#43 Stacey's Emergency

Summary

As the last 10 or 15 books have told us, Stacey hasn't been feeling well for quite awhile. She's been way too hungry, thirsty, and tired, and she's stressed out by the way her parents keep putting her in the middle of their arguments. Stacey has even been going off her diet; she's bought candy from vending machines at school, had some of the fudge that Becca and Charlotte made during a sitting job, and even stolen some Ring Dings from Claudia. Stacey is definitely not feeling up to the action-packed weekend her dad has planned for her in New York (she'd rather wait until she's caught up with her school work and not feeling so awful), but she heads into the city anyway.

Stacey's dad is concerned about her health from the start, and the day after she arrives in New York, he takes her to the hospital. Her blood sugar level is insanely high, and no one can figure out why (she hasn't confessed to her dietary indiscretions yet). Her mom has come into the city to stay until Stacey's better, but Stacey is upset to learn that her mother isn't staying in her room at her dad's place. She doesn't seem to understand why her parents wouldn't want to sleep under the same roof, even though she seemed relatively okay with the divorce and what it meant before this book. Stacey even (disasterously) tries to get them to visit her at the same time, and ends up throwing them out of her hospital room out of frustration.

Stacey's blood sugar goes up and down over the next two weeks. It's a rough road, but she has plenty of visitors to cheer her up. Laine comes bearing (weird) gifts several times, and the BSC (minus Jessi and Mal) gets to come up to see her two days in a row. Finally, though, she's healthy enough to go home. Stacey and her mom arrive back home to find a welcoming committe waiting for them, but the party breaks up soon so Stacey can rest. Later that evening, Stacey finally confesses that she'd gone off her diet, and she talks to her mom about how she's not willing to be stuck in the middle of any parental arguments anymore.

Charlotte Johanssen is pretty upset when she finds out that Stacey is sick. She turns into a total hypochondriac, thinking she has every illness under the sun. That pretty much disappears once Char finds out that Stacey is fine and coming home. In fact, the welcome home party was Charlotte's idea.

Rating: 4

Thoughts and Things

• Why didn't Stacey tell someone when she first started feeling so bad??? I don't get it. I know she probably doesn't like doctors, and she doesn't want to worry anyone, but I'm assuming that she also doesn't want to die. Also...why didn't Dr. Johanssen make sure that Stacey made a doctor's appointment instead of just suggesting it? Heck, if I were Dr. J., I'd probably have called Mrs. McGill.

• That emerald green sweater that Stacey's mom gets her at Benetton sounds like something I would wear. I love green! Stacey can keep the beret, though.

• Every time I'm in a nasty public bathroom, I think of Stacey's experience with trying to get a drink of water in one on the train to NYC.

• Funny story about this book: my best friend growing up stole a copy of it from our school's book fair, and I helped her rough it up so it wouldn't look new anymore. That way, her mom wouldn't get suspicious about where it came from. We were such awful little thieves. :)

• I don't think Stacey ever confessed to Claudia that she stole some of her junk food stash!