Rain Again (Completed)

Chapter 16

"We'll start the treatment with Chemotherapy that will control the multiplied growth of the cancer cells and hopefully reduce them. Then—after further observation, surgery must be performed to remove the tumor or part of it while trying not to damage the normal brain tissue."

Kate listened with an alarmed expression as Dr. Gonsalves explained to them her tumor treatment. Both of her hands were clutched very tightly by Victor and Ellie as she sat between them across the wise-looking doctor.

The doctor patiently waited for his words to sink into them. The calm expression said for itself. Clearly, the scene was not new to him. The terror brought by the details of these treatments to Dr. Gonsalves it was undoubtedly an everyday sight.

Right after the dramatic but very relieving argument with Alex that afternoon, Victor informed Kate that he had received a phone call from the hospital confirming her appointment with her new doctor, the brain tumor specialist Dr. Gonsalves.

So Kate had returned home earlier with a flurry of nerves, feeling like she was heading face-first towards a death sentence... and it really probably was going to be just that.

When once someone learns the pungent taste of negativity it gets really impossible to take it out of their system. Like an addiction, like a bad habit—it's impossibly clingy.

Victor cleared his throat after a moment of terrible silence. "So, Chemotherapy and surgery would cure it?"

"Not—cure. Instead, we'll call it remission, for there're always high chances that cancerous tumors may reappear," the doctor gave them a small smile. "And... we'll hope that Chemotherapy and surgery will be all that Kate would need to thwart the tumor, but sometimes all of the tumors still can't be removed for the brain is a sensitive organ to prod with. We'll have to perform Radiotherapy then."

The doctor pushed his slipping-down glasses up his impossibly straight nose.

Victor sucked in a long breath.

"I guess all these heavily named treatments will leave some side effects?" Kate asked as bravely as possible while, in reality, her head was spinning.

"Sometimes permanent ones, yes." Dr. Gonsalves nodded in affirmation. "I don't mean to scare you, but there's a forty percent chance of life risk or getting paralyzed while doing the surgery. Some patients suffer from temporary or permanent blindness, speech problems, and poor balance or coordination. When it comes to the brain, it's amusing how it is so possible to damage the function of any part of our body."

Kate couldn't understand what was so amusing about it. It was more horrifying.

Again, there was silence for a couple of suffocating seconds.

Suddenly, with a sharp exhale of breath, Ellie muttered, "Oh hell, what can one expect after getting drilled into the brain!"

She's got a point.

Raising his brows having streaks of some gray in them, Dr. Gonsalves looked at Ellie briefly before turning his attention back to Kate and Victor again. "But let's hope for the best, Kate," he sighed. "In my career, I've seen impossible things made possible because of willpower and positivity."

None of which Kate doubted she possessed anymore.

And besides, she could catch the underlying hint in the doctor's cryptic explanation of her treatment—she would need a miracle to come out of it unscathed, that was, if she came out alive anyway.

Kate chose not to let herself hope for survival. It seemed better not to expect a lot when fate was so keen on dragging her face-first through this freaking eternal hellfire.