𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘛𝘖𝘋𝘈𝘠 | RHEA RIPLEY

𝓒 ᴴᴬᴾᵀᴱᴿ 22 | not today

Alex sat on the bed in the doctor's office as she was nervously awaiting for the doctor's arrival for the check-up she kept pushing back. She continued to reschedule it for the next two weeks, avoiding the inevitable truth she knew she was going to hear, which was that her leg was not improving and only worsening.

She knew it because the pain continued to progress to higher scales and sometimes, she couldn't stand how much it hurt.

However, as much as she tried to remain optimistic, that optimism flew out the window whenever the pain in her leg increased, especially on the heel part of her foot.

Now, she found herself sitting there, worrying about every little thing that could be wrong as her mind kept telling her the worst and convinced her that this will all end badly, which was something her mind did every day.

She was tired of the constant unknown status of her leg yet she was too afraid of finding out. It was contradicting but the majority of the time, that exemplified what her mind was.

It was then that she heard the door opening, it gained her attention as she watched the doctor walk in with a smile on his face, "Hey, how are you feeling today?" And that's where Alex knew she couldn't keep her pain to herself anymore.

She let out a breath, watching him close the door behind him before he walked over to his seat in front of his computer, "I've been good for the most part, but there has been this pain in my leg that has seemed to get worse ever since it started."

"And when did it start?"

"About a month ago, maybe. It started with a little bit of pain here and there and it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I realized the pain started to get harder to deal with every other day." She watched the doctor nod as he looked at her for a brief moment and began typing something into the computer.

It took him a few seconds to finish and he then glance back at her, "Okay, mind lifting up your sweats so I can see it real quick?" He rolled his chair toward Alex as she listened, doing as she was asked and she viewed the scar on her leg.

It was a pretty cool scar, nothing too crazy and neither was it as noticeable as she thought it was.

The doctor examined the leg and Alex could feel her anxiety building up, her mind filling itself up with worries and she could feel the knot forming in her stomach. He began touching it around places, asking her if it hurt at certain spots, and she answered it truthfully.

It practically hurt all along the scar and toward the heel part of her foot, and that's exactly what she told the doctor, especially when he made her put pressure on her leg.

She would watch him nod at every response she gave him and she never could determine whether it was bad or not. She simply waited until he did say something regarding the pain, which he did, "Okay, so, I do see some swelling, especially around the heel area—nothing major but enough that concerns me a little, and there is a bit of stiffness around the area."

Alex hated what she was just told but she knew it was only the beginning, "And the fact you say you have pain while walking - - I want to send you to get some tests done: an MRI and an X-ray. Just so I can make sure it's nothing but some swelling, which is something we could fix right away."

"So, no surgery, right?" She gave him a look of concern because the last thing she wanted was to be set back even more than she was, "I'm asking to make sure because I've been worried,"

His lips slightly curved and he tilted his head as he pondered over the question, "Right now, it would be very, very unlikely because it's not that unusual for you to experience pain like this, even this far down the line. But I still want to make sure it's nothing serious."