Chapter 55: The Waitts Agonizing
Sedona’s POV
They came for me at two PM, right on the dot and not a minute late.
Two nurses I hadn’t met before, wearing protective gowns and gloves that made the whole thing feel more ominous and scary than Frank’s careful explanations had.
They transferred me from my regular bed to a specialized gurney, checked all my lines, and made sure that they were connected to the right machines and doing what it was supposed to do, they also verified my identity against their clipboards thoroughly.
Cameron walked beside the gurney as far as they’d let him, which turned out to be the doors to the treatment wing. He squeezed my hand one more time before they wheeled me through.
“See you on the other side,” he said.
“See you on the other side.”
The treatment room was smaller than I’d expected, and more sterile. Everything was white or chrome, surfaces that could be easily disinfected, it was bland and devoid of colours or personal touches to make it look a bit different than what it actually was.
There were monitors everywhere-more than seemed necessary for one patient.
Frank was already there, scrubbed and gowned, reviewing something on a tablet.
He looked up when I came in and gave me a small smile that was probably meant to be reassuring.
“Ready?” he asked.
I wasn’t. I was absolutely not ready. Every cell in my body was screaming that this was a bad idea, that I should call it off, that dying slowly but peacefully was preferable to whatever was about to happen.
But I thought about everyone who was waiting for me, and making plans for me that I wanted to keep to.
And against my wish, I also thought about Nick, somewhere in Chicago, growing up without me.
“I’m ready,” I said…
The first medication went in through my central line-something to prepare my system, Frank explained. Within minutes, I felt strange, and I pointed it out to him.
“That’s normal,” Frank said, watching the monitors. “It should pass in a few minutes.”
It did pass, but it was replaced by something worse when the actual treatment agent started flowing. At first it was just warmth, spreading from the injection site outward. Uncomfortable but tolerable.
Then it became heat. Real heat, like liquid fire spreading through my body system, finding every vessel and nerve, that existed in my body and making itself known.
12
The Wait Aromangal
gripped the bed rails, trying to breathe through it the way I’d breathed through labor pains when Nick was born, the sharp pain that started building up with no stop in sight as I closed my eyes gritting my teeth.
This is temporary, I told myself. This will pass. Just get through the next moment, then the next, then the
next.
“Sedona?” Frank’s voice, close but it sounded like I was under water hearing it.
“Talk to me. How bad is the pain?”
“Bad,” I managed to speak against the pain I was feeling. “It’s bad.”
“On a scale of one to ten?”
I wanted to say eight or nine, wanted to downplay it somehow. But Frank needed accurate information to treat me properly.
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