The Cure

WHENEVER TRYING TO TREAT SOMETHING THAT is within the brain, seizures were definitely one of the things that Xavier knew could be a possible complication. The young doctor had prepared for it and quickly strapped Sammy’s arms and legs to the bed with some very soft restraints so that she wouldn’t harm herself should she have another episode. The restraints came in handy because Sammy had another four seizures over the next several hours. What was more concerning to Xavier was that Sammy remained unconscious for the rest of the day. This was beginning to worry Xavier a great deal but according to her readings from the machines, the brain was still active and didn’t appear to be damaged. He kept a close eye on her from the desk beside the bed and was jotting down a lot of notes from the observations he was making throughout the day. Xavier wanted to know what was going on in there, and hopefully find a way to get her through it. Sammy wasn’t due to take another shot of the serum until twelve hours after the first shot. The young doctor had already decided that if wasn’t awake by the time the twelve-hour mark, he wasn’t going to administer another dose. If something happened between now and then for the good, he would talk with her, and they’d make a mutual decision from there. For the time being, any future doses were on hold until Sammy’s condition improved and until she woke up.

Xavier was thinking of a few ways to bring her out of her coma, but the idea of introducing any more elements into her system was deemed to be too risky. The safest course of action was to let the serum do its thing and hoped she could ride through it. Xavier continued to take notes to monitor and record what was going on with her and it was around six in the evening when he started to relax a little as it had been over three straight hours without a seizure. Even though she wasn’t awake yet there was a chance Sammy was through the worst of it. Since She hadn’t eaten a thing since breakfast, Xavier took care of that by hooking up an I.V. of fluids to keep her hydrated. As the twelve-hour mark came and went, Carter was true to his word and put the rest of the serum away. He wasn’t going to administer anymore until he had a chance to speak with Sammy about what had happened.

Xavier was working at his desk, trying to figure out what might be going on when he dozed off to sleep. His head was propped up but his arm, but it was close to midnight, and he nodded off for a few hours. The problem was the machines woke him up again around three hours later with another alarm. Xavier jolted awake and rushed over, afraid it was another seizure, but it was much worse than that. Sammy’s heart rate had elevated a little and her temperature had skyrocketed. He touched her arm and placed a hand on her forehead to realize that she was really burning up and she needed to cool down as soon as possible. This, however, was something else he had anticipated and was fully prepared for it. One thing he got Sammy to pick up when she went shopping was several large bags of ice, which he kept stored in her large freezer in the back laundry room. Xavier bolted to the back room, took out two massive bags of ice and took them into the bathroom. He quickly opened them and dumped every piece of ice into the bathtub and quickly filled the rest of it with cold water. While it was filling up, he bolted back into the guest room and started to untie and remove the sensors from Sammy. He picked her up and carried her into the bathroom and quickly tossed her into the tub filled with the ice water. He grabbed a washcloth and used the ice water to wet it down. This allowed him to cool down her forehead while keeping it above water while the massive amounts of ice did the rest. It took about half hour minutes and another massive bag of ice, but her fever finally broke, and Xavier was finally able to take Sammy out of the tub, dry her off and return her to bed. He strapped the sensors back on and when the machines resumed their readings, everything was looking much better. The crisis had been adverted for now.

Xavier took the wet shirt he had on off and tossed it in the hamper that was in the corner of the room. He also took one of the towels and started to dry himself off as well. With the alarms all set up and monitoring her status, he wasn’t going to be any good to Sammy if he was dead tired, so he needed to get a little more rest while she was back to normal for now. The first thing Xavier did was give Sammy a fresh I.V. and then he grabbed a few pillows from her bedroom and brought them into the room and used them to create something comfy enough to crash at the desk beside her. He put his feet up in the other chair and just relaxed and tried to sleep as much as he could.

