The Weight of Tomorrow (A Marina Story)

Chapter Twenty Six

Maya took a deep breath as she entered the different consultation room at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, 'here we go again' she thought to herself. Her heart raced slightly, a mixture of anticipation and anxiety bubbling within her. Today was the day she would meet her new doctor, Dr. Jamie Parker, and learn more about her clinical trial.

"Good morning, you must be Maya," Dr. Parker greeted her with a warm smile, extending his hand for a shake. He seemed friendly enough, with an approachable demeanor that put Maya at ease. "I'm Dr. Jamie Parker. I'll be overseeing your treatment moving forward."

"Hi, nice to meet you," Maya replied, returning the handshake with a slight smile. "This is my wife, Carina. She's an OB/GYN here at Grey Sloan," she introduced, gesturing to Carina, who also shook Dr. Parker's hand.

They sat down together, and Dr. Parker pulled up Maya's medical records on his tablet. "I've reviewed your case and the results from your last scans. Based on the growth of the cancer in your lung, we'll need to proceed with an open biopsy. Our goal is to remove as much of the cancer as possible."

Maya nodded, knowing that surgery was part of this clinical trial. However, the thought of it always made her feel nervous. "When will I have that done?" Maya asked, with each appointment she had she found herself feeling more confident in asking questions and staying present, going through it now, multiple times seemed to make it that slightly bit easier.

"I would like to get you booked in as soon as possible. We will do an updated CT scan just to ensure we know exactly where the cancer is and how much we need to take out," he replied.

Maya nodded again, her mind racing. "How long is recovery? And when do I start on the clinical trial drugs?"

"You'll need to stay for a minimum of three days following the procedure," Dr. Parker explained. "After that, if all goes well, you can go home, but you'll need to rest and minimize movement for at least a week. Once you're recovered—approximately three weeks after surgery—we can look at starting your clinical trial."

Maya listened intently as he continued. "The trial will be conducted here at Grey Sloan. It will involve coming to the hospital on the first day for an injectable dose of trial medicine and then taking oral medication every day from home. You'll need weekly blood tests to monitor your progress. I can see, on your file, you already have a port and catheter, and we'd like to keep this in place rather than remove it due to the blood tests and trial drugs. The treatment will follow a twenty-one day cycle, and we're looking at six rounds to start. We will reevaluate halfway through if need be," he explained.

Maya started to feel a bit anxious as he went through the details. Even though she had been undergoing cancer treatments for over a year, the thought of trying something completely foreign to her was daunting. Carina noticed Maya fidgeting with her wedding ring and reached her hand over to hold Maya's.

Maya smiled at Carina, silently thanking her for the support.

"I saw you've had some success stories; do you mind sharing a few?" Carina asked, trying to boost their hopeful feelings about the trial.

Dr. Parker grinned widely. "Yes, we currently have a twenty-five percent success rate. The trial has been running for a little under five years, and in that time, we've had just over fifty patients enter complete remission. All these cases were first diagnosed with terminal metastatic cancer," he said proudly.

Carina felt her heart leap with hope at those statistics and squeezed Maya's hand, signaling to her that this was great news.

"That's fantastic! Congratulations!" Carina said to the doctor. As a doctor herself, she knew that those were impressive statistics for a trial.