Basorexia

New Friends.

"Alright baby, now you get some sleep, and someone will be here to pick you up tomorrow," Nurse Nancy told little Jayson as she set a pillow under his cast, pulling the freshly heated blankets over him. After going through two months of treatment, Jayson was finally able to head home. Shortly after Mayson left, he was moved to the pediatric floor and out of the PICU. Nurse Nancy was Jayson's favorite nurse, she was the one sassy black nurse his brother talked about each hospital having, the one that was sweet but could easily kick your ass if you got her mad. Since his father was still working, Mayson would pick him up and bring him to the Brooks for a few days before Sandra came to get him. He would stay her and his father, continue treatment, then come back all together when business was done. As much as Mayson didn’t like Sandra, he was grateful that she was the one who volunteered to get Jayson.

Jayson's little hands pushed the blonde locks from his face and rubbed his eyes tired from the busy day, the doctor told him that he would have to visit a few different hospitals, but it didn’t bother him. Jayson thought it was a really cool place. They had tons of cool toys, funny looking machines, and really nice people that wanted to make Jayson happy and feel good. Nurse Nancy only made the experience better for her favorite kid on the floor.

He laid his hands over his small chest and closed his eyes, just as Mayson told him to do when he couldn't sleep and think out his mommy. Jayson didn’t understand much of what happened to her, but he knew she was in a place called heaven. Heaven was a pretty place as he pictured it. It was so quiet, and everybody was always happy and smiling. Jayson always fell asleep fast when he thought of all the memories with mom, mostly made up from his imagination. Shortly after the accident, Jayson would watch home movies they had with Mayson. As he fell asleep, he thought of what he wanted to tell her in his dream. He wanted to tell her not to be mad at mama and pops, for what happened. He shouldn't have run by the pool in the first place. But this time when Jayson tried to dream about his mum, something was different this time he didn't feel the same.

Jayson stood in front of the largest, most beautiful playground he had ever seen. All the equipment was painted in bright colors. The trees swayed gently in the wind, pushing a cooling breeze over his face. The sun sat brightly in the sky making the park shine.

"Um Nurse Nancy, I think you should see this," said the intern, Jack, from Up-west Technical Institute. The panel had a light with a number for every room, below that was a camera that showed the room. His finger pointed to room 165. The light had switched from green to orange, warning that some of his vital signs weren’t good. On the screen, Jayson laid in bed with his head to the side not moving. "Get the doctor in there, we might have an emergency coming up in room 165," she said. As Jack picked up the phone, the light switched from orange to red, sounding the alarm around the nurses station. All the trained professionals jumped to their feet running towards the room, adrenaline filling them with energy.

The playground was different than how it normally was. Jayson stood still looking around for his mommy, wondering if she was just running late or wanted him to find her. Up at the tree where they normal sat there was a blonde girl sitting on his mommy's picnic blanket in the grass looking up at the bright sun in the sky. Slowly he walked up to her, keeping his hands in his pajama pockets, like he did when his tummy got tight and he didn't want to talk. He stared at her waiting for her to talk first, but only continued to look at the sky.

"Jayson! Come on baby wake up. Come on." Nurse Nancy begged the boy who was unresponsive. Jayson body began to shake his muscles contracting uncontrollably "He's having a seizure get him on his side now!" She shouted and the others took not even a minute pause to do as they were told.

"Jayson?!" Small Sammy awoke in the bed next to Jayson's. They shared a room together as many children did to make them feel more comfortable. Sammy had heart disease, a heart murmur, and was to stay here as he was watched and checked out before going home. A nurse picked up Sammy and carried him out of the room as he screamed about a promise he made to Jayson that they'd always be there for each other. He fought and kicked in her arms as he was rushed out the door and down the hall.

"Wh- who are you?" Jayson squeaked, walking up to him. She was pretty, reminding him of his mom, but thought his mommy was much prettier. The girl looked over her shoulder, giving him a comforting smile. Her long hair was wrapped into a messy braid down her back. She was dressed in white silk pajamas with a quilted blanket wrapped over her shoulders. "Hi, Jayson. I know you were waiting for your mom, but I asked her if I could talk to you instead.”

Jayson's small body shook now positioned on his side held by the nurses. His breathing was still at a normal rate, yet his heart was pounding for his young age. The nurses talked to him, trying to make him wake up or possibly for the chance that he would hear them and listen. A nurse began to draw different drugs from different vials that would help relax his body and bring his heart rate down.

"Why are you here?" he asked, biting the inside of his cheek and sitting next to her on the picnic blanket.

"Well, I wanted to come to visit you and become your friend." She said smiling softly. "And when I make new friends, I love to play games with them." The sound of a new friend made Jayson smile. His chubby cheeks pushed together as he showed a bright smile. "I'm Jayson," he said jumping up to his feet holding out his hand.