Thankfully this time he was able to sleep for hours without interruption, which meant that Sammy didn’t have any more problems for the rest of the night. When he woke up, it was to the sound of something on the television. He opened his eyes to see that the soaps were on, and he sat up to see what was going on. Then he finally turned to realize that Sammy was the one who turned it on, because she was sitting up in her bed, watching the shows.

“Hey there,” she said with a smile. “You looked like you had a long night, so I thought I’d let you sleep in.”

“How long have you been awake?” Xavier immediately asked as he walked over and started to check her vitals and eyes for cognitive response.

“Long enough to realize this isn’t the same gown I fell asleep in.” she said with a very scowl like look on her face.

Xavier took a deep breath, “Do you remember anything that happened yesterday?”

“Nope, I just thought I went down for a nap.” Sammy answered, “What happened?”

Xavier pulled a seat up and fully explained to her what had happened over the past twenty-four hours: the seizures, the fever, and other complications.

“Wow, and I missed all that?” Sammy asked.

“I think it was best you slept through it,” Xavier confessed, “But one of the biggest problems was I didn’t administer the second doze of the serum. I was afraid it might compound the problem or make it worse.”

“So, what do we do now?” she asked.

“Now we wait,” Xavier answered, “Give what little of the serum that is in there more time to do its work and see what effect it has. I just think after what happened, it might not be wise to administer more until we know exactly what was going on in there.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Sammy inquired.

“That’s the easy part,” Xavier answered, “I’m going use some of my loose finances to purchase the services of mobile MRI unit. I’ve already spoken and paid off someone to get it done. They’re on standby should I ever want to take a few scans. We’ll meet him at a pre-determined location and from there we’ll be able to see if there’s been any changes to that tumor.”

“Oh,” Sammy replied, “What are you hoping to see?”

“I’m hoping to see at least an improvement,” Xavier answered, “If there’s any kind of improvement, we can discuss whether or not you want to take anymore treatments.”

Sammy turned off the TV and nodded. “When did you want to do take the first pictures of my brain?”

“Well, I was thinking in a few days.” Carter said, “I want to give it a little more time and make sure the complications we experienced are really over. Last thing we need is a seizure or fever on the way there.”

“Sounds all right with me, but what did you do with my lunch?” she said with a playful smile as it was that time of the day again.

Carter smiled relieved to see she was getting back to her normal self. “I’ll go make a something for you now. Don’t pass out on me while I do that this time, ok?”

“I’ll do my best, doctor.” Sammy said as she watched him leave.

With that Xavier went back to the kitchen and prepared her another lunch very similar to the one he made the day before. This time she was awake and very hungry to receive it when he returned. Xavier was also able to remove the I.V. from her hand and allow her to replenish herself the old-fashioned way. She turned on the television and started to watch the afternoon talk shows, and this allowed Carter to sit back down at his station and document the events that had occurred over the last day and allow him to think about what might have caused it. Later that night, Xavier seems confident enough to detach the sensors and allow Sammy to roam around the house and do her thing. On her insistence, they ordered a pizza that night and she answered the door so Xavier wouldn’t be spotted. Something simple, and didn’t consume their time, which was good cause he had work to do. He also didn’t want her exerting herself so soon after what had happened.

There wasn’t very much conversation over dinner, which was odd since Sammy always seemed to be a bit of a chatter box when she ate. This time was different, as she likely had a lot on her mind. Xavier could only imagine what was going through her mind. Was the treatment a failure? Could she try again, or was her case hopeless? This was a fair question because if it didn’t work, she was right back to where she started. They could try again, but it wasn’t going to happen unless she was onboard and ready to take the risks again. But Xavier knew was getting ahead of himself as first they had to look at her head and see what, if any, difference the serum made to the tumor in her head. Only then would he be able to recommend if it would be wise or even necessary to try again. Xavier didn’t like the idea of failing, but at least this time out the failure didn’t result in someone’s death. The young doctor didn’t want anyone to die because of his treatment, but it was a risk everyone had assumed in the quest for a cure and a chance to fully recover rather than slowly fade away.

