To Sing Frogs Chapter 25e

Celeste leading her new little brother, Denney, around the hotel in Vladivostok

“It was Stass,” I said after hanging up the phone. “He and Anya are in the lobby waiting for us.”

“John, come here.”

I walked over to the bed where Amy was changing Denney’s diaper. Diarrhea. “The symptoms didn’t say anything about that.” I rushed back to the computer and searched for the symptom and the disease together. It was possible though not common. “How’s his fever?”

“Quite a bit worse. He was almost a hundred and three a few minutes ago, when I checked.”

I searched again. Usually the fever wasn’t as severe, particularly in children. It wasn’t unheard of though. “I think we’re okay. We’ve got to meet Stass and Anya so we can get him to the doctor for his emigration physical. We’ve got to get that fever down before we get there. What can we do?”

Amy had already given him Tylenol. She thought she might be able to bring it down further with cool wet cloths on the way to the doctor’s office. I rushed the girls to Dyehdushka Bill’s room while Amy finished with Denney. Then she thoroughly washed up.

“How’s it going this morning?” Stass asked as Anya gave hugs to Amy and Denney.

I shook my head. “Not good. Denney has a fever and diarrhea. He threw up last night.”

“Hepatitis?”

“Has to be. What do we do now?”

“We can only do one thing. We take him to the doctor.”

“For treatment or a physical?”

“Depends on if she catches the symptoms. There would be no reason for her to know about the outbreak at the Ussuriysk orphanage. If we can keep the fever down maybe we’ll get lucky.”

 

 

Denney’s fever was down to ninety-nine and a half. Amy changed his diaper to remove the evidence just before getting out of the car to go into the doctor’s office. Then she applied a liberal amount of sanitizer to her hands and rubbed them together until it evaporated.

“I hope he doesn’t soil himself again before we get the physical done,” Amy said while we rushed toward the door. Of course she said what we were all thinking.

 

 

Amy and I were sweating bullets when Doctor Valentina checked Denney’s temperature. Stass and Anya could not have looked calmer. How did they do it? The doctor didn’t bat an eye. Denney gasped when the cold steel of the stethoscope touched his skin. Again, no reaction from Dr. Valentina as the instrument moved to several locations. I held my breath when she looked down his diaper.

“Everything appears to be normal. Congratulations. You can put his clothes back on,” Stass translated to Amy.

I fished in my pocket for another Benjamin while my wife quickly dressed Denney. We both wanted to get out of the office as fast as we could.

“Huh,” the doctor ejected. Then more words in Russian.

“Dr. Valentina says she didn’t notice the rash on his cheek until now. Do you know what it is?” Anya translated.

Amy looked up, flabbergasted. She was unable to answer.

Actually, yes. According to sites found with Google it’s another uncommon side effect of Hepatitis A. He just seems to be showing all of the possible signs and to a greater degree than most. “I have no idea. He’s always had it. I guess the kid has sensitive skin. It said something about it in the first medical reports we got on him,” I lied. I handed Dr. Valentina the money and thanked her in Russian. “Spaseba.”

“Pazyaloostah.” Stass put the forms in front of the doctor. She filled them out and added her signature while we tried not to dance in place.

I don’t know how we didn’t run out of the doctor’s office.

 

 

We arrived at the hotel in the early evening with Denney’s passport and all other documentation in hand. The passport office didn’t get in a “Domino’s Pizza Delivery” rush for us. As Russians go they did hurry though. They produced the passport while we waited. For three hours.

            The girls were tickled to have us back. Nothing made Denney happy. He just cried when he wasn’t nodding off. We ate together with the kids and Dyehdushka Bill. It was the one small stress-free part of the day.

I was up until midnight packing luggage and organizing documents. Amy was up on and off all night with Denney. She called our family doctor again. Hep A hits some people harder than others. If the symptoms became dangerous we should get him to a doctor. Otherwise it was to be treated like the flu. “Are you being careful about washing your hands?” the doctor asked. “Because I promise you, what he’s got, you don’t want.”

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