Life - Message From The Past

4-Just Gwen

Gwen watched the animated conversation between Dr. Corber and Jeremy from the Sunrise consultation room window. Her doctor quickly headed back into the clinic escaping the rain. Moments later a taxi showed up and her neighbor quickly slipped in. "He's running? Typical!"

Madeline entered the room. "Please have a seat, Gwendolyn." The mother of three stood and watched the taxi leave the grounds before taking a seat. "I think you should stay at the clinic as we conduct more tests."

"I was kinda hoping to go home to my kids." Gwen tried to bargain with her doctor. "Maybe Dr. Capella can do more bloodwork and send it to you?"

"Those aren't the kind of tests we will be conducting, Gwendolyn."

"Just Gwen, Dr. Corber. Gwendolyn sounds like I am a character in a children's storybook." She stunned her doctor. "Sorry but that was beginning to get to me. "

Dr. Corber laughed. "I can do that ~ Gwen."

"Where'd did Jeremy go? Get a lawyer or something?" Gwen rolled her eyes.

"What do you mean?" The doctor frowned. "He is just in the garden across the way."

A shake of Gwen's head told Madeline something happened. "What did you see?" 

"He took off in a cab. Typical man, running from a problem. I haven't met one that would stick around long enough to make a difference." Gwen stopped when she looked at Dr. Corber frowning yet again. "What?"

"You two aren't ~ you know? Together are you?" 

"What? Jeremy and me? Are you serious?" Gwen laughed. "In his dreams. He is my neighbor! I mean it wouldn’t be out of the question. But he has never let on he was ever interested!"

"Really?" Madeline laughed. "Anything else you need to get off your chest?"

"He is cute in a caveman sort of way." She pointed a finger at Madeline. "But you didn't hear that from me." Gwen raised an eyebrow. "And you can not tell him I said that. The whole doctor-patient thingy."

Madeline stifled her laughter. "Yeah, that thingy, Gwen." She gestured, pointing to her patient and back to herself. "Shall we go through the tests we will be doing over the next day and a bit?"

"Yeah, I would like that, doctor." Gwen moved up on her seat. "Can I ask if...?"

"If?" Madeline had no idea what Gwen could possibly be asking. "I am pretty smart and I know a lot of cool things but I don't read minds. So you are going to need to finish your sentence." She added a smile to help her patient along. 

"Okay. Like I want to know if I have a good chance at beating this. Is it fifty-fifty?" Gwen breathed then gave out a sigh. "I need to know."

"Good question, Gwen." Madeline made eye contact with her patient giving her a feeling of trust. "I try to stay away from cliches with an aggressive form of cancer we have not seen here. Very few have survived much longer than eighteen months at this stage with such an aggressive form of cancer."

"But some have? I mean five percent maybe ten live long lives?" Gwen tried to find a glimmer of hope. "Doctor?"

"Gwen." Dr. Corber slowly shook her head. "The cancer you and Jeremy have is new to us. It's aggressive in nature and with cancers like these just one percent of patients survive longer than eighteen months when treatments begin at this stage." 

"You keep saying aggressive! What, exactly do you mean by that?" Gwen shot her hands into the air. "My last boyfriend was aggressive so I kicked his ass!"

Dr. Corber did not mince her words. "Aggressive, as in only one patient ever lived past five years."

"Who? Are they still living?" Gwen spoke as if it were a boxing match and she bounced off the ropes swinging, refusing to fall to the mat. "That can be me!"