“I am in a severe state of -------. Why did this have to happen to me?”
THE CANCER SCARE
©204 by Mae Ondracek
“I am in a severe state of shock.
Why did this have to happen to me?”
Ellen screamed. “I don’t want to
die now!”
“But, Ellen,” Dave said, “Dr. Tom said with chemo treatments every
month, he hopes to put this in remission.”
He held her tight in his arms, trying to comfort her.
Ellen had always been a workaholic and now she could hardly pick up a
cup of tea. Her 5’7” frame had shrunk to
5’6” and she was fast loosing weight.
She didn’t mind loosing weight because she had been 40 pounds overweight
and all the diets she had tried never worked.
But getting cancer was not the way she wanted to loose weight.
“Oh, Dave, I’m so scared,” Ellen cried.
“I wanted us to have a long life together.”
Dave walked Ellen to the sofa and sat down beside her with his arm
around her shoulders. “Don’t you see, Ellen. This is
something we have to face together and I’ll help you all I can.”
“I know you will, Dave. But our
plans for a vacation in
“Maybe for now but we will still plan it and we will be better prepared
for it. Tomorrow when you see the doctor
for blood work, we’ll ask him how long he thinks this will last. Maybe they caught it in time and you’ll be
well before the year is done.”
“Oh, Dave, if I could only believe that, it would be such a wonderful
thing. I’m tired of all these
treatments,” Ellen cried.
“You know what Dr. Tom said, Ellen,” Dave told her, “you have to have
faith that you will get better. We need
to pray more.”
As Dave held Ellen, he prayed that she
would get better and then he prayed for all the other sick people in the
world. Then they lay back against the
cushions and Dave stroked her shoulders and soon he could tell Ellen was
asleep. He thought, ‘She
sure does sleep a lot, and he withdrew his arm, got up, and laid Ellen down on
the sofa. He then covered her with an
afghan and pushed her hair off her forehead.
He kissed her forehead and thought he had better make himself something
to eat. He just wished that Ellen would
eat more, but food seemed to make her sick to her stomach and Dr. Tom had told
her to only eat what she really had a taste for. Right now that wasn’t much but maybe soon she
could start eating again.
The phone rang just as Dave entered the kitchen and he quickly picked it
up and said, “Hello.”
“Hello, Dave. This is Dr. Tom’s nurse, Betsy. Could you please bring Ellen in today, at
three this afternoon? Dr. Tom wants to
talk with her.”
“Yes, Betsy, we’ll be there,” Dave said and sighed as he hung up the
phone wondering, ‘What now?’
He made himself a sandwich and poured
himself a glass of milk and sat down to think over Ellen’s cancer. She had been diagnosed in February, so that
means she had been having chemo treatments since March. “Oh, dear Lord, please let Dr. Tom tell us
she is in remission for now.”
Dave looked at the clock and saw it was only
At two, he woke Ellen up, telling her they had to go see Dr. Tom. She cried out, “Oh, Dave, what can he tell us
that we don’t already know?”
“Ellen, I don’t know what he has to tell us,” Dave said. “Betsy just said to be there at three, so let
me help you get ready, please.”
“I’m sorry, Dave,” Ellen said.
“I’m being such a baby about this but do you realize I’ve been sick
since Feb. and even before that. I’m so
tired of all these treatments, I just want to go to sleep and not wake up
again.”
Dave hurried to Ellen and hugged her,
saying, “Come on, Ellen. What would I do
without you? Please don’t say things
like that, it hurts me.”
“I’m sorry, Dave,” Ellen said as they
headed to the bedroom so she could change clothes and clean her face.
During the drive to the doctor, Ellen said, “I really am sorry,
Dave. I didn’t mean to feel so sorry for
myself when there are people sicker that I am.”
“I know, Honey,” Dave said, “and we’ll know real soon what the doctor
has to say.”
Dave parked as close to the door as possible and they hurried inside. “Hi, Ellen and Dave, you are a little early
but let me check with Dr. Tom,” Betsy said as she left the front desk.
Betsy soon returned with Dr. Tom behind her. “Hello, Ellen and Dave, please come into my
office. I have important news for you.”
Ellen and Dave looked at each other and
followed Dr. Tom into his office.
“Please be seated while I get out Ellen’s folder. I’m really excited about the latest blood
work yesterday morning, and wanted to tell you face to face what is happening. Then we’ll do another work-up and see if it
tells us the same thing.”
Dave took Ellen’s hand and squeezed it as Dr. Tom opened Ellen’s
folder. He said, “I don’t understand
what happened, but yesterday’s blood work came out positive with no known
affects in it. This is highly unusual
for someone with cancer. In just six
months, you are in remission.”
“Oh, doctor, can you really mean that? “
Ellen cried. “Everyone has been praying
so hard for me to get well, and it has happened. Now, Dave and I can go to
“Whoa! Not so fast. You may be in remission right now but you still
have to be careful. You are still very
weak from not eating much and do you spend a lot of time sleeping?”
Ellen could only shake her head ‘yes’ as
tears slid down her cheeks. Dr. Tom
opened the door and called in Betsy.
“Please have blood work done on Ellen right away and we’ll do a
follow-up in two days,” Dr. Tom said to Betsy.
“Okay, doctor. Please come with me, Ellen. I’ll take you down to the lab,” Betsy said.
“All right, Betsy. Thank you,” Ellen said. “I’ll be right back, Dave.”
When they left the office, Dr. Tom said, “I hope you can talk her out of
Dr. Tom stopped talking, looking thoughtful, then continued, “In two
weeks, if the blood work stays positive and Ellen starts eating again, you can
plan a short trip, nothing major, though.”
“I know, Doctor. I’ve avoided
mentioning
“I know it’s hard, Dave, but think closer to home,” Dr. Tom said and
stopped as there was a soft rap on the door and it opened as a lab-tech.
brought Ellen back. She laughed and
said, “It didn’t hurt a bit. Oh, I hope
this blood test will be all right, too.
That will mean I’m getting better.”
“It sure will, Ellen,” Dr. Tom said.
“But now you have to start eating again to get your strength back up.”
He
stood up and came around the desk as Dave helped Ellen to stand up. Dr. Tom shook hands with them both and said
he’d call about the blood work in the morning and Dave and Ellen left. Dave helped Ellen get into the car and then
asked her if she’d like something to eat.
She said, “We really have enough to eat at home, Dave. I’ll try to eat better, I promise.”
At home, Ellen did manage to eat half of
a ham sandwich and said how good it tasted.
She just didn’t want any more treatments now. She had enough to last for quite a while.
In the morning, when the phone rang, both were reluctant to answer it,
but finally Dave picked it up and said, “Hello, this is Dave.”
He listened for a little while
and waited until he put the phone down before he could talk. He looked at Ellen and said, “Well, Honey,
you made it through this time. In two
more days we’ll know if everything is going to be all right.”
Ellen was too surprised to say anything.
All she could do was cry, so Dave held her and let her cry, saying,
“There, there, Ellen. It’s going to be
all right now. You just wait and see. If you keep eating well, in two days you’ll
have another blood work and if it is okay, we’ll see how long it will be before
you need another one. Then we can start
making plans for a short trip.”
“Oh, Dave, do you really think this is it for me? I’ll be so glad to have this over with, won’t
you?” Ellen asked.
“Yes, Ellen, and we’ll go on small trips
to help you get used to traveling, then the big one,