I Don't Understand It

The letter Jake reads is in italics to make it easier.  Enjoy!

(OWEN)

As soon as the orderlies get Clare back on her bed and leave the room, Bianca stands, knowing what I want and helps me shift Clare so I can climb back on her bed and sit against the pillows with my legs outstretched and we both laid her down in my lap again. I see Jake look at me, and know he'll want to speak with me about how I feel about Clare, but first I want to talk to Emma and Spinner, and maybe the others about Clare's past.

"Hello Jake, it's good to see you here for Clare again," Doctor Evans says to Jake, and we all look over at the doctor. He must be the one Clare saw when she started chemo.

"Can you please tell us what happened Doctor Evans? The doctor that had me sign the forms for surgery wouldn't tell us anything," Jake tells him, and I know we all want to hear this as the room goes silent.

The doctor looks toward Bianca, Drew and I before saying "when you brought Clare in earlier today saying she had fainted, but woke up and then a little while later had a seizure, which is a symptom of her illness, we put her in a medically induced coma so that the seizure would be stopped and it would have the least effect on her brain and give her body rest.  We did a CT scan to check her head, and biopsied the tumors in her back and neck again as those are what the lumps are," he tells us and I look down at the girl lying in my arms, and wonder how she could be so strong. "The medically induced coma is why she has been asleep the whole time she has been here. When we came to get her again it was because we had seen a mass in her CT scans and wanted a better look, so we took her for an MRI. While doing the MRI, we found that the mass was another tumor on her brain." At this several gasps are heard around the room.  "It needed to be removed as quickly as possible due to the location. That's why we needed a signature Jake, and were so rushed. We are sorry for scaring you all, but it needed to be done," Doctor Evans tells us.

"So what happens now doctor?" Lucas asks, and we look at the doctor expectantly.

"As she just had major surgery on the back of her head we are keeping her in the coma for the time being." I look down and notice some of Clare's hair missing and a bandage on her head. Even now she still looks beautiful and peaceful asleep. "We'd like to keep her overnight and have her rest tomorrow. We will take her out of the coma in the morning, but we need to continue with her chemotherapy treatments this week to not only get rid of the tumors in her back and neck but get any cells that were around the tumor removed during the surgery," he tells us.

"Do you think there will be side effects of the surgery, seizures or tumors in the future?" I ask, as Clare's future is becoming more important to me.

"We won't know how the seizure affected her brain until she is woken up. The surgery was difficult because of the location, but as we were able to get rid of the tumor on her brain, it will hopefully mean a prolonged life. The medically induced coma is to allow her body the rest it needs to keep seizures from further affecting her brain, and to allow her body to heal from the surgery. Then the chemotherapy will hopefully kill off the cancer cells that are still in her body. It will be a long road to being in remission and cancer free, but I believe that as long as the seizure didn't affect her brain more than we believe, that she is strong and otherwise healthy, and I see she has lots of support to help her in her treatment and recovery," he tells us, and I think about her recovery. I know I want to be around for her as much as I can.

"Thank you Doctor Evans," Jake comments for us all as they shake hands.

"If you have questions or concerns press the call button and a nurse will be in to help you, and I will be back to check in on her recovery in about 2 hours," Doctor Evans tells us before he leaves the room.