This is how breakfast went the last weekend of last month.
“I’m going to withdraw from dialysis”
“WHAT!!” Everyone exclaimed and when I say everyone, I mean everyone at the same time it almost echoed in the room.
“Julie, what are you saying? You can't withdraw from dialysis, you’ll die. You know that” Mum said
“Is it because I dropped out of college? Trust me, it has nothing to do with you” RJ added. “ I just want something different”
“Yh and we are doing quite fine so what’s the matter” Dad asked.
I let out a sigh.
“Okay so it took me quite a while to finally come to terms with my condition. You all know that. And while you may all think I was just crying while being locked in there, I was actually doing a lot of thinking and I’m glad to say, I’ve come up with a solution to a lot of problems.”
“And that solution involves withdrawing? You should really go back in there and do some more thinking and while you’re at it, record and listen to how stupid you sound”
“Erica!” My mum snapped and she shrugged. ”Continue Julie”
“Okay, so as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I did a lot of thinking and I think I should stop dialysis”
“Julie—“
“Mum, just let me finish”
“Okay”
“So… you guys remember when the doctor diagnosed me of a cardiovascular disease along with my kidney disease about three years ago and then we got a donor after that and she was like, I was lucky but then we lost the donor and she said we should prepare ourselves?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I did some research and when I went back to her some weeks ago, it was confirmed.” I made a dramatic pause. What I was going to say may sound as a joke especially because of how I was relaying the information but I was really serious at that moment.
“I think we all knew; we were just scared to admit it and it’s fine. I just want to say, no matter how hard we try or how positive we think, some things just can't be changed and sometimes you have to realise that to save you a lot of trouble.”
“Jul—″
“Dad, Please.” I immediately shut him before he could chip in.
Why?
My Dad knew. The doctor spoke to him a while ago about my condition and how bad it had become and he had been begging me not to announce it yet when he found out I also knew. He said he was going to find a way around this but we all know how that might end.
“I’m going to die… soon. Very soon. Like ‘wont make it to Christmas’ soon”
Everyone was silent at the table. Maybe they were waiting for me to burst into laughter and tell them it was a joke and I saw their disappointment unfold as I just stared back at them.
“Are you serious?” Erica was the one to break the silence.
“I’m actually not done. I’m stopping dialysis because, I want to transplant my organs to those who badly need it and I have to do that before my condition gets out of hand and spreads through my body to other organs which gives me about let’s say, two to three weeks left. We could save- ”
“Mum are you okay?” I raised my head just in time to see our mother fall unto the table and collapse.
PRESENT
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COUNTDOWN: Enchanted to meet you
Science FictionWhat would you do if you had just 24 hours left to live? Julie had a Checklist. A checklist for all the things she wanted to do before she finally passed away and she had just one day to check everything on that list. Not too hard if you asked me...
