Nick goes to the hospital

Thanksgiving 1991. Something wasnt quite right. Nick was lying on the living room floor, curled up and looked like he was in a lot of pain. I got down next to him. "What's wrong?" "UH, NOTHING" So I ask, "Does something hurt?" NOOOOOOO." Time for a trip to the hospital. The closest one that took my insurance was Doctor's Hospital in Montclair, CA. Something was obviously wrong, but Nick wouldn't say where he hurt. Just picking him up caused him a great deal of pain. We got the hospital and was asked the questions they always ask. What happened? When did the pain start?  What is he saying hurts? After running some tests, they discovered it was his kidneys.
Nick had always been very heathly and got all his shots. We moved and he didn't have a regular doctor. He never needed one. He got minor cuts and scapes and the occassional cold. I think I can count the number of times he got stomach flu on one hand.
When you go to the Emergency Room and you don't have a regular doctor, the hospital assigns one to you. There are some doctors who are really great and some that are just okay. We got neither. The doctor we saw took me aside to speak with me. After his intial assessment, he had a possible diagnosis. He said it was either a kidney infection or he needed a kidney transplant. SERIOUSLY! This was what he told me. It was easy to tell the Nick was very sick and they admitted him. Jen would stay with him all day and almost all night and I would stay as much as I could. I would arrive at the hospital after I got off work.
We had discovered that real fruit juice and Nick didn't get along. We told this to the doctor, the nurses, etc. They even put a bracelet and wrote "NO JUICE" on it. He was severely dehydrated. They had him on IV's, but they kept giving him juice saying it was "doctor's orders". The juice caused him to have severe diarrhea. The nurses would come around to check on him from time to time and ask us why he had diarrhea. We said because you guys keep giving him juice and we pointed at his ankle. They would leave and say they would back to change his bedding. We got tired of waiting for them to come back. I did some snoping around and would the linen room. I came back with clean bedding and gowns and we cleaned up EVERYTHING ourselves. They didn't back for a couple of hours and they were actually mad that we didnt wait for them to come back. I told them that you cant leave someone in that.  After that they just let us clean him up and change his bedding. Something needed to be done and done quickly. Nick wasn't getting better. He was getting worse! At the same time, things were changing at work. Hours were getting cut and I lost my insurance. After a lot of phone calls and forms, we got emergency medi-cal and Nick was transfered to Loma Linda.
As soon as we arrived at Loma Linda, we met the doctors, filled out the forms, and got Nick into a room. I noticed in the main lobby, there was a giant picture of Jesus. Just from the shoulders up, but it took up the whole wall. There was something about the picture that put me at ease. I really couldn't put my finger on it. I think we were just glad to in a better hospital than Doctor's. They should have called it "QUACKS PLAYGROUND" rather than Doctor's Hospital.