Suddenly Jayson's heart stopped. The monitors in the room began to loudly beep alerting staff of the emergency. “Get the crash cart!” Nancy yelled into the hallway at one of the nurses. Jayson’s doctor flew into the room, giving directions and orders to different nurses. Nancy was the first one to start compressions, pushing deep into the boys heart to make it start beating. "Clear!" One shouted after attaching the pads to his bare chest. Jayson body jolted off the mattress then fell back down onto the bed, still no heartbeat and no breathing. They repeated this twice more trying to get him back to life, but after three cycles the doctor told them to stop.

Jayson's body laid limp in front of them, nurses and doctors were silent. Slowly they cleaned up, pushing unneeded equipment out of the room. The hospital went from havoc to silence in a split moment. Their bodies going back to being exhausted and drained of energy. Slowly the nurses filed out of the room. Nancy was the last to leave, pulling a blanket up over the boy’s head and kissing his forehead. She closed the curtain in front of the sliding glass door to give him privacy then walked out. “Find his emergency contact, I need to make a phone call”.

"Hello, Jayson." She said with happiness, looking down at the small boy. She already knew his name though why not make it as formal as can be and shake hands and introduce themselves. "What's your name?" Jayson asked, letting go of the girls hand twisting back and forth as he looked at her.

"Hope"

The hospital was silent, like those moments in movies where no sound is made. Just the swiping through the hospital no one talking and no one speaking.

Hope looked around, up at the sky. Jayson’s looked in the same direction, confused on what she was looking at. "I have to go now, but we’ll talk again soon. Goodbye Jayson" Hope waved towards him as she walked down the other side of the hill.

A high pitch scream from room 165 echoed through the hospital, waking up all of the half-asleep nurses and sending a chill through their bodies. "Nurse Nancy!" Shouted the Intern. He took a deep breath, waving her to come over. Nancy glanced down at the monitor, seeing Jayson sitting upright in his bed.

"Jayson..."

The doctors didn't know how to understand what had happened to Jayson. He had now been clinically 'dead' for a full five-odd minutes. Jayson would have suffered brain damage if he was revived, but he should have been dead. To Jayson, it all went in slow motion. The excruciating pain in his head as he felt it was going to explode, the pressure and throbbing as he gripped onto his hair ripping some out in the process. Next can the burning in his chest, as if there was a fire starting inside him burning its way out. The tears pouring out of his eyes just couldn't come fast enough as he screamed as loud as he could, waking up all others on the floor. Nurse Nancy had come running in seconds after he started screaming. She tightly gripped him in her arms trying to restrain him from hurting himself, talking to him and soothing him that everything was okay.

Next thing he saw was the nurses and doctors running in, their coats flapping behind them all a blur behind his tears. Nancy tried her best to hold him down as he thrashed in their grip. Jayson felt as if he couldn't control his body as if someone else had taken control, but still let him feel the pain. He couldn't hear anything the nurses said, their mouths frantically moving trying to speak to him though there was complete silence. He began to beat his hand against his cast wailing as his small fists hit the light blue stone engulfing his leg. The nurses pushed him to his back holding him down through his skin burned at their touch, making him beg for them to release him. A nurse quickly injected a medicine into his arm to calm him.

Next, it all stopped. The pain in his chest was gone, their hands grasping his arms no longer burnt him, his head finally at rest. The doctors didn't know what to do as all five stared down at him, it was still silent, but not because he couldn't hear, it was because no one knew what to say to him. Jayson looked up at them, the last bit of tears spilling from his eyes before he didn't feel the need to cry anymore.

"Let go? "Jayson asked the doctors, his voice seemed to be the only thing unaffected by what just happened. "Jayson, you okay baby?" the nurse slowly asked, nodding to the assistants that beforehand were holding him down could leave. She crouched beside his small bed as the boy slowly sat up, his eyes not losing contact with hers, though still glossed from preexisting tears.

Nancy tried to question him about how he felt, if anything was hurting him. Jayson didn't answer what he was asked as he stared at her not saying a word. Jayson looked around the room, taking a moment to realize he was okay. To understand where he was and what was going on. There were slight blotches of red around his cast. As he was flailing around, his hand had structed the cast, ripping some of his skin on his hand. "I'll be right back baby, I'll clean that right up for you," she said running a hand through his hair and giving his forehead a kiss before walking out.

They washed up and bandaged around both his fists making his hands look like they were wrapped in fighting gloves. Sighing, the nurse stood in the doorway watching the boy. She had gotten the doctor's approval for the week-early removal of his cast. The little boy finally could feel his own skin below the fiberglass. He watched Nancy back as his eyes slowly fluttered closed. She feared leaving the room, terrified that what had happened before would only happen again. The had hooked him back up to the monitors and a few more so they could closely track everything that went on in his body, but nothing else happened that night. The boy slept soundly as if nothing had happened.

Instead of calling Mayson, the doctor decided to wait until tomorrow since he would be here to pick him up. They would discuss the situation and have Jayson wear a small sticker over his chest that constantly watched his heart and sent updates back to the doctor. No one could understand it, there was no logical explanation for it. It was one of those few things doctors had to look at and say, ‘we don’t know’.