Authors: D.C. Johnson
Vivian
instead of going to her salon today decided to accompany Jennifer to her radiation treatment she recently started, giving Charles a break.
The early morning traffic was heavy and moving at a snail
’s pace.
“Jennifer,” Vivian called softly as she drove.
Jennifer slumped down in her seat looked over at her friend then back out in front of her.
“What are your treatments like if you don’t mind me asking?”
“It depends on the day. Charles and I decided to go with external beam radiation. I lay on a table anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes while a machine aims radiation at the tumor area. There are times I’m weak afterwards and I have to sit a minute or two before getting down.”
“I can’t imagine what that
’s like,” Vivian responded and feeling her friends gloominess.
“
Oh, so you’ll know, I’m going to also have surgery.”
“
Surgery?”
Vivian
makes a right onto I-294 looking a bit confused with what Jennifer just said.
“Vi having surgery after I’m
done with treatments will destroy any cancer cells that remain. Right now they’re trying to shrink the tumor.”
“Have you experience
d side effects from the radiation?” Vivian wanted to know.
Jennifer shrugged her shoulders.
“I know I’m prying Jennifer, but I want to be here for you and want to know what to expect.” Vivian then frowned a bit at starting not to feel well. “I feel a little nausea,” swishing her tongue around in her mouth at what tasted like acid reflux.
“
Well if you really want to know my cootie is almost bald as Kojak’s head.”
“
Are you serious?”
“Now you know I’ll show it to you,” Jennifer said
with raised brows over at her friend.
Vivian gave her a glance. “Please don’t,” she said
and knowing Jennifer when she got a chance would show her the proof.
Vivian
activated her turning signal and moved into the right lane to exit the interstate.
“I just hope I don’t experience any of the other side effects
like diarrhea, which means my grown behind will be sleeping in diapers.”
That
unwelcomed vision had Vivian saying, “Okay, I got the side effects. Let’s talk about something else.”
Jennifer laugh
ed, and now feeling a little uplifted was glad her friend decided to go with her today. Vivian escorting her to Dr. Maims office broke up the serious and somewhat depressed mood she would fall into when Charles accompanied her. Not that Charles was boring; he just didn’t have much to talk about which left Jennifer time to think about if she would overcome her illness.
Vivian got
an eerie feeling after they entered the facility. It gave her the same feeling she felt when she entered a hospital. Something about being around a lot of sick people made her cringe. Though these people weren’t lying painfully in beds they were sitting around waiting to be seen by a doctor.
Jennifer
, as it was now her routine, went straight over to the receptionist desk where the vivacious receptionist greeted her.
“Hey Jenny,”
she said. “Well I’ll be. If you two don’t look like those actresses, Angela Bassett and what’s her name, the principal on the sitcom The Steve Harvey’s show. Ms. Grier, that’s her name,” she said. A couple of the patients looked to see if their resemblance was true. “I told Dr. Maim that you favored someone, I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time.”
Jennifer pick
ed up the pen to sign in and at the same time offered a rigid smile to Sabrina. She signed in then laid the pen back down atop the sign in sheet and looked back at Sabrina. “How long have I been coming here?” she asked her.
“I’d say a
couple weeks,” the receptionist responded with a blissful beam.
“And you think you’ve known me long enough to call me Jenny. Please don’t
, I prefer Jennifer or Mrs. Washington.” Again she displayed a rigid smile and then headed over next to Vivian who had taken a seat away from the patients. She sat in one of the five multi-colored seats against a green and yellow painted wall.
Sabrina
’s cheery mood was deflated. “Oh...very well,” she uttered, her smile fading as her eyes shifted toward the computer monitor on her desk. She then proceeded with letting the radiation therapists know that Jennifer had arrived by announcing it over the paging system.
Vivian look
ed over at Jennifer after she sat next to her. “What did you say to that woman? She doesn’t look as happy as when we came in here?”
“It’s not important
. She got my point,” and Jennifer reached for one of several magazines scattered on a small black table in front of them.
Vivian glance
d around at the patients. She then found her attention drawn to a white woman in her fifties that appeared to weigh about a hundred pounds. The patient stood and with her fragile arms crossed and began to walk the floor at a slow pace. Vivian wondered if the woman was in pain because just before standing she was sitting partially off the seat.
Jennifer mumble
d, “I don’t know why medical offices do this. What makes them think you want to sit here and read about why you’re here,” and Jennifer tossed the All about Cancer magazine back onto the table. “Get some Jet or Ebony up in here,” she grumbled.
The woman who had started to pace the floor
saw Vivian watching her and not wanting to be stared at she strolled over to the door. She stopped before going out and turned to the receptionist. “I’ll be out here,” she said and resumed her slow pacing down the hall.
“Geraldine Woodard,”
a radiation therapist called out as she walked into the reception area. A woman stood and walked toward her. “How are you doing today,” the therapist asked and they began to walk back toward the treatment area when the door to the office suddenly opened. The woman who had just gone out came wobbling back in with soiled pants. She left an unpleasant odor behind as she proceeded to the restroom.
Vivian and Jennifer g
ot a whiff of the awful smell and quickly glanced at each other. The receptionist realizing what had happened reached for the deodorizer to spray after the patient went into the bathroom and closed the door. Sabrina and the other workers in the office knew that radiation treatments for certain patients could result in them losing control of their bladder and bowels. It was also why some doctors recommended patients didn’t eat after a certain hour the day before treatment; so that their body would have time to eliminate waste.
