Aaron is moved from the overflow basement ICU to a real ICU on the 4th floor. Now he’s got a private room in the ICU, with it’s own HEPA air filter so that bacteria and other nasty stuff in the air is constantly filtered. 4th floor is more kicked back than 10th floor. People sleep all night in the [4th floor] waiting room. On the 10th floor, Anne and Natalie, getting a little sleep in the waiting room, get rousted at 2am and told to go home. They stay anyway.
Bone marrow tests indicate AML is of subtype M5, Monocytic.
Aaron is having a rough time. He keeps up a persistent fever, occasionally high.
Every couple hours, blood tests confirm that there is no detectable infection.
Infection is the ally of the enemy: The enemy white cells’ are subverted; they maintain no vigilance against foreign invaders; they are useless against infection. To make matters even worse, killing the enemy also kills what loyal cells are left, leaving Aaron defenseless and vulnerable to opportunistic bacterial, fungal, and viral marauders out and about, seeking that which they may destroy.
Aaron’s fever spikes around midnight.
