Stanley felt his heart beating in his chest as the Doctor explained, "I don't want to get your hopes out of hand - it WILL be a hard fight and it will take almost every gram of will you possess to fight this."
Stanley nodded in assent and listened as the game plan was outlined, "Traditionally, the cost is the major concern when we do personalized treatment plans. Insurances don't want to pay a ton of money for experimental or undeveloped drugs." The folder flipped, and already-signed paperwork was shown to Stanley as he continued, "That isn't the case for you. I have preauthorization for the majority of your visits and I already have your gene testing back, which means we will be starting in days instead of weeks."
"Doctor, how much chemo or radiation are we looking at?" Stanley asked timidly, as he had a limited understanding of cancer medications. However, he did know that there were patient-specific treatments that were seeing success in studies.
Dr. Rajasundaram coughed and explained, "Ah, well. This particular sub-family responds remarkably well to VDC/IE - a combination of Vincristine, Doxorubicin, and Cyclophosphamide, which is then alternated with Ifosfamide and Etoposide. I know those words don't mean much to you, but even a basic blanket chemotherapy might put you into remission for a while. That isn't my goal. We are trying to make you cancer-free."
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Stanley listened to the Doctor for over 3 hours before the man finally pushed him out of his office. There was so much to take in, but most of it was the sheer number of appointments he'd have to manage in the coming weeks.
Stanley flipped open the 3-ring binder and looked at his series of appointments, 'Let's see, the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th are all booked with Chemo. Then, I have a series of appointments for patient education and regimen adhesion. Huh, those probably should have been done first...but every second does matter right now.'
He had a firmer grasp of his current reality. He was dying of cancer...but it was slow. If he can get the small clusters of tumors to begin dying in droves, then he can push for surgery after getting a dose of radiotherapy. Then if he gets jabbed with a not-so-simple vaccine and stem-cell transplant, he should be home-free.
"Wow." The sheer awe was plastered all over Stanley's face as he absentmindedly stepped up to the counter to be checked out.
"Good news, Mr. Hudson?"
Stanley was snapped out of his stupor by the beautiful Nurse, who was on the edge of her seat as he explained, "Yeah, actually, a lot of good news. I am Stage 4, but the Doctor seems very confident in treating this specific type of cancer. Apparently, he has done a lot of research on the subject and he thinks I should be able to achieve a cancer-free status."
A tinge of fear flashed through her face as she spoke, "Dr. Rajasundaram sure didn't hold anything back, did he?" Stanley could see the pain on her face as she continued, "It is ALWAYS important to temper expectations when you are dealing with something as volatile as cancer. Even a """sure thing""" could fall through, do you understand?"
Stanley smiled, "Yeah. I think I can understand that. The same cancer, in the same spot, in two different people of the exact same body type could behave almost as if they were opposites. Every battle with Cancer is unique to a large degree."
A tsunami of relief washed over her face as she spoke up, "With that said, I think I actually helped the Doctor go over your prior authorizations, so I have a decent idea of what is happening, and even with my limited experience with oncology, I think the Doctor is probably correct."
That nugget of information wormed its way into Stanley's brain as he went for it, "So, Vanessa? Are you new to the area?"
That question caught her off guard, but Stanley could see a flash of understanding as to where this line of questioning was headed.
"Well, Mr. Hudson, I wouldn't exactly call myself new to the area. I grew up in a neighborhood not too far from here, and I moved back after college to help take care of my Grandfather's Estate when he passed. Chicago was a nice place, but Philly is my home...for now."
Stanley's mind-hampster was spinning the wheel as fast as its little legs could, but he still couldn't get a clear read on her. Did she want him to ask her out? Her tones and inflections made it clear something was on the table, and it might just be friendship, but he...he was fine with that, wasn't he? Men and Women can just be friends.
Then, the wave crashed along his broken shore of a mind.
'Damn it. What are you doing? She is AT HER JOB! Her flirting isn't flirting, dumbass. I just had this discussion with myself, and here we are again. I have to abort this mission.'
His mind came back online, and he noticed her holding an outstretched arm with a stack of papers at the end. Grabbing them quickly, he added, "I'm so sorry. I am not sure where my mind is at."
His tone was clearly implying something else, which she picked up on as she wrote something down and said, "You don't have to explain anything. You just got some of the most important news of your entire life."
She looked back up at Stanley as she asked, "Are you generally like this?"
He shook his head first but then nodded in defeat, "Yeah. I am pretty much always discombobulated to some degree."
She laughed and asked again, "That isn't what I meant. I wanted to know if you were generally like this."
The confusion was plain as day as he asked, "Like what?"
The predator hiding beneath the scrubs came out as she stood and leaned over the desk holding a business card, "I wanted to know if you were always this...cute."