Jennifer
reached for the magazine she had tossed back on the table and opening it brought it close to her face. She then mumbled, “So, do you still want to come here with me.”
Vivian looked as if she was afraid to open her mouth for fear she would take in more of the smell.
Jennifer not getting a response glanced over at Vivian. She was then tickled inside at Vivian whose mouth was bloated with air. Though Jennifer wanted to laugh, she also knew what happened to the woman could very well be her situation after treatment.
After the smell start
ed to dissipate Vivian mocking Jennifer reached for a magazine and mumbled back, “I don’t think a little poop will keep me away. But when you go for your treatment you will find me in the car when it’s over.”
A chuckle from Jennifer blew through the magazine
. She then hoped whoever heard her didn’t think she was making fun of the woman who had the accident.
“Jennifer
Washington,” another radiation therapist called out.
Jennifer rose and headed toward the therapist. Shortly after, Vivian rose and headed for the door.
About thirty minutes later Jennifer got slowly into the car.
“How
do you feel?” Vivian asked.
How
Jennifer felt was apparent as she sat speechless and with an unsettled stomach. The positive spirit she felt less than an hour ago had been chased away with radiation. Though Jennifer knew she needed it she skipped going for her treatment the next day because she was too weak to get out of bed.
***
Vivian was sitting in her office with the door closed. Nagging at her was how after breakfast the last two days her food didn’t want to stay down. She had blamed the upset stomach yesterday on the eggs she used in an omelet. It was the only food item in the refrigerator that the expiration date had exceeded. The milk, butter, cheese and bacon were still good. Now as she sat in her office the corn beef sandwich she was having for lunch was making her feel nauseous after just a couple bites.
“Is this spoiled too,” her nose turned
slightly up at the sandwich. She laid the sandwich down on the wrapping paper and began to ball the sandwich up when she suddenly threw up on it.
Patricia was about to tap on her door to alert Vivian that the city inspector was there when she heard her boss throwing up.
“Ms. Fowler, are you okay?” she asked through the closed door.
Vivian didn’t answer. She
quickly stood planting her hands on her desk to stable the urge to vomit again and to avoid getting any on her black pantsuit.
Patricia knock
ed again and then opened the door.
“Ms. Fowler,” she said
moving fast over to her boss. “Are you okay?” She reached and pulled tissues from a box and handed them to her.
Vivian
took the Kleenex and wiped her mouth of the foul taste. Patricia not knowing what to do just looked at her boss and then glanced at the vomit on the desk. Though it was mostly water that she threw up the odor was commanding.
Vivian blame
d her throwing up on the food she was eating. “This sandwich is spoiled?” and she reached for more Kleenex wiping her mouth again.
Patricia had a quick intake of breath. “Is it?
I wonder why I didn’t get sick. I had Regina bring me a corn beef sandwich back, too.”
Vivian look
ed over at Patricia a moment. “You don’t feel ill?” she asked.
“Uh umm...I don’t think it bothered
Regina either. I gave her half my sandwich.”
Vivian quickly revisited the last two days and how she became ill after eating breakfast.
Patricia taking notice of her boss reminiscing drew back some and not caring if she was out of line said, “Ms. Fowler, you don’t think you’re pregnant do you?”
Vivian’s eyes lifted at the possibility. “Oh god...” she exclaimed and quickly exited her office and off to the bathroom. She leaned over a toilet inside a stall and vomit
ed again. “Shit...shit...shit,” she mumbled.
Patricia
feeling her boss may be pregnant had a smirk on her face. She then looked at the balled up sandwich covered with fluid. “I hope she don’t think I’m going to clean that up,” she uttered. “What in the world is she going to do with a baby? She’s got to be close to forty?”
Still a little tickled, she le
ft Vivian’s office closing the door behind her.
Two
weeks later Vivian was sitting on the exam table in a baby blue colored gown, sobbing. Dr. Winfrey had just delivered the news Vivian feared. She was so traumatized by it that Dr. Winfrey asked twice if she was going to be okay.
Dr. Winfrey knew when she informed some patients
that they were pregnant it left them a bit distraught. There was something unusual in the way Vivian had taken the information. If her eyes could have they would have popped out her face the way she sat staring down at the floor.
“Ms. Fowler, I’m concerned with your state of mine. Are you okay?”
and Dr. Winfrey placed her hand gently on Vivian’s back to comfort her.
Vivian burst tears into her hands, moving her head from side to side that she wasn’t okay.
“I take it that this wasn’t a planned pregnancy. You weren’t attack were you?” Dr. Winfrey asked.
Vivian tried to collect herself. “How could this happen?” she
bawled. “It seems impossible.”
“
Ms. Winters, though it’s rare, Tubal ligation can occur. Some women fallopian tubes are able to grow back together, allowing pregnancy to take place.”
Dr. Winfrey then handed Vivian some tissue from a box on a table and really concerned said, “Ms. Fowler is there someone we can contact for you. The news seems to have really disturbed you.”
Vivian sniffled.
“I’ll be fine, Dr. Winfrey. I’m just shocked.”
Dr. Winfrey
didn’t know what else to say and began noting Vivian’s reaction in her records.
Vivian collected herself again then
softly said, “Dr. Winfrey, the guy I was seeing was born a hermaphrodite. What are the chances my child will be born the same?”
Dr. Winfrey
obviously surprised paused a second from writing. “Oh,” she said, and then allowed herself to process the information before responding. This was the first time one of her patients asked this question in her twenty three years as a gynecologist. “I will have to do some research on that. Though, I would think that there is no definite answer. I will definitely get back to you on that.”