From The Start (1st Draft)

Chapter 24

Time past by faster then we expected, and pretty soon the bag was emptied. Nurse Tammy walked over to us and I stood up, noticing how many people were in the room around us. I counted six others, four teenagers and two young children. It hurt me to realized how many people were sick in this world, while others like me got the luckiness of being healthy and alive.

The nurse grabbed his clipboard and stepped in front of him, and then she spoke.

"Alright hun, I'm going to ask you a few questions so I can fill out your chart," she explained. "Do you feel any pain?"

He shook his head. "Nope," he said.

"Are there any symptoms you would like to share with me that I should probably know about?"

Again, he shook his head. "Not really," he answered.

"Okay, well that's very good," she smiled, putting the clipboard onto the table beside him. "Now I'm going to flush your port, it will help your vein by making it so you can't get a blood clot."

"What does that mean?" he asked her, looking confused.

"Well since your catheter leads into the vein in your chest, after you receive your chemotherapy we like to make sure your port is clear," she told us, waving in front of her like it was no big deal.

"Great," he grinned, seeming annoyed, while I laughed. "Sounds like fun."

"So much fun," Tammy laughed, unhooking his line and taking out some type of syringe, holding it near his chest. "Now what I do is connect this needle that holds saline into your line," she said quietly, sticking the needle in the end of his tube. "And I push, making sure it goes through correctly, and checking to see if the line is blocked, which it isn't. Then I pull, to see if I can receive your blood easily without a problem," she explained carefully, as I watched his red blood slowly fill into the syringe. "And then at last, I push," she said, the blood entering back into his body, as she twisted the end of his line gently. She pulled out the needle and smiled widely, tossing it gently into the garbage can.

He looked back up at her, and shrugged. "Is that it?" he chuckled, looking like nothing phased him.

"Yes, Mr. Wise guy," she smirked, laughing under her breath. "You're actually good to go."

"Finally," he rolled his eyes, standing up and almost stumbling. "Damn, is it always going to take four hours long?"

She shook her head and walked his clipboard over to the main counter. "Not necessarily," she loudly answered. "Maybe if we speed it up next time we can make it into three hours."

"Oh," he said, eventually looking over to where I was patiently standing. "You ready?"

"Yeah. I'm ready," I told him calmly.

"I almost forgot," she gasped, walking over to a bin and pulling out a small box of what looked like band-aids. She stepped in front of him and opened it. "These are the bandages," she said. "You place the soft gauge tissue over the spot where the entrance to the needle is, and then you apply a few small pieces of this special tape over it. It's basically to keep it from getting any germs, to keep it clean, and to make sure it doesn't get infected."

"Okay. That sounds pretty easy to me," he told her, taking the box and holding it.

"I can play nurse and do it for you," I said to him, laughing as he rolled his eyes.

"I bet we'll have loads of fun," he mumbled.

"You know it," I smiled.

He turned back to her as she stepped in front of him. "Just sign out at the front desk and make sure you're scheduled for another appointment next week," she informed him.