I nodded. “We appreciate everything you’ve done tonight.”
The doctor opened his office door. “I wish you the best of luck with everything. I’ll update Dr. Shropshire myself on what’s going on so he’s completely on top of what I already know.”
And as the doctor led us back to Mr. Faircloth’s room, my mind started spinning with all sorts of things.
Namely, if this kind of thing were something our family attorney could get involved with.
22
Luna
The hours seemed to pass by quickly and slowly at the same time. Dr. Shropshire hadn’t come by, and it was already lunchtime. We hadn’t heard anything about that allergy test, which made me even more nervous. I mean, even if a doctor had been negligent, it wasn’t as if we had the money to do anything about it.
My father was on a fixed income. I made good money working with Bart, but I hadn’t been working with him for long. I had a whopping three-fourths of a paycheck in my bank account and almost nothing in my savings. One more good hard knock from life and it was over for the both of us.
“What am I going to do?” I whispered.
Bart started massaging my shoulders. “I don’t want you to worry about that right now. Let’s get your father home first, and then we can go from there.”
I tilted my head back and looked up at him. “They’ll have to replace both of his hips again. He’ll be right back at ground zero.”
He dipped down, kissing my forehead. “And we’ll take it one step at a time if that’s what has to happen.”
The door to my father’s room opened, and a nurse shuffled quickly inside. I watched as she picked up my father’s arm and stuck him with a needle, drawing a vial of blood as if we weren’t there.
“Nurse?” Bart asked.
“Yes?” she asked, not looking up.
“Are there any updates on his condition?”
A booming voice sounded from the doorway. “I believe I can answer that question.”
I stood to my feet. “You must be Dr. Shropshire.”
He walked over and stuck out his hand. “Miss Faircloth. Mr. Remington. I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances.”
Bart and I shook his hand before I drew in a deep breath. “What’s going on?”
“Got it,” the nurse said.
The doctor nodded. “Get it tested ASAP. I want a rush on it.”
Bart wrapped his arm around my waist. “Why the rush?”
Dr. Shropshire clasped his hands behind his back. “My colleague, Dr. Weatherford, filled me in on what’s going on with your father. I’ve been on top of researching some alternative solutions to the issue at hand.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Why? Because a colleague of yours might be in trouble?”
He chuckled. “Many people paint me to be a hardass, but I can assure you I’m simply thorough. Plus, the hospital did find those test results.”
I blinked. “They did?”
He nodded. “They did. They performed two of them, actually, because the first material your father was allergic to.”
“H–he was?”
He nodded. “Yes. But, the second test they performed, his results were just fine. I had them send me over the surgical footage since your father had his hips replaced in a training hospital, just to make sure they used the right implants for the surgery.”
“And?” Bart asked.
“And they did. So, we’ve ruled out the idea of an allergic reaction.”
I sighed. “Hence the research you’ve been doing.”
The doctor handed me a file. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”
I took the folder from him. “What is it?”
“Just open it up and take a look at the pictures. I want to know if any of these things are around your house at all.”
I furrowed my brow. “Uh, okay. Yeah, sure. Hold on.”
I opened the folder and flipped through the pictures and recognized a lot of the items mostly because they were basic things found in most homes in the US—enriched white flour, full-sugar sodas, bananas, regular vitamins.
I shook my head. “I don’t get it. What do these random things have to do with my father?”
“How many of those items do you think are in your house that your father consumes regularly.”
Bart interjected. “Can we skip over the dramatics and get to the point where you tell us what’s going on?”
The doctor slowly looked over at him. “All right. Here’s what I believe: Mr. Faircloth is currently allergic to his own blood.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what? I thought Dr. Weatherford said my father had a stroke?”
The doctor looked back down at me. “Oh, he did. But, the underlying cause of that stroke and everything that’s been cascading before that has a different underlying reason. He’s allergic to his own blood right now. That’s why I had my nurse draw some because a simple antibody identification test will tell me if my theory is correct.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “How’s that possible? And, what does that have to do with the sodas my father drinks?”
The doctor perched against my father’s hospital bed. “It’s called Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia, and it happens whenever a person’s immune system triggers a bodily response to destroy its own red blood cells. Sometimes, the trigger can be as simple as stress, but sometimes it can be triggered when foreign objects are introduced into the body.”
Bart clicked his tongue. “Like the hip replacements.”
Dr. Shropshire drew in a deep breath. “Exactly. And that wouldn’t have registered on any allergy test at all. The response would’ve started with a bit of joint pain, which could have easily been attributed to just going through major surgery. Add the concoction of pain pills on top of the bananas your father was probably eating by the pound because they probably made him feel better, and we’ve got a compounding issue that’s nothing more than a dull roar until the liver can no longer filter out the nonexistent toxin.”
I paused. “The broken red blood cells?”
The doctor nodded. “Essentially.”
Bart held me tightly against his side. “What do the bananas have to do with anything, though?”
The doctor set down the chart at the foot of the bed. “Potassium has a plethora of benefits. It regulates fluid levels, which is why doctors recommend regular potassium intake after most surgeries. It also helps reduce blood pressure problems, which I see your father has in his chart. But, the biggest benefit, in some cases, is the fact that higher amounts of potassium help regulate heart rhythms. Great for those who have had bypass surgeries, like your father. But, when coupled with something that’s attacking red blood cells, all that does is shoot those pseudo-toxins through the body faster.”
“Jesus,” I breathed.
Bart sighed. “So, what do we do? Where do we go from here?”
The doctor slid his hands into his pockets. “The good news is that your father probably won’t have to have his implants replaced. If the surgery is what triggered this response, then putting him back under is only going to make it worse. What I’m going to do is have the head of our dialysis department come in after her lunch break and speak with you about getting him set-up with in-home dialysis treatments. Filtering out those attacked red blood cells with dialysis is going to help his body regain some of its strength and function, and he is going to be able to level out. The reason why his immune system is doing this is that it’s much too taxed, and it can’t figure out why so it’s producing antibodies because it thinks its sick. We have to filter that stuff out and give his body time to recuperate from being in constant overdrive, and with some close in-home monitoring, we should be able to get his body back in functioning order by the end of the year.”