Blood Test by Kellerman, Jonathan

compare to finding out one’s child has cancer.

And part of the nightmare is the guilt parents

inflict upon themselves, searching for an answer to

the unanswerable question: why me? It’s not a rational

process. It occurs in doctors and biochemists

and other people who should know better–the mental

floggings, the I should haves and I could haves.

Most parents, get over it. The ones who don’t can be

crippled…

“Of course in this case,” Raoul was hypothesizing,

“there would be more of a basis for it, wouldn’t

there? Aged ovaries, etc. Well, enough conjecture,

let me go on. Where was I–ah, Mrs. Swope. Enuna.

A mouse. Obsequious even. The father’s the boss.

One sibling, a sister, around nineteen or so.”

“How long’s the boy been diagnosed?”

BLOOD TEST 45

“Officially just a couple of days. A local G.P.

piCkedup the distended abdomen on exam. There’d

been pain for a couple of weeks and fevers for the

last five days. The G.P. had sneaking suspicions–not

bad for a country, doc–didn’t like the local

facilities and sent them up here. We had to do an

extensive evalmrepeat physical, bloodwork, BUN,

uric acid, bone marrows from two sites, immuno-diagnostic

markers–the non-Hodgkin’s protocol demands

it. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that

we had it stagged. Localized disease, no disseminated

mets.

“I had a diagnostic conference with the parents,

· told them the prognosis was good because the tumors

hadn’t spread, they filled out informed consents,

and we were ready to go. The boy has a

recent history of multiple infections and there was

pneumocystis swimming around in his blood so we

put him in Laminar Flow, planned to keep him

there for the first course of chemo, and then check

how the immune system was working. It looked

open and shut and then I got a call from Augie

Valcroix, my clinical Fellow–I’ll get to him in a

minute–and he- told me the parents were having

cold feet.”

“No indication of problems whenyou first spoke

to them?”

“Not really, Alex. The father does all the talking

in this family. She sat there and wept, I did my

best to comfort her. He asked lots of picky ques-tionzlike

I said, he was trying to impress–but it

was all very friendly. They seemed like intelligent

people, not flaky.”

He shook his head in frustration.

“After Valcroix’s call I went right over, talked to

46 JOnathan Kellerman

them, thinking it was momentary anXiety–you know

sometimes parents hear about treatment and get

the idea we’re out to torture their child. They start

looking for something Simple, like apricot pits. If

the doctor takes the time to explain the value of

chemo, they usually return to the fold. But not the

Swopes. They had their minds made up.

“I used a chalkboard. Drew out the survival

graphs–that eighty-one percent stat I gave you was

for localized disease. Once the tumors spread the

figure drops to forty-six. It didn’t impress them. I

told them speed was of the essence. I laid on the

charm, cajoled, pleaded, shouted. They didn’t argue.

Simply refused. They want to take him home.”

He tore a roll to shreds and arranged the fragments

in a semicircle on his plate.

“I’m going tohave eggs,” he announced.

He beckoned the waitress back. She took the order

and gave me a look behind his back that said I’m used to this.

“Any theory as to what caused the turnaround?”

I asked.

“I have two. One, Augie Valcroix mucked it up..

Two, those damned Touchers poisoned the parents’

minds.”

“Who?”

“Touchers. That’s what I call them. Members of

some damned sect that has its headquarters near

where the family lives. They worship this guru

named Noble Matthiasmthat’s what the social

worker told me–and call themselves the Touch.”

Raoul’s voice filled with contempt. “Madre de Dios Alex, California has become a sanctuary for the

psychic refuse of the world!”

“Are they holistic types?”

BLOOD TEST 47

“The social worker says-yes–big surprise, no? Assholistic is more like it. Cure disease with carrots

and bran and foul-smelling herbs thrown over

the shoulder at midnight. The culmination of centuries

of scientific progress–voluntary cultural.

regression!”

“What did these Touch people do, exactly?”

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