Chapter 18
“How are you feeling, honey?” asked Olivia’s father, Randy
Caisson, a few hours later. He and his
wife Melinda had just arrived in Tampa minutes earlier and had come straight to
the hospital.
Olivia shrugged. “Tired,”
she responded.
“How about your head? Are
you in any pain?” her mother pressed.
“No, not really. They gave
me some painkillers earlier, and those worked really well,” Olivia replied
truthfully.
Melinda Caisson nodded, and an uncomfortable silence fell over the
room. Olivia didn’t know what to say to
her parents, and she knew they felt the same way. There was only one thing on all of their
minds, and no one actually wanted to have to talk about it.
“So, how was your flight?” Olivia asked, hoping to change the
subject.
“Long,” her father replied.
Melinda nodded. Suddenly,
a troubled look came over her face.
“Oh, Olivia, I should have never let you go live by yourself so far away
from home!” she burst out, wringing her hands.
“What do you mean, Mom?” Olivia asked in surprise.
“You’ve been so far away from your doctors and your family and
everything. And now this.”
“So? What does this have to
do with where I live? It would have
happened no matter what,” she said.
“Well, if you were still in
Olivia glanced down guiltily.
Her mother was referring to the appointment she had cancelled to go
boating with Nick. “One week wouldn’t
have made any difference, Mom,” she replied.
“Maybe not, but still… I can’t believe he didn’t catch it. It seems foolish for you to have to have a
seizure all alone at your house and be rushed to the Emergency Room before they
could find out what was wrong with you.
Dr. Brandt should have been able to tell you last week that you were out
of remission and start you on treatment right away. Why the idiots that they have in medicine
these-” her mother ranted.
Olivia sighed. “Mom, I
didn’t go see Dr. Brandt last week,” she confessed, interrupting her mother’s
tirade.
Melinda stopped in mid-sentence.
“What?!” she cried. “You didn’t
go?!”
Olivia shook her head. “I
felt… okay… and I figured it could wait.”
“You figured it could wait?!
Olivia, this is your life we’re talking about! What on earth could you have had to do that
was more important than your life?!”
Olivia suddenly felt petty and stupid, knowing her mother was
probably right. But she had wanted so
badly to go with Nick, and despite the tubing incident, she had had a wonderful
time.
“I went boating with one of my neighbors,” she replied guiltily.
“Oh, Olivia, I’m so disappointed in you,” Melinda sighed, looking
away from her daughter.
That hurt more than any yelling she could do. Olivia felt horrible.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, ashamed. Her mother didn’t reply, and when Olivia
glanced up at her, she saw that Melinda’s eyes were filled with tears. And her father’s expression was so grim, it
saddened Olivia just to look at him.
“Don’t cry,” Olivia said softly, resting her hand lightly on her
mother’s shoulder. “I hate to see you cry.”
“I know,” Melinda replied, wiping her eyes. “I just can’t believe this is happening
again.”
Olivia sighed. “Me
neither.”
***
The next morning, Olivia was discharged from the hospital. She was happy to go home, but she knew she’d
be coming back the next day for her first radiation treatment.
Olivia’s parents decided to stay for a week or so, to make sure
their daughter would be able to adjust to her new treatments. They had already begged to her fly home to
Olivia hadn’t seen her parents in over a month, and, this being
her first time living out of her parents’ house, she had missed them. So she was happy to have them stay with her
for a week.
However, by the next day, as much as she didn’t want to admit it,
she wished they had at least gotten a hotel room. Because Olivia was an only child, her
parents had always been overprotective.
But the way they treated her now was worse than ever.
She was actually relieved when the time came for her morning
radiation appointment.
“Do you want me to go with?” her mother had asked.
“No, I’d rather go alone,” Olivia had quickly responded.
A short while later, she was on her way to the clinic located
inside the hospital, where she would be receiving her treatments.
The clinic was a bright, cheery little place… well, as cheery as
you could get for a clinic. The
waiting room was equipped with couches and chairs that were actually remotely
comfortable, tables and chairs with crayons and coloring books for little kids,
and a vending machine in one corner that held juice and soda.
Olivia gave the receptionist her name and sat down in one of the
chairs to wait for her turn. She felt a
few butterflies in her stomach, but she was not too nervous. After all, she had been through this before,
just a year ago. She knew what it would
be like.
The actual radiation treatment wasn’t bad at all. It didn’t hurt, and it took only
seconds. It was the side effects that
bothered her. It made her exhausted;
sometimes she was so fatigued she could barely move.
Suddenly, a door next to the receptionist’s cubicle opened, and a
nurse stepped into the waiting room.
She glanced at her clipboard and said, “Olivia Caisson?”
Olivia stood up, glad she hadn’t had to wait too long. She was anxious to get this over with.
The nurse led her into an examining room and gave her a gown to
change into.
“Dr. Avery will be in here in a few minutes,” she told Olivia,
referring to her new oncologist.
“Okay,” Olivia said, and the nurse left to let Olivia change.
***
