Six Months to Live

Chapter Six

Three months later...

Cheryl has been having chemotherapy for three months, which is three cycles. Today is the day that she finds out whether it is working enough to slow down the progression of the tumour.

'Take a seat,' Dr Charles said as the three girls walked into the all too familiar doctor's office.

They sat in their usual chairs; Toni by the window then Cheryl in the middle and Penelope by the door.

'So unfortunately the blood work that we did last week shows that the tumour is still growing, however, we can't be sure how much the treatment is slowing the growth until we do an MRI scan, which we will do today,' he explained.

'So when will we know for sure?' Penelope asked.

'As soon as I have a look at the scan I will know, so we will know today,' he told them, in a very matter of fact way.

———————————————————

Dr Charles lead them down to the MRI room. Cheryl changed into a hospital gown and took her earrings out, leaving them with Toni.

'Just sit on this bed,' a nurse directed, 'it will take around 30 minutes and it will be noisy, so I have these headphones for you to wear which we will play music through to quiet the noise,' she explained.

Cheryl laid back on the bed and put the headphones on.

'Just stay nice and still, it'll be over before you know it,' the kind woman said, leaving the room.

The bed moved backwards into the white circle and the noise began. It was very loud, it was like a grinding noise.

A few seconds later, some music began playing through the headphones.

———————————————————

'All done!' The nurse said, reentering the room after the noise had stopped and the bed was out of the machine. 'How'd you find it?'

'It was okay, almost relaxing actually,' Cheryl said, taking her headphones off. They got caught on her hair, so the nurse helped her out.

Cheryl was so grateful to have kept her hair during the chemo, it was a 50/50 chance whether it would fall out or not, but it hadn't even thinned at all.

When Cheryl left the room, Toni ran up to her and hugged her.

She responded by kissing her forehead.

Dr Charles walked out of the room next to the MRI room and into the corridor, he stood opposite Cheryl, Toni and Penelope.

'Okay so I have just looked over the scan and it has shown that the tumour is growing as rapidly as it was before we began treatment. This means that it is having no effect on the growth rate, so you will not need to continue with it,' the doctor said.

Cheryl breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was bad news that it wasn't helping, she was so glad to not have to go through the horrible treatment process every week anymore.

———————————————————

When they got back to Thistlehouse, Toni went up to Cheryl's room with her. They hadn't got a chance to speak about the news until now.

'So how do you feel about no more chemo?' The brunette asked, sitting on the bed as she watched Cheryl pace around.

'I'm definitely looking forward to not having to go through it anymore but it makes me so scared to know that treatment isn't working, there's nothing they can do, Toni. They can't try anything else, now it's just a matter of waiting for me to die,' she said, her breathing shallow.

'Don't say that, come here,' Toni said, patting the space on the bed next to her.

Cheryl sat down and started crying, Toni just held her, unable to cry any more. Her heart was numb.

'How about we make these next few months the best we possibly can, okay?' She asked, trying to make Cheryl feel better, 'what do you want to do?'

'I want to see the northern lights,' she told Toni, 'and go in a helicopter, and sleep under the stars.'

'Well that's what we will do baby,' Toni promised.

The trouble with promising someone something is that once you say that you will, you are committed to making it happen, but sometimes unexpected things get in the way, and there is no choice but for that promise to be broken.

Toni could do nothing but hope that this wouldn't be the case.

———————————————————

Author's Notes:

I've written two chapters today, that doesn't happen often xD
These next few chapters will be super fun and light, they'll be about Cheryl making the most of life now she's not having chemo.
Hope you enjoyed, please like and comment!! ❤️❤️