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difference was the Mickey Mouse border encircling the room, but other than that it was the same as every other hospital room—a stiff white bed as the focal point and two hard backed chairs with metal legs next to it. The off white walls were in need of a new paint job even though we were at one of the most expensive and respected hospitals in Los Angeles. She had her own bathroom with a small toilet and sink. There was even a standing shower. I was glad we had a window even if the only view it provided was the other hospital wing directly across the street. I moved to stand next to David as a nurse in the doorway made her way into the room and began connecting Rori’s IV and other wires to the machine next to her hospital bed.
    “She’s going to be okay,” I assured him for the tenth time, hoping my words were true.

Chapter Four
    “S he’s experiencing metabolic acidosis. The blood draw that we took at 3 still shows her bicarbonate level is at 7–”
    David interrupted, “It’s still the same? But, we’ve been here for over six hours and she’s been on an IV the entire time. Shouldn’t it have gone up? The doctor in the ER said IV fluids would help her. Why aren’t they helping?”
    “The good news is they’re helping with her dehydration. Her potassium, sodium, and chloride levels are coming back up.”
    I was having a hard time focusing on what the attending pediatric physician, Dr. Koven, was explaining because I hadn’t been able to stop staring at her pregnant belly. I guessed she was at least seven months pregnant by how extended she was coupled with the way she waddled when she walked and how she held her hand against her back for support while she stood. I never thought about doctors who worked with sick kids having kids of their own. I couldn’t imagine how she did her job every day and wasn’t plagued with constant fears about her unborn child. Every pregnant woman I knew obsessed about the potential diseases that could affect their children, but we kept them at bay because we didn’t have to see them. How could you combat the fear when you had to see sick kids every day?
    “However, we are also concerned about the level of ketones in her blood. Those are elevated as well. We would’ve hoped to see those levels come down as well through re-hydrating her, but they’re still in the high range.”
    David ran his hands through his hair which was sticking up haphazardly because he’d run his hands through it so many times. “I don’t understand what’s going on with her. None of this makes sense.”
    “I wish we had more answers to give you but when we see something unusual like we’re seeing with Rori, it can take a while to narrow down what’s going on. We have to start wide and rule things out as we go and there’s not a quick way to do it. I wish there was.” She was hovering over the computer screen where the nurses made notations after they’d checked on Rori.
    “So what sorts of things are we looking at? Where are we starting?” David asked.
    “Our biggest concern is that she’s acidotic. We’ll begin by looking at some of the most common reasons we would see a kid become acidotic. We’ll be looking at things like diabetes and other endocrine disorders because she’s experiencing ketoacidosis, but diabetes is highly unlikely because her sugar levels are quite low whereas with diabetes we would expect them to be high. But, we will definitely be ruling out a diagnosis of diabetes just to be sure. In addition, we’ll be looking at whether her kidney and liver functioning are normal. We’ll want to make sure all of her major body systems are functioning appropriately and that there isn’t anything going on with her organs. Usually when children become acidotic, they become acidotic because there’s a problem somewhere in their organs or in their metabolic functioning.”
    “How long until you know what’s wrong with her?” I asked.
    “We’re going to have the lab come