Once Upon A Lifetime

Chapter Eleven ~ Wait... what?

Taalia's POV~

I crashed onto my bed and closed my eyes. It was Sunday after Islamic class and my head was practically killing me. These days, my headaches were increasing per day and they each got worse and worse. Only once this week, though, I was close to the feeling of faint. But after I had quickly taken a painkiller, everything was fine. But the headache had returned the second after class ended. As much as I wanted to stay with Dawoud, I knew that if I had stayed any longer, I would have fainted.

I closed my eyes, hoping that if I did, the pain would slowly disappear. But after a few minutes, the pain just increased. I sat up and held onto my head, yelping in pain. But to my dismay, the pain soon became unbearable and I started screaming. Raza came into my room and quickly held me in his arms. I could hear him calling my mom then saying soothing things to me, telling me to calm down. Then he started reading Surah Al-Fatiha and I slowly calmed down, the pain decreasing. I stopped screaming, calming down to just whimpers. After about five minutes, Raza looked down at me.

"Are you okay now?" He asked gently. I nodded and wiped my tears. "How long has the pain been like this?"

"I only felt the pain today."

"Taalia..." He said sternly. I sighed.

"All week." I finally answered.

"All week?! Taalia, you have to tell someone about this! You never know when it can get worse than this!" Raza cried.

"Raza, I didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it!" I cried back but then I felt a pang in my head and I held it again.

"It's okay, calm down." Raza said quietly this time.

"I'm okay now."

"You have to go to the doctors."

"No! I don't want to!" I whined.

"Habibti, if you don't go, you'll never really figure out what is wrong with you!" He said. I shook my head.

"I'm going tomorrow anyway to get the results of the test, I'll figure out what's wrong then. But I really don't want to go today. What if they admit me into the hospital again?!" I cried.

"You can never be too careful! What if it's something dangerous and you need special treatment?" He asked. I felt my eyes water at the thought of that. It was what I was fearing this whole week. What if it was actually something serious? What if it changed my life? What if I could never live my life normally like I've always had?

"D-don't say that..." I whispered and Raza pulled me into a hug again.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. But promise me you'll be careful from now on. And that you will tell the doctor tomorrow about your pain, okay?" When I didn't say or do anything, he pulled away from me and pretended to look stern.
"Taali..."

"Fine."

"Fine what?" I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell the doctor everything tomorrow." I said, sighing. Raza grinned.

"Good girl!" He said, patting my head. I smacked his hand and he laughed.

"Do you need me to stay?" He asked. I shook my head and smiled. He nodded and left my room, closing the door behind him.

The next day, I woke up and after eating breakfast, I got ready to go to the doctors. I really hoped there wasn't anything seriously wrong with me. The doctors had said it might have just been a concussion but I was starting to doubt that.

"Taali! Hurry up!" Raza called from downstairs.

"Okay, okay!" I finished wrapping my hijab, grabbed my purse, then went downstairs.

"Let's go!" Raza yelled salaam to my mom and rushed out the door. Amu came to the door to see us off.

"Where's Baba?" I asked.

"He said he'll meet you there from work, now go habibti!" She said, leading me outside.

"Okay!" I said, putting on my shoes.

"May Allah SWT have mercy on you and not let it be anything serious!" Ammu said. I smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Ameen. Asalamu Alaikum!" I called, running towards the car.

"Wa Alaikum Asalam, habibti!" I heard her call back. I climbed into the passenger seat and soon we were on our way.

"Taalia Khan?" The nurse called out. I got up and followed her to a room with my dad and Raza.

"Please take a seat, the doctor will be with you shortly." The lady said. I thanked her and she left. About ten minutes later, Dr. Isaac came in.

"Good afternoon, Taalia, Raza, and Mr. Khan!" He greeted.

"Hello, Dr. Isaac." I smiled.

"Alright, so you're here for your test results." He started shuffling through some papers then turned to his computer and started typing on his keyboard.

Just say it already! The anticipation was killing me. After a few more minutes of typing, he finally spoke up.

"Okay, would you like the good news or the bad news first?"

"Bad news." I said.

"Alright, well... Taalia, according to the x-rays and tests, you seem to have developed a brain tumor." My eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat.

A brain tumor?!

"Wait, what's the good news?" Raza asked.

"There is treatment for her but it will involve a lot of overnight hospital stays and the treatment isn't as great as it seems. This brain tumor will bring a lot of problems for her and without her own self support, we won't be able to help her."

"How bad is it?" I asked nervously.

"Luckily your brain tumor is only in grade one, which means it can be removed with surgery. But it is very close to entering grade two, which means your brain cells will increase in size, called hypercellular, which of course is problematic."

"If she does get the surgery, will the whole tumor be removed?" Baba asked.

"That depends on Taalia. If she is willing to go for the full surgery, we cannot guarantee that it will be fully gone. There still will be a few infected cells in her brain." Dr. Isaac explained. Baba nodded though I could see the grieve on his face.

"So, I don't know about surgery yet, but what are the treatment options for now?" I asked.

"Mainly medicine. You might also have to make changes to your diet and go through some therapy." He explained.

After he gave instructions for the treatments for me before surgery, we left the doctors. I was scared of what was to come. From then on, things would be out of my control, I couldn't tell what would happen. The one thing I was afraid of was happening; my life was changing already.

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AN: JazakAllah Khayr for reading! Remember to vote and comment if you likey! ♡♡♡