So I neither worked on this Sunday and it's before Tuesday (dates I mentioned I would work on this chapter on my profile page). I'm surprised that I knocked out an entire chapter this early in the morning! Wow! Enjoy~
Hypothyroidism – a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone; also known as underactive thyroid.
Symptoms include weakness, fatigue, depression, dry skin, brittle nails, having low tolerance for cold, memory problems and having trouble thinking clearly.
But where did one draw the line between being fatigued from working too hard and being ill? How could one know that their inability to think clearly was caused by an internal condition in need of medical attention when, for the past two months, they've been preoccupied with thoughts of their younger brother's wellbeing?
These were things Itachi thought about as he made his way to the doctor's office after work on Friday afternoon, a week after his initial appointment with Dr. Mignogna.
"If you receive a phone call from us," Mignogna explained to him, "you'll have to schedule another appointment so that we can discuss our findings. If you don't receive a phone call from us, you're in the clear."
In the time since then, Itachi consulted the internet, researching everything and anything he could regarding hypothyroidism in an attempt to understand his overwhelming symptoms of late. The weakness, fatigue, depression, and trouble thinking clearly were uncontested; anyone could see that these four symptoms were slowly eroding Itachi's day-to-day life and if left unattended, would no doubt start to affect Itachi's performance at work, regardless of how much he accomplished after hours. If he could even summon up the will to work at home instead of sleeping the entire evening away like he wanted to so many times within the past few weeks.
But despite all of his research, some symptoms such as dry skin, brittle nails, low tolerance for cold temperatures and memory problems still eluded him. His skin wasn't dry, his fingernails remained solid, even after accidentally slamming a filing cabinet drawer on them the other day, and he had no problem with the cold. In fact, cold air was a welcomed respite in the summer heat of July. He'd be insane not to use his central air conditioning system when temperatures reached a low of sixty-seven degrees in the evening with a highs in the nineties during the daytime.
But as far as memory was concerned, Itachi was torn. Due to his pressing fatigue (a symptom he originally, and still attributed to working too hard), he found himself struggling to remember what it was he was doing before he felt the overwhelming urge to yawn, or what command he needed to enter into his spreadsheets when he found himself craving a cup of coffee or even what day of the week it was when his alarm sounded in the mornings.
But that was normal, right? Surely there was nothing outstanding there.
However, the call he received concerning the results of his blood lab said otherwise. It was clear to him that he had hypothyroidism, even though he hadn't exhibited all of the usual symptoms. Yet.
Upon reaching the hospital parking lot, he stepped out of the comfort of his air-conditioned car and into the blistering heat of the summer, prepared to hear what he already knew and do whatever it took to take back control over his life again. It wasn't quite the way he imagined spending his Friday afternoon, but it was necessary.
"Itachi!" Dr. Mignogna greeted him with a warm smile.
"Good afternoon." Itachi greeted in return, forcing a smile through pursed lips. Just give it to me straight and prescribe me with the needed medications so that I can be on my way.
"Well," Mignogna sighed as he sat in his chair, "the lab was able to process the blood samples you provided us with last Thursday."
Go on…Itachi wanted to say but bit his tongue.
"And it turns out that you do not have hypothyroidism."
Itachi blinked in surprise, attempting to process what he'd just been told. "But you said you would only call me if I had—"
"That is correct. I did say that if you didn't receive a call from us that you were in the clear." Mignogna said, pursing his own lips. "However, you're not out of the woods yet."
"So what's wrong with me then?" Itachi asked.
Mignogna peeled back the paper top paper of his clipboard. "While your blood work did not yield results of hypothyroidism, it yielded results of something far worse."
Running into Kisame and making small talk was the last thing that Itachi wanted to deal with upon returning home to his apartment and thankfully, his roommate was nowhere to be seen. Whether he was asleep in Sasuke's old bedroom after a long day of work or at one of his two jobs, Itachi couldn't care less. The only thing he cared about was collapsing onto his bed in hopes that when he awoke in the morning, things would be back to normal again.
But he knew better than anyone that this would not be so. Whenever he woke up the next morning, he would still feel the same as he felt today and every day for a while now. And he knew that he would feel the same the day after today and the day after that, and the day after that until he returned back to the hospital for treatment.
And even then, it would be a while before he started to feel like himself again. In fact, he might never feel the same way again, a fact which loomed in the back of his mind.
Once he got to his bedroom, he unceremoniously dropped his laptop bag onto the floor, too tired and too preoccupied with his own thoughts to care if he damaged it or not and made his way over to the bed.
He fell forward with such force, that the mattress springs creaked and the bedframe moaned in distress under his weight.
Rolling onto his back, he pulled his key ring, wallet, and cell phone from his pocket, discarding his keys and wallet onto the nightstand while he brought up a familiar contact on his phone.
"You have reached the voice mailbox of Sasuke Uchiha; if you'd like to leave a message after the beep. If you'd like to leave a call-back number, press one." The answering machine spoke through the phone.
Itachi sighed, wishing so badly that he could hear Sasuke's voice to tell him the results of his doctor's visit, but due to the fact that Sasuke was still giving him the silent treatment after their dispute at the cemetery, he'd have to settle for leaving a message instead.
"Sasuke?" Itachi spoke when the receiver beeped. "I know that you're upset with me, and I don't blame you." He said, and took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. "I've been unnecessarily hard on you these past few months and I want to apologize for my behavior." With each word, his heart pounded faster and faster and his breathing began to hitch. "This isn't a trick, and I'm not playing any mind-games. I'm not calling you to try to change your mind. I just wanted to say that I love you and that no matter what, I always will…even if you're mad at me." By now, his hand was shaking. "I'm not asking you to forgive me right away, but something's happened and I thought you might like to know." He swallowed hard, attempting to dispel the thick lump that had developed in his throat. "I've been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia." He said. "Sasuke? I have cancer."
Okay, so I'd like to dedicate this story to The Secret Sal (love ya, hon!) and Nanaki Lioness (God bless the limited time you have to review my work; I love you too!), the ONLY people to review the thing that I've poured my heart and soul into (as you can tell by all the medical research I've been putting in lately). But that's only the tip of the iceberg. In total, I have 5 separate documents and at least 3 internet tabs up simultaneously when I write every chapter of this story. There's the main document, a PowerPoint outline, the old Word document outline, an Excel spreadsheet detailing Kisame's work schedule from week to week (even though I don't really need to know what he works every single day), and a Publisher calendar detailing when each chapter occurs. As far as the internet tabs are concerned, 2 are dedicated to medical reference sites and the last one is an online thesaurus (since Bing dictionary is a bitch). To say the least, I put a lot of effort into this and would like you all to review and validate my work as I go - don't wait until the last chapter please, that will be a while, so if you wanna see this thing through until the end, please review.
As always, you can follow my progress on my profile page under "Story Statuses."
Thank you and have a nice day.
Until next time,
~Sasori33-001
PS The next chapter is set to be a Kisame chapter and ought to be a doozy.