The Will of a Survivor

Chapter 2

Krystal and I arrived at the doctors office around eleven thirty after we had our McDonalds breakfast. Once I signed in I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and tried to calm my nerves a little. I haven't been nervous all night or while we were eating breakfast but as soon as I stepped through the office door I found my stomach in knots and my hands sweaty. I went back into the waiting room and sat beside Krystal. I was surprised to only see one other lady in the office. She looked to be in her late fifties and seemed to be very calm. She was flipping through one of the magazines left on the table in front of her until the nurse called her name. She laid the magazine daown and began to walk past us to where the nurse stood. She turned to look at me, "Everything is going to be just fine young lady. Once you get use to the sickness it isn't so bad." She gave me a big smile and then presumed towards the nurse. I turned to look towards Krystal and saw her mouth was wide open in shock.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her half serious and trying to not laugh at the look on her face.

"Do you think that lady thought you were here for a chemo treatment?" She asked me. I could hear the shock in her voice as if the realization of where we were was finally hitting her.

"I don't know. Maybe. I didn't realize I looked that nervous honestly." I giggled just a little. I was trying to keep the mood light for both our sakes.

"Sara, what if the test comes back positive? What's going to happen then?" The sound of panic crept into her voice as her imagination began to run wild. "Sara I don't want to lose you. You're my best friend, Jason's aunt and we all need you here."

"Krystal calm down. Lets not get all hysterical just yet I mean I'm only here for them to take it out and test it. If the test comes back positive then we can worry but until then worrying is just a waste of time." The nurse finally called my name and I instantly felt as though I were going to be sick. I looked at Krystal before we stood up and headed towards the nurse.

The nurse took us to a small room where she took my blood pressure, pulse, weight and checked my iron. She then led us a few rooms down and told us to have a seat and the doctor would be in shortly. Krystal and I sat in silence for a minute before we both started reading some of the posters on the wall and Krystal of course had to pick up the model that was sitting beside the sink.

"So do they take the knot out here or do you have to go to the hospital or something to have it taken out?" Krystal asked while staring at one of the posters. Before I could answer the doctor walked in with my chart in her hand.

"Good Morning Sara. How are we today?" Dr. Stone asked so cheerfully. "Were you able to get you plenty of rest last night?"

"I slept okay for the most part. I woke up a few times but nothing out of the ordinary for me. I honestly wasn't too nervous about any of this until i got to your office," I halfway laughed to fight back my nerves.

Dr. Stone smile gently, "Don't be nervous. All we are doing today is making a small incision here (pointing to the side of my breast) and then we will send the sample off for testing. You won't feel anything because we will be using a local anesthetic. Do you have any questions before we get everything started?"

"No, not that I can think of," my mind went completely blank and I coudn't remember a single question I wanted to ask her. Just my luck really.

"Okay then, let's get you down the hall and prepped. This should take about fourty-five minutes so if your friend here would like to sit outin the waiting room it won't be too long." Dr. Stone started towards the door as I remembered one of my questions.

"Will I be put to sleep for this or are you just going to numb that spot?" I began feeling sick to my stomach almost to the point that I thought I was ready to head to the nearest trash can and empty my insides out.

"No you won't be put to sleep. Were are only going to numb the place on the breast that will be opened. I will write you a prescription for the discomfort you will have afterwards."

"Okay, well let's get this over with I guess. Krystal I'll see you as soon as they are done," I smiled at her then followed Dr. Stone down the hall.

We walked into a cold bright room filled with machines, inspirational posters and a section of the left wall filled with pictures of women who had went through chemo therapy and survived. Most of the women in the pictures were smiling so big. I couldn't help but to smile myself. One of the nurses came over to me and had me lie on top over a table that to me was freezing even though there was a blanket in between the table and I. The nurse started my IV and checked my blood pressure one more time. She smiled gently and told me not to be nervous. Even though I knew she was right I couldn't help but to think about all the possible things that could go wrong in the next fourty- five minutes. I just wanted this to be over already.

"Okay Sara, Are you ready?" I looked over to see Dr. Stone coming towards me with a long gown, gloves, and a face mask on.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I tried sayng with confidence and a smile.

"Alright we are almost ready to start. Now you are going to feel lots of pressure but you shouldn't feel any pain. If you do feel any pain just let me know so we can fix it before continuing. I'll be right here talking you through the whole thing though so you will know each step as Im doing it."

"Dr. Stone, is it okay if I was put to sleep for this? I know you don't normally do that but I feel like I would be more commfortable and I don't thiink I will throw up that way either," I nervously laughed a little.

"Well we don't usually put a patient under for a simple procedure such as this but," she paused for a moment to look at the nurse as for confirmation, "I will gladly make the exception this time. I definitely don't want you throwing up on me." She laughed for a moment while she nodded at the nurse one more time. I looked over at the nurse just as she was coming back towards me with a mask in her hand.

The black headed nurse placed the mask over my nose and mouth then instructed me to count backwards from one hundred. 100, 99, 98, 97........ And then the room went black.