Wednesday, October 21, 2009

#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!

10 comments:

  1. Stacey always seems to talk about how life threateningly dangerous her diabetes are, yet she cheats on her diet restrictions? But she's so mature!!

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  2. I guess it just got to be too much for her. She was under a lot of stress, and she probably couldn't deal with it all anymore.

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  3. I don't get why Stacey didn't say anything either. But it's a BSC book--asking for help from an adult is WEAK!!!

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  4. No, I know why Stacey didn't say anything. She knew exactly what she was doing, and knew she'd get in a huge amount of trouble for "cheating." Don't knock her maturity in this one. Living with Type 1 Diabetes from day-to-day is tough mentally as well as physically. Some days you just want to throw all of the needles out the window and gorge without counting a single carb. Even with insulin pumps and carb-counting it can be rough. Sure...I can eat whatever I want, but do I want an extra needle, or run out of insulin in my pump faster and have to put a new tube in? Of course, back then, they didn't have the sophisticated insulins and insulin dosing that we have now.

    I used to read those stories about Stacey, and was fascinated and horrified...then I was diagnosed with diabetes at 14. After realizing the gross difference between now and then, I got hooked on the Mary Anne and Jessi books. I still love Stacey books though :)
    --Emily S.

    P.S. I know this is an older post, but I had to comment. After all, this is National Diabetes Awareness Month :). You rock posting all of these book summaries, I've always wondered about some of the book titles that I never could get!!

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  5. "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."

    In 3, doesn't Dr. J. make the appointment?

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  6. LOL at helping your friend rough up her stolen goods. Badasses!

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  7. In the UK books, I'm pretty sure she steals a bag of Maltesers from Claudia! :D

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  8. I also have a funny memory about this book. There was a certain point in time when I would have my dad read my BSC books... I guess because I liked it when we would comment books together. This is one of the books that he read, but for some reason, there were a few missing pages, and it made it kind of hard to follow the story.

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  9. I think Charolette went crazy trying to get in the hospital with Stacey. I mean, really. Arthritis? Pinched nerve? I think that she went overboard.

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