Sammy went to bed very early that night, sometime around nine. Xavier stayed up for a few hours, watching her vitals. Even though she was doing better, he wanted to keep an eye on her and insisted she hook back up to the sensors for another night. He was going to sleep on the couch in the hall this time but had the volume on the monitors set high, so there was no way he wouldn’t hear them if they didn’t go off. Despite the couch being very comfortable, he only managed to sleep on and off for about five to six hours that night. He kept waking up, and every time he did that he would walk in and check up on Sammy to make sure she was doing okay. It was close to about eight in the morning when Sammy woke up and Xavier wanted to make sure everything was ready for what he had planned. He picked up a buy as you go cell and made the call, dialing up the number he had written down.

“It’s me,” He started, “I need to use the machine, how soon can I have it?”

Xavier paused for a moment, listening to the answer.

“You’re only a few hours from where I want to meet,” he continued, “So, let’s do this as soon as possible. Unlike that person you were going to see, I’m willing to pay double for not giving notice as long as there are no records kept and you respect my privacy. Alright, see you in a few hours.”

“Who was that?” Sammy asked as she called out from the guest room.

Xavier turned off the cell phone and then removed the battery to make sure it was completely dead.

“That was the man who runs our M.R.I machine,” Xavier answered, “We’re booked to get your head scanned this afternoon. Then we’ll be able to figure out what we can do from here.”

He walked into the room and started to remove the sensors that had been watching her vitals all night long.

“You’re not going to need these,” Xavier informed her, “You had a really good sleep last night with zero incidents.”

“And how was your nap?” she quickly retorted.

“Considering the circumstances, I didn’t do too badly.” he confessed, “I was very concerned, but we seem to be through the worst of it… thank goodness.”

“Do we have enough ice left over for margaritas?” Sammy joked.

Carter let out a muffled giggle. “Yes, thankfully.”

“Well, if we get good news.” Sammy said, “I’ll make you my world-famous margarita when we get back to the house. But that’s only if we get good news.”

“That’s a deal.” Xavier said as he took her bet. He badly wanted good news after all Sammy had been through the last two days, so he was hoping for the best.

A few hours later, Xavier left Sammy’s house for the first time since he forced himself into it. He and Sammy walked out to the car. Xavier was wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a sports jacket so he was confident no one would really recognize him. They were only heading for one destination, so exposure was minimal. It took Sammy about forty-five minutes to drive them out to the area they were directed to go. Their destination was a warehouse in the middle of an industrial area, but they didn’t a care about the scenery. They had driven from one city to another which was only a few hours away. When they arrived at their pre-determined destination, they both walked up to the truck that was parked in the same lot. The MRI unit was mobile because it was in the back trailer, transported to wherever someone was willing to pay for the service. Sammy didn’t like the look of it, but she understood that Carter couldn’t walk just into any hospital and ask to use their machine.

Carter walked up to the driver who was sitting on the side of his truck.

“Hi there, we are expected.” Xavier started, “I’m Dr. Zachary Thomas and this is my wife, Jane.”

“Of course, Dr. Thomas,” The driver replied, “We’ve been expecting you.” The driver said as she motioned to the back of the truck, “Step right through.”

As they walked to the back of the truck, someone was waiting inside and the machine they wanted to use setup and ready to go. The other doctor in the room tried to introduce himself but was cut off. Xavier raised a hand.

“It’s nice to see you.” He said to the person, before turning to face Sammy, “Get into a gown and lay down in that thing as the nurse here is going to instruct you. Alright?”

“Understood.” Sammy said as she walked over to the corner where the M.R.I machine was located.

As she was being dressed and placed properly onto the table to be examined, the other doctor leaned over. “What are we looking for here?”

Xavier turned to face the other practitioner. “She’s been showing the symptoms of a possible brain tumor. We’re here to scan here and eliminate it as a possible suspect of her problems.”

