Determination

Chapter 16

     I'm nervous, I feel like I am going to throw up literally.... I enter the hospital all by myself (ya ya I'm 16 but I want to see you be scared to go into chemo therapy in a strange new hospital all by yourself) scared to the bone, I walk up to the desk towards a short blond lady who looks up from her computer as she hears me come up "Can I help you miss" she says in a nasally voice, I glance at her name tag and it says Hello my names Fran, I smile politely "Um yes, Fran I am here for my scheduled chemo appointment" I twirl my crazy locks of hair. She replies "Oh , your name please?" I reply very fast "Valory Moore mam" she raises a blown eyebrow as she scrolls through the computer, "Ah yes, you can head on back to that door" she points at the white sliding door "I'll beep you in and then once you pass the door take a left and the chemo room 119 is the first door to the right" she smiles and I return the smile turning around I start towards the door. Waiting for the beep I glance through the little glass window, the beep sounds and the door clicks open signaling me to enter
My shoes click clack down the bright white hallway I see door 119, taking a deep breath I turn the silver knob...
Entering the room I find at least twenty people of different ages, some with hair on their heads and others not, some have oxygen tanks others don't but every single one of them is sitting in an identical chair with a needle in their arm, they glance up at me as I walk past towards the desk, the secretary smiles at me and says kindly "Miss Moore follow me please" she gets up and comes around and starts walking towards a chair next to two old ladies one's bald and the other one has an oxygen tank and barely any hair left. I smile when they both look up at me, one smiles and the other doesn't, the nurse beckons me to sit, I pull off my jacket and plop down in the chair putting my bag by my feet.
"Ok Valory what hand would you prefer to have the needle in?" I give her my left hand with its sleeve rolled up "Ok now I don't want you using the left hand unless it's necessary, you will be sitting here for about two hours every Wednesday and Sunday normally you will be sitting in here for four hours but because it's your first time we like to ease into it" she smiles as she starts to wipe the area on my arm where the needle will be inserted "If you need to use the bathroom go now or you will have to wait until the two hours are up" I turn my head towards the bald lady as the nurse inserts the needle she smiles and waves, I smile back.
The nurse leaves me and the bald old lady starts to talk in her crackly voice "Hello young lady my names Fran and this is Edith" Fran points to the other old lady that's looking at me sadly "Im 88 and I've been diagnosed with heart cancer five years ago and Edith is 78 and has lung cancer" she smiles and waits for me to say something "Um hi my name is Valory and I just turned 16 I just got diagnosed with Leukemia" I try to continue but Edith sighs and mumbles "You won't beat that girl" Fran gasps and slaps Edith on the hand Im shocked that she said that Edith yells at Fran "What its true, that last gal that had her spot had Leukemia and she died only three years after she was diagnosed and I heard the nurse say that you young lady have the worst kind, in this room everyone will die we never beat cancer I've been diagnosed with lung cancer for ten years, I've 'beaten the bitch' at least five times but she keeps coming back worse and worse I doubt I'm going to make it to the end of the year" with that Edith begins a series of coughing.    

    My two hours are up, the nurse comes back and pulls out the needle from my arm, tells me to have a nice day and leaves after handing me my chemo schedule. I glance at the papers and shove it into my bag, waving a good bye to the older ladies I open the door.

I got home around 5, head up to my room and change into my sweats and a t-shirt. I head downstairs to the kitchen followed by my dogs and sit down with the family, Grandma is cooking dinner and grandpa is reading the news paper while dad's on his phone. I say hello and everyone glances up from what they are doing and all ask the question at the same time "How did it go?" I laugh at them than reply "i think its going good but we just started, today I sat in the chair for two hours while they pumped the poision into my body, I'll go back Wednesday for another two hours, than again on Sunday." I pull out the papers from the hospital and hand them to my dad "I sight next to these two old ladies, one is very talkative and she helped me pass the time but the other one is just a old grump, In two weeks I'll be moved up to four hours, I need to stay on my vitamins and the medicine that the doctor assigned me" Grandma walks over with the food, I glance in the pan and see that we are having spagetti with meatballs.

After the amazing meal I head upstairs to my room with the dogs, close the door and go to sleep.