The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,48

Jaime’s parents, and she announced with delight after the first day that they had great toys and good juice. Austin or Zoe was going to drop her off every day, and Fiona would pick her up at two.

Cathy’s prediction proved to be true. Jaime caught a cold three weeks after school started which turned into a nasty ear infection with a high fever a week later, and Jaime missed two weeks of school. Her absence didn’t matter in preschool, but Zoe hated to see her so sick, and worried that she’d have another febrile seizure when her fever went over a hundred and two. Cathy prescribed amoxicillin for the ear infection, which Jaime had never had before and turned out to be allergic to. She’d had another antibiotic, but not that one. She threw up violently for twenty-four hours, until they switched her to a different antibiotic, and five days later, she was healthy and back in school. The ear infection had been acute, and Jaime had howled in pain for two long nights before Cathy put her on the antibiotic.

Remembering what Cathy had said about Jaime being sick constantly for the first two years of school, and having taken it to heart, Zoe called an ear, nose, and throat specialist as soon as she was well. She didn’t want Jaime going through something like that again, and there were colds and coughs and earaches going around, only a month after school had started. And this was the second ear infection in her life.

They went to Dr. Parker uptown in the East Seventies, whom one of Zoe’s co-workers had recommended. She said that her son had had chronic ear infections for two years until they saw him, and she said he was a miracle worker. Zoe wanted his advice.

She picked Jaime up at school herself and took a cab uptown the day they went to see him. He had a toy box and an aquarium in his waiting room, so he obviously had a number of children as patients in his practice. Earaches were so common in little kids. He explained why, using a plastic model, once they got to see him. He said that children’s ear passages weren’t always fully developed at Jaime’s age, and ear infections happened more easily. Zoe asked if they would damage her hearing. He was young and attractive and great with Zoe, as he answered her questions.

“Chronic infections could eventually damage her hearing, but more than likely, she’ll outgrow them. I usually put in ear tubes if it happens too often. It’s a minor surgical procedure that takes a very short time, there’s very little recovery, and it works brilliantly to avoid further infections.” It was the procedure Zoe’s co-worker said her son had had, and he’d had no problems since. “Has Jaime had frequent ear infections? Sometimes it begins as babies, or when they start school.”

“She just had a very bad one, it kept her out of school for two weeks, and she was in agony for the first two days.”

“Earaches can be very painful, in children or adults,” he said sympathetically, but she hadn’t answered his question, intentionally. Zoe didn’t want him to know that Jaime had only had two in her life. She wanted to get ear tubes for Jaime, before she had chronic infections. It seemed like a great prophylactic measure. Why wait for her to get another one, if he could prevent that from happening again? It was why she had come to see him, the procedure was a minor one and would do Jaime no harm. He had said so himself. “How many infections has she had, say in the past year?” He repeated the question, and smiled at Zoe. She was enjoying talking to him. He had already examined Jaime, who was back in the waiting room, playing in the toy box, while Zoe and Dr. Parker chatted in his office.

“I can’t remember how many,” Zoe said vaguely, “but she’s had a number of them. I’m afraid she’ll miss a lot of school if it keeps happening.”

“She sounds like a perfect candidate for tubes,” he said, making a notation on Jaime’s chart, and then he glanced up at Zoe. “Are you worried about a surgical procedure for her?”

“Not really. My co-worker says you’re a magician.” He smiled at the compliment.

“It’s really very minor. She’ll be under general anesthesia for fifteen minutes, long enough to position the tubes correctly. And then she’ll have about half an