eyes widened.
"What do you do about that?"
Brian's father asked.
"Well, normally, we would give him a
higher dose of immune suppressant drugs," Dr. Simms said.
"But wouldn't that make it harder to
fight off the bronchitis?" Brian's mother asked.
"That's exactly what the problem
is," Dr. Simms said. "I want to do a heart biopsy and some other
tests to see if the heart is beginning to reject. Maybe we'll get lucky."
Alexa looked at Brian. She saw the look of fear in his eyes, but when he saw
her looking at him, he tried to disguise it and flashed her an encouraging
smile. She offered a tiny smile back.
***
A short while later, everyone left the
room and went out into the waiting room to wait while Brian went through the
tests. Dr. Simms told them he wouldn't have any results until that evening.
***
That evening, Dr. Simms gathered everyone
into Brian's room again to go over the test results. Alexa climbed onto the bed
with Brian and laced her fingers through his.
"The heart biopsy shows minor
rejection," Dr. Simms told them. Alexa squeezed Brian's hand so tightly
her knuckles were white. His hand felt as cold as ice in hers. Jackie put
covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a sob. "Now remember," Dr.
Simms continued, "I told you that minor episodes of rejection are common
when the patient has an infection."
"How are you going to make it
stop?" Howie asked. Alexa could see the worry in his eyes.
"We'll start by giving him higher
doses of his immune-suppressant drugs and see if that will work," Dr.
Simms replied.
"What if it doesn't?" Kevin
asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come
to it," Dr. Simms said. "Hopefully, this will work."
"What about the bronchitis?"
Brian's father wanted to know.
"We'll give him some more antibiotics
to fight it off." They all nodded. Then Dr. Simms left. A nurse came in
and put in a new IV for the immune-suppressant drugs. Then she changed the
other IV bag, which contained the antibiotics. The guys and Brian's parents
went down to the cafeteria for dinner. Alexa didn't have an appetite and stayed
in the room with Brian until he dozed off.
***