Glory Days

Chapter 36: Diagnosis

-Kira-

I sit in the cold doctor's office with my dad sitting across from me. We both sit silently, waiting for the doctor to come in. There is a knock on the door and the doctor walks in.

"Hello, my name is Doctor Garcia." She says. She is tall and skinny with long brown hair like mine.

"I'm John, Kira's father." My dad introduces himself.

"I'm Kira." I say and shake her hand.

"Well, I have a couple of forms for you to fill out, and I usually like to talk to my patents alone, if that's ok with you." Dr. Garcia says to my dad. He nods his head and takes the clipboard from her. He smiles at me before he shuts the door. "Ok, I'm just going to do a couple of standard checkups."

Dr. Garcia does the usual throat, ear, spine, and reflex tests. She then uses her stethoscope and listens to my heart and breathing.

"Everything seems normal." She says as she sits down. "But, from what your dad told me, yesterday was not normal."

"Yeah, something happened." I say.

"Ok, well can you explain what happened." Dr. Garcia says, opening her computer.

"Well, in AP Biology we were going over cancer, and I just stared at my packet for maybe 10 minutes when it was suddenly hard to breath. I then started trembling and I tried to stop it when my friend asked me if I was ok. When I realized I wasn't, I left the room. My chest started to hurt when I stood up and I suddenly got really cold. I felt like everything around me was... gone. Like it wasn't there, and I was crazy." I say. Dr. Garcia nods and looks up from her computer. "But then my friend came out and helped me slow down my breathing and calm down. I felt like I was back, like I was alive again. It was so weird. That's never happened to me before."

Dr. Garcia nods her head and types on her computer. "You had a panic attack. They happen often when one is under immense pressure and stress over a long period of time. How much stress would you say you are under right now?"

"Well, AP exams are coming up, which is a lot of pressure. And Junior year is stressful because you start taking the SAT and you have to start thinking about college." I say.

"Anything else in maybe your home life or outside of school that may cause stress?"

"Well, my Mom has had cancer for almost a year, which has been very stressful for me, and I've been alone a lot because my dad is pretty busy with work and my brother is in college. So, I don't talk about my... stress often." I say. Dr. Garcia nods and looks at her computer.

"I recommend that you should start going to therapy sessions. You can decide how often, but I think it will be most helpful. It sounds like you have a lot of stress built up, and you need to talk things through." Dr. Garcia says. I nod my head. "I can send you down to one right now, if you want to see if they would help."

"That would be nice, actually." I say.

"Great, follow me." She says. I walk out of the room with her and follow her downstairs to the second floor. She takes me down a hallway and knock on a door.

"Come in." I hear the person inside say. I read the name on the side, Doctor Samantha Carter.

"Hello Dr. Carter, is it ok if I introduce my patent Kira to you?" Dr. Garcia asks.

"Yes, I'm free for a couple of hours anyway." She says and smiles.

"This is Kira, she recently had a panic attack and I thought she should just try talking to you for a bit." Dr. Garcia says. Dr. Carter nods her head. "Great, well I'll come back in maybe 10-15 minuets."