Chapter Seven
Lizzy
"Oh my gosh!" I gasped as Destiny's eyes rolled up and she slumped to the side. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"She fainted." The nurse said.
"Crap!" I stepped back to let the nurse do what she needed to do. In a few minutes we got her awake and alert.
"What happened?" She asked.
"You fainted. Don't look she still needs one more vial!" I turned her head away and took out my iPhone. To keep her from watching, I showed her cute pictures of animals off the internet. Finally it was done. I helped her out to the lobby. She sat down in a chair, still light-headed. Her mom rushed over to me.
"Is she ok?"
"She watched the nurse take the blood and fainted. She's fine now. Where to next?" Des's mom inhaled, looked at Destiny, decided she really was fine and cleared her throat.
"Back to the exam room. Bone marrow stuff."
"Oh. Ok. Des!" Des stood up and bounded over, obviously over the light-headedness.
"Where are we going?"
"Back to the exam room." I said, linking her arm in mine.
"Why?"
"The doctors need a sample of your bone marrow. The stuff in your hip bone."
"Yeah I know what it is. I saw it happen on a doctor show and let me tell you, I am NOT looking forward to it."
"Neither am I. I hate it when my best friend goes through horrible things. Like fainting!" I laughed.
"Shut up." She answered, with a smile in her voice.
We were back in the exam room, all tense and silent as we waited for the doctors. Finally two nurses arrived with a tray of instruments. Destiny deliberately didn't look at them. They held big scary needles, one was so huge it looked like a metal pencil!
One of the nurses told Destiny to get up onto the exam table and lay on her back. She had to take off her pants first so they put a paper like thing over her butt, with a little hole around her hip area. Then they swabbed the open skin and got out the kit. In a few seconds, she had a big syringe ready with some thick clear liquid. I made sure Destiny was looking at the floor. Then we started talking about random things to keep her mind off the procedure. The nurse would every once in a while say what she was doing and how it might feel so Destiny could prepare herself.
"Now you're going to feel like a bee sting where I'm going to freeze the skin ok? Needle..."
"Uh." Destiny moaned.
"Bee sting." The nurse said.
"Ow!" Destiny sighed. As I watched the syringe, the skin right around the needle seemed to inflate just slightly. It really did look like a bee sting. Then she took another needle that looked identical to the last one and positioned it above the "bee sting".
"Now I'm going to freeze the bone." She pushed it into the rasied skin bubble and soon the needle stopped suddenly, obviously hitting the bone underneath.
"Ow." Destiny said again.
"It's ok. It'll be over soon." I said, rubbing her arm. It had goosebumps.
The nurse started to tap the needle on her bone, asking every once in a while if she still felt any pain or just the tapping. After a minute or so, Destiny said she could only feel the tapping. So she pulled the needle out and got a scalpel. I gasped.
"What what?!" Destiny asked, freaking out.
"Nothing. It's nothing."
"Ok I'm going to make a little nick in the skin here..." The nurse cut a tiny line in the frozen bee sting bubble. Then to my horror she took the huge pencil-like needle with a blue handle on the end and pressed it into the cut. Destiny didn't move. Suddenly my phone beeped. I got it out of my pocket and looked at the new text from Damien.
hey liz guess wat my dad just brought hom?
I smiled and answered just as the nurse told Destiny she might feel some pressure. She started to twist the metal pencil back and forth, burrowing into her bone. I turned away.
a puppy! :)
Suddenly the nurse's hand jerked downward a tiny bit and she stopped. Destiny started to cry, silent tears sliding down her cheeks. I was hating this just as much as she did.
omg how did u no? :O
I looked at Destiny and wiped her tears.
"It's ok. It's almost done." She nodded and grabbed at my hand. I slipped it into hers.
"Now I'm going to do the aspiration." We had no idea what she meant but it was probably something painful. She unscrewed the top cap of the blue part on the needle, which was still inside Destiny. Then she screwed another syringe onto it. "Deep breath!" She said. Destiny inhaled and she pulled up on the syringe. Destiny yelled.
"It's ok." My phone beeped and I ignored it. The nurse unscrewed the first syringe and screwed another one on.
"What's that?" I asked.
"We take the marrow in 2 cc increments. I only have one more to go." She did the same with the next two and finally the aspiration was done. I exhaled, now realizing I had been holding my breath.
My phone beeped again as the nurse began twisting the pencil-like needle again, this time digging it out from Destiny's hip bone. When that was over, she reached into the kit and got an even bigger pencil-like needle. At least it looked bigger. She put that one right into the same hole and pressed it down inside. She unscrewed the top part of the blue handle and finally got the metal part inside of Destiny's bone. She took some long stick like thing and put it inside then pulled it out just as quickly.
"Done! Now I'm just going to rock it gently and pull it out." She started doing exactly what she said and soon everything was over. Destiny laid there for a while and finally we left. I checked my phone when we were all in the car - Des's mom driving, Des in the backseat lying down, and me in the passenger seat. I had 3 new text messages:
hello? u there?
r u ok?
lizzy? did i say something? are you ok?
obv ur busy. call me l8r.
I groaned and started typing another text back to him, hoping he hadn't left for work yet:
hey, sry i didnt answer u. destiny was at the doc's getting blood drawn and other horrible tests with HUGE needles and bone and marrow and ugh! she was crying, it hurt so bad and i had to watch everything. ugh! :'( anyway, i no about the puppy cuz i picked it out! a while back when it still needed its moms milk tho. sry i didnt answer babe. :( dont b mad plz
I got an answer almost right after I sent it.
no prob! i hope shes ok. give my luv. :-* see u l8r
I smiled and sighed, settled back into my chair and sat in silence while we drove home.
---------------------------
Wow. Lot's of doctors stuff. (I actually watched the bone marrow procedure on youtube. Search this: Bone Marrow Biopsy 1 it's actually kind of cool - if you like that stuff...)
~Elise
YOU ARE READING
My Last 10 Notes
Teen Fiction"You have Leukemia. It's a type of cancer. With the right treatments, we might be able to rid your body of it. The success rate in children your age is around 76 percent. We did catch it pretty late though." The doctor said. I swallowed. I felt...
