Crushed

Episode 16

Dr. James came close to me, sensing my confusion.

He placed his hand on my shoulders and smiled
“Mrs. Douglas. Please you have to be strong. It’s not so serious. It’s been detected early so we can fight it successfully” he said and I sat down on the bench and stared into space.

I was emotionless.
Even I didn’t know what to think about at that point.

My husband was beside the window panes, shaking his head in a regrettable way.
Though I didn’t know what it meant, whatever leukemia meant must be serious then.

Dr. James held my hand
“Leukemias are cancers that affect bone marrow.” He said and I just looked into his face, still confused
Couldn’t he realize that I was just a layman?
“Let me make it simpler for you..” he said. He must have seen that I remained confused
“As cells divide into different divisions to produce red and white blood cells, they could become cancerous. Do you get me?” he asked and I just looked on, tears already calling themselves together to form in my eyes

“If a progenitor cell becomes cancerous at the beginning of a series of cell divisions, the leukemia is termed acute. But if it is in the later stages of division, we have chronic leukemia” he explained further, patting my shoulders

“Hmmmm” I said eventually as the tears ran down my face- very hot against my skin
“We thank God that Jeans’ case is still acute. Though it is serious as well, we can still have 60% success” he said and I shook my head as I beat my laps in repeated successions

“Ah! Jesu oooo” I screamed aloud
I had never even imagined that such a bad thing like that existed in my handsome looking boy
Leukemia!

“Oh my God! Why? Why?” my husband screamed aloud and I looked towards him
He looked totally shaken
He dug his fingers into his hair, crying like a baby

“I hate chemo, I hate radiotherapy. I hate them with passion!” he cried with such passion that I knew the extent to which the problem was

I looked in Dr. James’ face and he was quite disappointed in his friend
“Dr. Douglas, please pull yourself together. This is not a hopeless situation as you are posing it to be. It will be well.” He said and my husband nodded as tears ran down his face the more

“Mrs. Douglas. The only thing now is to get a matching bone marrow donor. I have sent his blood sample to the lab. The result should be out anytime soon so that we would know his blood type in order to determine if it is you or his dad that would donate” he said and my face shone

“We can donate? Isn’t one bone marrow everyone has?” I asked,
He smiled, relieved at seeing my shining face
“No dear sister. Bone Marrow is that soft, pulpy tissue that fills the cavities of bones” he said and I became hopeful again
I had thought that it was a bone or something
“We will suction the red bone marrow from the pelvic bone of the donor with a long needle attached to a syringe. That’s all we need. It would be treated so that the white blood cell in it would be removed”
“The white blood cells are removed so that they wouldn’t attack the recipient” he explained on, making the subject more interesting to me
“It would be done through an intravenous infusion and immature, but healthy cells would be introduced into the bloodstream.

That would be all” He explained, little by little
As he explained, I felt a whole new ray of hope for our son
“You forgot to mention that it’s not as easy as you have said it Dr. James. You didn’t mention that yes, bone marrow transplants are helpful but they cannot always cure a blood or bone marrow disease because the match between donor and recipient is seldom perfect. Where do we get a perfect match? Have you found any before? Since you started practicing this…” My husband started talking and I found such unbelief irritating to me
“Dear, could you be positive for once? Are you still a Christian at all? Let’s hope in God please” I spoke so loudly that our boy stirred.