Chapter Four: The room where it happens

I wonder how my friends are doing. I haven't seen them since yesterday when I collapsed to the ground after laughing with them. I wonder how June is doing. Because she will be going to have Chemo today with me. The last time she was undergoing Chemo she was really ill afterwards. I hope she doesn't have to go through that again. They say that if you're experiencing side effects of Chemo in your first round of treatment the side effect will probably last till your last round.

I would've treatment at 11 AM this morning but after what they told what happened to me when I woke up this morning they rescheduled it for June and me. So it'll be at 2:30 PM. My phone says it's 12:07 PM. I have almost have two and half an hour before I will go to start the first day of treatment. My stomach is rumbling. I haven't had breakfast this morning. My dad bought some croissants for me and some orange juice in the morning. I normally love it when he does these things for me, because this hospital food tasted like crap. But I refused it because my brain was messing with me. I ended up that didn't know anyone even my parents I couldn't recognize. I went straight to the CT. And I was done one hour ago and I spend time in my room to wait for the results with my mum and dad. Luckily I had to wait not that long. The doctor came to discuss them with us half an hour after I had the test. It came back the same as when I first had my CT-SCAN. Anyway, I hadn't had time to eat breakfast so I'm going to the cafeteria to get some sandwich for lunch.

I left a note on my bed for my parents. It said 'I went to the cafeteria to buy some lunch, Be right back. Liv.' As I enter the cafeteria and ordered a tuna sandwich and a bottle of orange juice, I sit down at a empty table. I pick the book I brought with me and start reading while eating my sandwich. Then I see Abby standing in front of the candy machine thinking of what she is going to choose. She sees me and smiles to me, I smile back when she starts heading over to the table where I still am. 'Hey Abby!' I say happy. I am happy because I'm happy to see one of my friends again after I saw nobody yesterday. 'Hey Liv, good to see you again!' She says and hugs me. I hug her back. 'You had us pretty worried yesterday Liv! I'm glad that you finally feel well enough to get out of your room!' Abigail says to me. 'I'm sorry that you have so worried about me, you didn't had to.' I say trying to reassure her. 'Well, since you're one of my friends I care about you a lot. I don't like to see you in the condition you were in yesterday evening.' She says. 'Thank you Abby.' I say.

'Anyway, How are you doing, Abs?' I made up a nickname for her, I like Abs so I call her that from now on. 'Oh, I am fine, just really tired. Thanks to CFS and I started to feel some pain in some body parts again. It got pretty bad this time, so the doctors did some tests but it came all back clear. They say I have I chronic pain and they can't do anything to cure it, expect giving me painmeds. So I am on them now.' She says. 'Wow, Abs that's a lot. But you're strong and you'll get through it, I am here for you if you need to vent or something.' I say while I pull her in for another hug. ' Thanks, I am here for you too Liv, don't forget that!' Abigail says.

'How are the others doing today?' I ask. 'Well, Pete had an asthma attack during the night, but he is okay now. June is finally feeling better, Brandon is doing okay, he had a stress test this morning and is waiting for his results in his room with all of our friends. I was going to go there now.' She says. 'I come with you, he can use some support while he's waiting.' I say.

We head over to his room, when I enter they are surprised to see me.

'Hey Liv, how are you doing?' Brandon asks. 'I'm fine thanks for asking, how are you? 'I'm fine.' Brandon says. 'I heard that you're waiting for your results. Mind if I join you waiting?' 'Not at all, we're about to watch a movie together. But we're still waiting for some popcorn. Doc went to get it, he left like twenty-five minutes ago. I think he is lost' Brandon says.' We should really make some posters saying *WARNING! MISSING DOCTOR, he lost his way to the popcorn machine. Call the police if you see him! Thank You, sincerely the kids from the hospital.* Pete jokes. We all start laughing.

'Very funny Pete, here's your popcorn.' Doctor Johnson says when he walks in and gives the popcorn to Pete. 'June and Liv, don't eat too much before chemo, it'll make you more nauseous after chemo.' He says. 'Oh, and you two be ready in one hour and a quarter. Since it will be the first time for you Olivia, you two need to head down to treatment room a bit earlier. So the doctor there has enough time to explain to you the procedure. A nurse will come and get you in one hour and quarter.' Our doc says. 'Enjoy your movie, guys!' He says as he walks out of the hospital room.

We decide to watch, hunger games: Catching Fire. It's about a girl named Katniss who won the hunger games, she becomes as well as her friend Peeta a target after their victory in the hunger games. It is a great movie, we watched half of the movie when the nurse knocked on the door to bring June and me down to treatment. We both sat down in our wheelchairs as we head down to the room where it all happens.

A doctor welcomes us as we're walking in the treatment room. 'Hey June, ready to hear all the gossip of the staff?' He laughs. 'Liv, when you're here weekly to receive chemo you get to hear all gossip of the doctors and nurses here. Last week I heard that a nurse from Neuro slept with an attending in an on call room and when they were having sex their boss walked in the on call room and caught them. Because they forgot to lock the door.' She tells me.

