Narrative

Andrew Carr 5/21/12 4 Narrative Short Story

Sarah and Paul have been married for almost 50 years, 48 to be exact. In two years they will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary on September 25th. They’re 2 loving children, Sean and Shannon, love them both and live close. Sarah and Paul have 3 grandkids, Matt, Mark, and Kevin. Mark and Matt are Shannon’s children and are twins, both 13 years old. Sean’s son is twenty one years old. They are a very close family. Sarah has always showed love towards her family and always worries about other people then herself. She was a long time special ed teacher at a local school. Early this October morning, Paul and Sarah wanted to treat their three grandkids to a little fishing on the boat. Today was one of their best days ever out on the water and had great luck. Matt hooked a giant trout on his first cast! Paul and Sarah loved seeing the joy and the smile on their faces out on the water. They had to get off the water early due to an appointment for Sarah. “I hope Dr. Noxin has an explanation for these weird pains I have in my stomach, back, and upper legs.” Sarah said. The pains have been miserable for the past week and it’s time to get checked out. Dr. Noxin does all sorts of tests and observations and says we will have an answer for you in a few days later. Sarah receives a phone call from her doctor to meet with them today. Again Sarah and Paul go into the office and sits down with Dr. Noxin. “There is no easy way of telling you this...” Dr. Noxin says with a shaky voice. “I’m just going to come out and say that you have a serious case of Ovarian Cancer. Sarah and Paul looked at each other with tears welling up in their eyes. “Okay....... Well now what.” “Now you have to have some serious treatment. This could last months or even years and we will try our best to get rid of this disease the best we can. Starting next week you will come in and have chemotherapy once a month and we will take a cat scan and see how your progressing.” Dr. Noxin said very confidently to ensure she will be fine. “If this gets worse we may have to do surgery on you, but nothing to bad.” The ride home was completely silent. Sarah knew her life was about to completely change. The first thing that came to mind was her kids and grandkids! She loved them so much, but she knew she must not show any signs of weakness to them. Sarah was a strong lady and never let anything get in her way. They reached the house and saw that her whole family was there. The house is small, but the perfect size for Paul and Sarah. They have one room with four extra beds incase the grandchildren wanted to spend the night. The house and colors just suited the small family of two and they completely loved it. Once they entered, everyone ran up to their grandma, and mom, and was so curious to what happened. Sarah called her kids, Sean and Shannon, and broke the news to them. Neither of them had any idea of what to say. They passed the news to the boys and they didn’t know whats going on. The adults made it seem like everything was okay. The next week was difficult to get through. Sarah had so many questions. It then came time for her first chemotherapy treatment. She got there and first thing that they did was take a cat scan to see how it was doing. She had the chemotherapy done and could already feel her body just getting really tired. That didn’t stop her because right when they got home she continued on doing the laundry, dusting, and doing the dishes. She loved doing work around the house and couldn’t stop helping out. The tiredness only lasted a day or two and she was back to her normal self. She tried to go on with her life like nothing changed. After only three months she started realizing changes. First thing she noticed was her hair. Her beautiful hair was starting to fall out and saw she was losing weight. She was already very skinny before and she knew it wasn’t good. The chemotherapy was starting to take a toll on her body, but she was one of the strongest ladies alive and knew it was worth it. By the fifth month she was told she was going to have surgery to remove any big spots of cancer. Ovarian cancer is many tiny tumors. It’s very hard to get all over it because it’s like throwing a bunch of little seeds. The chemotherapies job is to flush out any of the smaller tumors. They are going to have to do surgery to remove any remaining cancer. The operation was risky though because they weren’t sure if her body was strong enough right now to operate. They needed to do it so they went for it. Sarah wasn’t that nervous for the surgery because she trusted her doctors and knew it had to be done. The surgery went well and after she got some happy news. “We are beyond excited to inform that the doctors removed every little bit of cancer hey found inside your body. I wish I could say that you are 100% cancer free but i don’t