Page 70 of Roll With The Punches
It only took them a couple of minutes to be reunited with Jeff and Brandon once they reached the ER.
When Brandon had suggested calling Jeff’s family, Jeff had begged him to hold off until they knew something. The more time that passed, the more things doctors ruled out, and the more certain they seemed that whatever this was, it was serious, but probably not fatal, and likely not a stroke.
By late that afternoon, after a CT scan, MRI, and other tests, the doctors had ruled out a stroke in favor of Bell’s palsy…except they didn’t know what was triggering it, and it didn’t explain his other symptoms.
But convinced he wasn’t in immediate danger of dying, they admitted him to a regular room while they waited for more test results to come back.
Meanwhile, the drooping had eased a little, although it was still noticeable.
When Brandon tried to suggest Stuart could take Emma home so she wasn’t stuck waiting there, both of them nixed that decision.
“I’m not leaving, Dad. Not until we know what’s going on.”
Stuart nodded. “What she said.”
Brandon arched an eyebrow at him, but Stuart would take the strokes later for defying him, if there were any.
Finally, Brandon relented. “Okay.”
* * * *
Stuart, Brandon, and Emma took up vigil in Jeff’s room while waiting for the doctor to come talk to them. Brandon noticed that Emma didn’t want to leave Jeff’s side, her expression somber but sometimes breaking into tears, just to catch herself almost immediately.
Jeff’s face still drooped somewhat on the one side, but with the MRI negative for anything like a stroke, tumor, or vascular problem, all they could do now was wait for test results.
When the doctor walked in, carrying a laptop, he was accompanied by a woman dressed in scrubs. “Mr. Ortiz?”
Jeff held up his right hand.
The doctor set the laptop on the rolling table on the bed and stuck his hand out to shake with him. “Dr. Galbreiten. I wanted to discuss something from the admission notes in your file before we go any further. You mentioned you’ve been feeling bad ever since you returned home from your trip a couple of weeks ago. Where did you go, exactly, and when? It wasn’t overseas, was it?”
Brandon’s heart squeezed as Jeff had to lick his lips before he could speak. While his face wasn’t as droopy, it still seemed like his mouth didn’t want to work exactly right.
“New Hampshire.” He pointed at Brandon and motioned for him to continue for him.
“He went to help his sister move a friend of hers four weeks ago. She left her abusive husband and moved here to Florida.”
The doctor noted something on the laptop. “So you weren’t hunting, hiking, camping, any outdoor activities like that?”
Jeff shook his head.
“Why?” Brandon asked.
“Well, what I’m seeing could easily be explained by Lyme disease, but if he wasn’t outdoors—”
Stuart gasped. “The tick!” He stared at the doctor. “There was a tick I found on his—” He stared at Emma. “Um…”
Brandon saved him. “Jeff had a tick in his groin region. It was discovered upon him returning home, so was attached for at least twenty-four hours, best guess. Maybe longer. His sister’s friend lived in a house in a rural area. She was battling ticks on her dogs. Jeff helped her bathe and dip them.”
The doctor started nodding. “Any kind of rash after you found the tick?”
“Just some redness in the area, but we never saw a bulls-eye pattern,” Brandon said, “so we didn’t think about it. We thought the redness was from him obsessively going over it with rubbing alcohol and checking the area constantly. You think this is Lyme disease?”
“I’m almost sure of it now. Not everyone gets the bulls-eye rash, and some people never have a rash at all. If the tests don’t show Lyme, we’re still going to proceed like it is until we figure out something else. It also explains the Bell’s palsy, and your pain and neurological symptoms.
“So, good news, bad news. Bad news is, the tests might not show it’s Lyme. They’re still somewhat unreliable. But the good news is, if thisisLyme, which is my primary suspect, now we have a plan of attack. I’m going to go ahead and order some meds to start via his IV, order more tests, and I want to monitor him for at least a day or so before we talk about letting him go home, in case it isn’t Lyme. By then we should have all his preliminary blood work back.”
Jeff looked like he’d rather do anything but spend more time there, but Brandon took the decision out of his hands. “Whatever needs to happen,” Brandon said.
