The Rich And Bold

Heartbreak

CHAPTER TWENTY- TWO

AZALEA

The dizziness, nausea, headaches, minor seizures, spasms in my nerves, tiredness, numbness, the weakness, were all because of a head tumour. A grade two ganglioglioma to be precise. According to Doctor Sydney, I had been living with it for the past two years, which was actually when I had begun to feel all the symptoms. I wanted to vomit. For two years I had been living with such an ugly thing in my head. It was huge, but she said it had developed over the years without treatment, and that I should have booked an appointment with my doctor as soon as I began to feel the symptoms. I had missed every single one of my check-ups because I was trying to avoid finding out something this frightening.

I stared at the scans blankly as she spoke, but I was crumbling inside. My chest felt tighter and there was a lump in my throat. My eyes stung as tears tried to force their way out and my ears felt hot. My heartbeat quickened, and the monitor beeped loudly. She walked closer to me and tried to get me to calm down, but I held up my finger, not wanting to be touched. She stepped back and I handed her tablet back to her.

"Azalea, you are very lucky." She said in her sympathetic voice. "The tumour is completely benign. It has not spread and I can take it out. Everything."

I looked at her sharply. "Really? So, I'm not dying?"

"No, you're not dying." She chuckled.

I breathed out a shaky breath and relaxed in the bed. I passed my hands through my hair and chuckled. The beeps of the heart monitor slowly began to go back to normal. "Oh, fuck. Thank God." I laughed. "I-I thought I was dying. I'm too young to die. When- when can I do the surgery?"

"Anytime you are ready, but I recommend that you get it done as soon as you possibly can. You need your family around. Recovery after surgery is long and painful. You will be here for a few days, but you will have to spend the remaining six to twelve weeks of recovery at home and you need your family around you to help you recover. You won't be able to do a lot of things on your own and you will be bedridden for a while. You can't hide this from them at all. There is also the fact that all surgeries are risky and can lead to death. You need your people."

I swallowed when she said the last sentence. "But you are good, right? You can do the surgery successfully?"

"Yes, I can." She said confidently. "I am one of the best surgeons in the state."

I smiled. "Well, now that I know that I am not dying, I will tell my parents, but I'll do that at home. I'll call you when I'm ready. But I have my end-of-semester exams coming up. Can I do the surgery after?"

"If you are a good student, I will suggest skipping it. It won't affect your graduation. And you can take the exam after you recover. I have some free slots next week so I can easily fit your surgery into my schedule."

"I'm competing with my best friend for valedictorian." Savannah and I were the two people being considered and were learning our heads off to beat each other. I was not going to let a stupid benign tumour take away my opportunity.

"As benign as the tumour is, you never know what can happen. You can live with it for a few more years, but it can be dangerous. As I said, anything can go wrong within a few hours or a few days. Fortunately, you've only had minor seizures, but it is 90% likely that your next seizure could be a major one. People die from seizures and you can get a stroke that can paralyse you for life. You should do the surgery as soon as possible."

I nodded slowly and smiled tightly. "Thank you"

"And, Azalea, self-medication is wrong."

My smile fell and I looked away.