want to say that because Ovarian cancer spreads very easily. For the moment we thing you are cancer free!” Dr. Noxin said. Sarah was shocked! She had no idea that in the first five months she would receive this news. Although Dr. Noxin said she should still be carful about how active she is. Sarah jumped up and gave Dr. Noxin the biggest hug ever! The first thing she wanted to do was spend time with her family. She invited them all over for dinner and she broke the news. For the next six months she never had any other problems. Once a month she goes in to the hospital for a checkout to make sure the cancer didn’t spread. Sarah went on living her life the way she wanted to, spending time with family. She took the boys fishing once a weekend and went over to their house a lot. Month seven of her cancer free campaign, it was a few days before her monthly checkup. She woke up and felt a serious pain throughout her stomach area. She thought she was sick and so did her family. Whenever she ate something she couldn’t keep it down. The next day she still couldn’t eat so she went to her checkup a couple days early. When she got there, Dr. Noxin took and immediate cat scan of her body. She was put on some kind of medicine for the next days awaiting the results. Sarah could still not eat a thing. She was called into Dr. Noxin’s office. Sarah’s worst nightmare was back. “Sarah, the cancer has come back.” Dr. Noxin exclaimed. All Sarah thought was about the last time she heard this news and how devastated she felt. All she could say was “Okay.” Dr. Noxin followed up and explained, “This time it is worst. It has spread to your intestines and thats why you cannot digest anything. We will keep you on chemotherapy a little longer, but surgery could possibly be fatal. What will happen is you will be on an iv that will feed you nutrients and everything your body needs to live since you can’t eat. I will teach you how to import the iv every night, but for he first couple days a nurse will go to your house and help you until you get the hang of it.” After this, Dr. Noxin inputed the port into her arm. She was told to be ready for a somewhat miserable next couple months, but it will be worth it. After the next couple months, she kept doing the nutrition bags every night. Nothing was working to cure her and their wasn’t much anybody could do. Paul, who was balling and could barely speak, told Sarah that whenever she was ready she could be on hospice. Hospice is what people go on when they are ready to die. People from he hospice place will come and help wash her and move her around. Sarah stopped the nutrition bags, and knew she was ready. She knew cancer won this time and there was nothing she could do. Sarah grew weaker and weaker until she could barely speak or walk. She was surrounded by the people she loved every single day. People came to visit every day. Even though she was miserable, this was one of the best few weeks of her life. She was surrounded by her loved ones and some people came that she hasn’t seen in years. Sarah just couldn’t stop doing stuff around the house. Being almost carried to the bathroom, she stopped and used almost all of her energy to shut the shades on the window. That was just the way she was and nothing would keep her from doing that. When Paul was helping her to the bathroom and holding her arms while he was walking backwards, Sarah asks, “What dance are we doing?” Everyone slept over the following night. Around twelve thirty that night Sarah didn’t look good. All of sudden she started breathing very heavily and Paul immediately called a hospice nurse to come. “There is no easy way to say this, but this might be it for her and-” The hospice nurse told them. Paul cut her off when he started crying. “What you have to do is stay calm so she doesn’t know what is going on.” Paul entered back into the room and gave his goodbyes. “I will always love you and I will miss you so much. We had so many great memories that will never be forgotten. Always remember that I love you!” Before he knew it Sarah stopped breathing heavily and took her last breath. Shannon, Sean, and Paul hugged each other for several minutes. The next morning was rough. Shannon and Sean had to brake the news to the kids and they had no idea how to take it. Family from all around came over. Instead of everyone thinking of the bad, everyone just shared more memories for hours. It was generally happy because everyone remembered the good that she did and what an amazing person she was. The following summer the family gathered at the vacation home in Maine. It was time to spread her ashes. She told them that she wanted to be spread in the lake and her garden. On the boat, Paul was about to spread the last bit of ashes. “This is the last time i will hold you in my hands, but not the last time I will remember you. I love you so much and one day we will see each other again.”