cancer takes over | Teen Ink

cancer takes over

February 13, 2024
By Anonymous

The sun  drilling through the windshield as Jason, Wendy’s son, drives her to Froedtert hospital in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The drive feels so much longer than usual probably because of the amount of pain she is in. Wendy has had pancreatic cancer for 3 years and has been doing really well up to the past 6 months.

 As Jason looks over he sees his mom curled up trying to handle the pain and stay strong. Then he looks back farther and sees his daughter Aj in the back seat, looking at her grandma with a look of terrier not knowing what to do to help wendy.

As Jason pulls up to the door of the hospital Wendy is getting her oxygen ready to switch to the other tank and trying to help but it just puts her in more pain the more she moves. Wendy then starts to apologize for not being able to not do things for herself and always needing help on the little things

Jason looks at her and says “  Mom don’t say that it's not your fault”

Wend then replies “ If it wasn't for me you guys wouldn't have to take me from the hospital home and back to the hospital every week”

Aj then gets out of the truck to help her grandma get out and into a wheelchair. As Jason grabs her oxygen and bags to carry in.  When they walk in they have a nurse meet them and ask what they need help and what she can do. 

Jason says “My mom is in a lot of pain and she needs it to get looked at,”

The nurse replies “ Ok I’ll get her a room as soon as possible but for now please find somewhere to sit in the waiting room.”

They all go and find a spot to sit but the wait ends up being a lot longer than Jason was hoping. By the time Wendy got a room they had already been waiting for an hour and a half.

Jason starts to push Wendy to the room as she is telling her doctor about the pain she is having 

Dr. Washington asks “ How long have you had this pain for?”

Wendy then replies “ For about two days i believe but it gets worse by the day”

Dr. washington then looks at her and says “we’ll get you a cat scan and see what’s going on”

By the time Dr. Washington was able to get the cat scan. It was about another hour wait. But what they found was not showing good signs for Wendy. She ended up having a lot of fluid in her lungs. So at that point the doctor decided to put a pump with a needle on the end of it and put that into Wendy's lung to help drain it.

Dr. Washington comes into the room to tell Jason that it would be best if Wendy stays for a few days tell she is starting to get better. Jason and Aj then say their goodbyes to Wendy and head home.

Around 9:30 am the next day Aj and Jason make it to the hospital to spend the day with Wendy so she’s not there by herself. But when they get there Jason gets pulled into the hallway by Wendy's nurse so that they can talk in private.

The nurse looks at Jason and says “ Last night your moms lungs were not draining that well and they kept filling up with fluid no matter how many times we emptied them.”

Jason replies “ Is there anything else you guys can do for her?”

The nurse says “ Sadly draining them is the only option she's in too much pain as it is to put her under another big surgery and it's not 100% that it would even work.” 

Jason then walks back into the room and sits next to Wendy and takes her hand into his and just sits there with the calm presence of his mom not knowing how much longer he'll have with her. 

It's been 2 hours of doctors coming in and out of her room talking to Jason or just making sure Wendy is ok and checking on her vitals and at some point they realize that the pain is getting worse so they decide to put her on a drug to help the pain called dilaudid. 

Dr. Washington says “ With this medication we want to try to keep it to every hour but if she is in pain press the red button hanging off her bed and that will put another dosage of it in her but the more we give her the more it will affect the rest of her body and do more than just take the pain away.”

Jason Replies “ What can all happen?”

Dr. Washington says “ A lot can happen. It all depends on the person and how their body handles it, but most likely Wendy would start to lose all control of her muscles and speaking ability. But the upside is it would take away the pain she’s in but it can also take away a lot of other things”

Jason doesn't say anything back to him and just sits back down on the side of Wendy's bed and puts his head on her chest  and just listens to his moms heartbeat as the doctor stands and watches not knowing what to do at that point. 

At this point it is 9 pm and Jason and Aj get up and ready to head back home for the night but not before saying their goodbyes to Wendy not knowing how she's gonna do tomorrow. As there about to walk out they run into the doctor and they exchange this look knowing that it's gonna get worse by the days that past.

By the time they come back the next day it’s around !2:00. As soon as they walk in the door it's obvious Wendy is not gonna make it much longer because both Dr. Washington and the nurse are standing waiting for Jason and Aj to show up. When Jason looks at Wendy he can see she’s holding on but not by a lot.

“ It's the dilaudid she wasn't like this tell you gave this to her!” Jason says 

The nurse looks at him and says “ Jason I know it's a lot to handle but the options were to either give it to her or watch her slowly sulfur through the pain. ”

“ Where’s her oxygen? Why isn’t it hooked up to her anymore!?” Jason says in a loud tone

The nurse says “ Because of her lungs being filed she couldn't take it in anymore. I’m sorry but she doesn't have much longer”

Jason and Aj look at each other and they both go and sit on each side of her and take both of her hands in theres and they just hold her hands tell she takes her very last breath with them.


The author's comments:

This piece is about my family losing my grandma to cancer after her fighting it for 3 years.


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