"Ring, ring", I wondered who was calling me at this time of evening. "Yes; o.k.; Yes, I'll be there", I said before hanging up the phone. What was wrong, I wondered all that evening that the doctor wanted me to come in to discuss my lab results? I had never been asked to come in to the office after doing blood tests before; when receiving a call as this the mind plays tricks on the person and wild things start popping up in the head. "Joyce, I need to leave work at 10 o'clock today to go to the doctor's office." Trying not to show my nervousness the words come out fast. "Let me know what the doctor said", Joyce exclaimed as she walked back to her office. "O.k." was all I could say as she was walking off. The doctor's office was crowded as I checked in at the front desk. "Do you have insurance?" the lady at the window asks several times before I realized she was talking to me. "I'm just here to talk to the doctor about my lab results" I squeaked, "Sign here, Please." Sitting down was just about unbearable; wall to wall pregnant women, as far as the eye could see. "Was this what the doctor was going to tell me, that he made a mistake while doing my partial hysterectomy and now I was pregnant? No; that couldn't be it! It's been a year since I had surgery. So, what was so important that he couldn't tell over the phone? May be the endometriosis came back; yes, that was it, it had to be. Why wasn't my name being called?" It had been 20 minutes since I signed in. Waiting when uncertainty was on one side of the door and clear was on the other, waiting was the hardest thing to do. "Selena Gibson" the nurse called out after opening the closed door. I stood up and quickly moved forward toward the nurse. Stepping through the door I was ask to turn to the right and go down the hallway. Walking down the long stretch dragging my feet along the way I was scared to find out what the doctor was going to say. Turning to the left the room looked impersonal and cold. I was asked to seat in the chair and wait till the doctor came in with the results.
If a doctor didn't come and talk to us soon, I was going to march my way into one of those rooms and find the doctor myself. It was cruel to keep us waiting so long without answers; I was going crazy with worry.
“Sarah McMahon?” A woman opened the office door and called her. Sarah stood up and followed the woman. Sarah’s mom followed right behind her. “We’re just going to take your weight and the usual check ups.” The nurse said as she led them into a small room with a cushioned table with white paper strewn over it. They checked her weight, height, temperature, blood pressure and throat. “Very good.” The nurse said. She put Sarah’s record into a slot on the door. “The doctor will be with you in a minute.” She said as she closed the door.
Diamond Bar High School teacher Christian Calero went from facing death to instructing students on the finer points of public speaking—all in the span of seven months. Despite having gone through a rigorous treatment process to kill the cancer cells residing in his neck, the cancer survivor is back to his teaching ways, spending his days in class pushing his students toward success.
The phone rings, and I answer, “Thank you for calling Enterprise, how may I help you?” The voice on the other end asks for Andrea, and I reply, “This is she.” The voice says she is calling to remind me of my 11:00 AM dental appointment. I sigh and tell her I will be there on time.
He wondered if he had gone mad. He covered his ears with both of his hands, but he could still hear the garbled voices that were echoing around the room. He sat for a moment behind his desk and slow his breathing telling himself that he was simply tired.
“You could have died if we didn’t find this soon enough.” Swallowing hard, knowing a few weeks later I could have been gone. “You have a diaphragmatic hernia.” While the doctor was explaining to me what happened to my stomach, they were already getting a room set up for me. “You need to have surgery tonight.” Walking into that hospital that morning hoping they would find what was going on, I never thought I would have been having surgery that night. It felt like everything was going so fast. One minute I walked in and the next I was laying in a hospital bed with medicine going into my body, knowing I wouldn’t leave that hospital for at least another week.
I feel my stomach start to turn in twist as I sit. The nurse places her cold hands on my swollen foot. As she carefully places my foot on the scanner. My
It was the day of the blood test and I had shown up to the doctor's office, which smelled like old medicine. I always hated waiting in the waiting rooms because it's like waiting to be put to a death sentence. My mom had signed several papers and my name had finally been called. A
Passing the waiting room on his way out of the hospital entrance, a woman calls his name. He turns to her and tries to recall if he knows her, but he has no recollection of her. "I know who you are. I know what's happening." A million questions come to his mind. "Not here," she explains. "We must go somewhere private." She leads him to her car and tells him to get in. He follows the command and slides into the passenger seat. "Please...
“What does that mean?” I thought to myself, “How long will it last?” “Am I going to die?” I sat back into the corner that the bed was in, and just sat there with my legs straight out. The doctor was talking to my mom about sending me to the hospital I assumed, but I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy taking in what just happened. I then walked over to the other chair next to my mom’s and sat down. My mom took some tissues out of her purse and started to blow her nose. I tried not to bawl to look tough like getting hit by a pitch in a baseball game, which I was successful in doing. I remembered talking about something like Diabetes in science class, and I remember talking about the pancreas. I also remembered the teacher, Mrs. Klevorn, telling us that there were two kinds of Diabetes, but I couldn't remember the difference between them; my fifth grade mind at the time didn't really care for this. After about three to four minutes of just sitting there, I asked the doctor what that meant. He told us that the pancreas makes a hormone called insulin that keeps blood sugar from getting too high. He said that my pancreas in particular didn't do its job. He explained the pancreas’ work like a hotel hallway with a bunch of doors; when sugar passed through the hallway, the doors would open and the insulin would flow out and lower my blood sugar. The doctor then told us he would call the hospital so we could basically
A little over four months ago I lost my mother to Colon Cancer. So many things in my life have been affected by the death of my mom in just this short time. The things that have changed the most are, my responsibilities, my goals, and my overall view on life. Each of these changes have molded me into the person I am today. I am not saying this road has been or will continue to be easy, but I do know that it is preparing me for the future and what the real world will be like.
Cancer. Why was it always cancer? I had witnessed cancer take my friends, family, you name it. My internal monologue pleaded, “You’ve taken so much, but you cannot take her.”
Its 7:30pm. It’s a Wednesday evening. A little 4 year old boy Chad and his mother Kelsey are at home. “It’s time for a bath” Kelsey calls. Chad walks down the hallway and into the bathroom. She already had the water filled up. As he steps into the bubbly water, a bump on chads stomach catches her eye. At the time she wasn’t thinking it was anything that could harm her son so she let it rest for a few days. She started realizing chad was having shortness of breath, he was losing weight, his lymph nodes were swelling, he would sweat badly during night time night, started seeing purple spots, and he would bruise really easy. She watched it on and off and it hasn’t changed. Its Monday now and she’s worried. She went ahead and took him to the doctor.
Aunt Leslie then snapped me out of my deep thought asking whether I was okay. I told her I was even if it was obviously a complete lie. "So shall we go back to Geraldine tomorrow morning? Or would you like to leave in the evening?"
I said, "goodbye" to the nurse and left that awful place. Outside, I took a deep breath of cool fresh air. I practically ran to get inside my safe car. When back inside i cried in excruciating pain, I couldn't even feel my face. I sat there for a while thinking of those three terrifying words, Dr. Rust's office. I inserted the key into my ignition, turned it and drove away. When I knew I was home safe, I looked into my rear-view mirror. When I saw that old rickety building filled with bad experiences, I realized that that had been the most uncomfortable place I had ever visited, and I surely wasn't going to return.