'So, you must be Olivia. I am doctor Williams, I heard it's your first time. Nice to meet you Olivia!' Doctor Williams says. 'Thanks doctor Williams.' I say. 'Girls, follow me to your chairs.' She says. We follow her to the back of the room where are two big and comfy chairs empty waiting for us. We settle us in the chairs. 'I'm going to get all of the stuff ready, then I will walk you through the procedure, feel free to ask all your questions to me Olivia. She says as she walks to a really big closet with much medical stuff in it. ' Wow, these chairs are pretty comfy!' I say enthusiast to June. 'I'm glad they are, imagine what it will be like if they weren't and you had to sit here for one or two hours. I bet your butt must hurt pretty bad afterwards!' She laughs. I laugh with her.

Doctor Williams comes back with a bunch of stuff in her hands. While another doctor is setting June up for chemo, doctor Williams starts explaining me how it is going to be. 'Okay, first I'll clean your hand with some liquid. Then I will get an IV in your hand. After that I'll prepare the IV bag with the chemo and I will attach your IV to the bag. You'll feel the medicines run into your veins, it will be cold, but it shouldn't hurt. If it does let me know. This first session will take 2 hours. After every session we'll monitor you closefully to see how your body reacts on these drugs.

We'll do check-ups like an MRI and CT often to see the progress. After your sessions you'll be pretty tired, so you do need to rest for the rest of today. If your usually symptoms become worse, let the nurses know, if you're experience some side effects like nauseous, dizziness, throwing up and having sweats which caused by a fever mostly, let your nurses know, they will talk to your doctor.' She explains to me.

'Do you have any questions Olivia?' She ask friendly. 'No, I don't think so.' I say because I understand everything she said. 'Good to hear, if you will have any questions, feel free to ask me or anyone here, you can also ask your questions to your doctor, doctor Johnson.' She says. 'Let's get started then.' She says.

She does exactly what she said she would do. She cleans my hand, put in an IV and get me hooked of to the IV bag. I feel the cold liquid go through my veins. It feels really strange. These cocktail of meds is going to cure me at the end, but first it will make sicker. I mean I saw June when she had those side effects were doctor Williams talked about. It looked so bad. I hope that I don't get them too.

While June and I undergoing treatment we're talking about normal things like our high school life and our friends outside the hospital.

'I went to a high school in New Orleans. It named Benjamin Franklin High School. It is a pretty nice school. I like the teachers there and other students are really nice. We do have a lot of activities after school like basketball, art, writing or music class. I used to go to writing class, I wrote a lot of stories there. Me and my friends had a lot of fun in school even when the classes where really boring.' June tells me.

'Sounds great June!' I say. 'Were did you went to school? Before you know this hospital stuff happened.' She asks.

'I went to Lusher Charter School, I had a great time there with my friends. My friends and I had most of the classes together so that was fun. We didn't always listen that well to the teachers because we were too busy talking and laughing with each other. After school I went to arts class, my friend Lynn and I loved making art together.' I tell her mine stories about high school and my friends.

We're so busy with talking that we didn't heard the beeping of our machines which are attached to the IV. Doctor Williams comes to us. 'I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but you're session is done for this week, you can go!' She smiles at us.

Chemo wasn't that bad, it was really fun to have treatment with June.

We decided to go say hi to our friends. But they were all at therapy or at appointments with their doctors. So we went to my room to relax for a bit and we listened to some music.

My parents were at home while I had treatment because they needed to pick up some stuff like new clothes for me. I saw them sitting in the cafeteria drinking some coffee when June and I went upstairs after treatment.

I hear some voices talking to each other in the corridors, I could catch the last sentences they said. 'She is going to get through this Diana, she will. My dad says. 'What if she doesn't? My mum says. 'Then we'll go from there. But she will. She is a strong girl, she will beat this, I believe in that. You should do too Diana.' My dad says to my mum. I see they are putting a smile on their faces when they enter my room.

'Hey June, good to see you again.' Mum says. 'Thank you Madame, it's nice to meet you too.' June answers. 'You can call me Diana, if you call me Madame I feel like I'm a old lady, which I am not.' She laughs. 'I will, Diana.' June says. 'Honey, how did it go?' My mum asks me as she gives me a kiss on my cheek. 'It went okay, June and I basically talked for the most part.' I say.

'Liv, if you don't mind I'm going to head to my own room and lie down I'm tired.' June says. 'Sure, I will lie down too, I feel pretty tired too actually.' I say. 'Goodbye June, see you later. We'll meet up at dinnertime at the cafeteria, if chemo agrees on that.' I joke. 'See you then Liv.' She says as she walks out of my room.

I lied down on my bed and closed my eyes. I start thinking about the conversation my mum and dad had. There is a chance I'm not going to survive this. Treatments will not be able to cure anybody. I have to live, I have to be cured. For my parents, family and my friends here. I have to. I drift to sleep.