“Fair enough,” the operator replied, “As long as you got the money you can scan her head as many times as you like.”

“I do and I will,” Xavier casually replied as he never took his eyes off Sammy as she was being strapped in for the scan.

Once she was ready, everyone went back to the other side of the truck which had a wall to protect them from radiation. Carter could see her through a window and watched as Sammy slowly rolled in the machine headfirst. It took close to a half hour, but her head was scanned by the M.R.I machine one layer at a time to give the doctors on the other side a full view of what was going on inside her head. As each layer went by Xavier was waiting for the tumor to make an appearance, kind of like that bad relative that you never invite to dinners but shows up anyway ruins everything. He was going to be left waiting a long time because before he knew it, they were at the bottom of her cranium and there still wasn’t any trace of the tumor. Xavier sat back in his chair, put his hands on his head and had to take a deep breath to fully grasp what these test results were telling him.

The other medical person sitting beside him was confused. “I don’t mean to be rude, but isn’t this the kind of result you were hoping for?”

“Oh, yes!” Xavier said as he quickly stood up. “Print this one right here and delete the rest of them.”

He then dug into his pocket and counted out a dozen hundred-dollar bills, a few more than he needed to pay for the procedure.

“This should take care of everything.” He said, handing over the cash.

“It sure will,” the man replied, “Thank you for your business.”

With that the doctor turned off the machine and pulled Sammy back out. Xavier grabbed the mic and called into the room.

“We’re done,” he called out, “Get dressed so we can get the hell out of here.”

After Sammy was finished dressing, Xavier took the printed sheet from the doctor, and shook his hand happily. As they departed the back of the truck the driver waved to them. Carter responded by walking over and giving the man another three hundred dollars.

“We were never here,” Xavier told him, “There are big insurance companies that would sue if they knew about any of this. Understood?”

“I understand,” The driver said as he took the cash. “My lips are sealed.”

They quickly walked back to their car and Xavier took her keys without even asking and hopped the driver’s seat. Once they were in, he peeled off and just started driving. A few minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of a public park. Once they stopped, Sammy couldn’t take it anymore.

“Xavier, you’re really starting to scare me,” She started, “What the hell happened back there? Why did we leave so fast?”

Xavier responded by opening the door and stepping out of the car. Sammy got out as well and raised her hands to signify her frustration as she didn’t understand what was going on.

Carter took a deep breath. “I needed to get some fresh air, and I certainly wasn’t going to get it outside that shit hole.”

He took the rolled piece of paper out of his pocket and passed it over to her.

“Look at this.” He instructed.

“What am I looking at?” she asked, unqualified to read it.

“This is a scan of your head taken seven months ago,” Xavier answered, “I got this copy from your doctor’s office.”

He pointed to a small spot on it the side of a peach pit on the left side of her brain. “That right there is the tumor that’s trying to kill you.”

“I remember seeing this before.” Sammy admitted.

Xavier then took out another piece of paper and handed it to her. “Now look at this one. This is the scan we did today.”

She took the paper from him and examined it. It was one of the layers of the M.R.I. that had been taken that day. She looked back at the old scan and then at the new one again and the difference finally came to her.

“Where’s the tumor?” she asked him.

Xavier replied by smiling back at her.

“It’s not there,” he answered, “We took a few scans of your head. We went over it a few times to make sure the first wasn’t faulty.”

Sammy paused for a moment as the point was slowly sinking in.

“Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?” she asked.

“Yes,” Xavier cracked a big grin. “The serum worked.”

Sammy started to wipe her eyes to stop the tears from running down her cheeks. “You’re not bullshitting me here, are you?”

“No, look at the scan sheet we just printed.” Carter said as he pointed to the info on the side of the sheet, confirming the time and date it was taken. “The tumor is completely gone. There’s not even a single trace of it.

“I can’t believe this!” Sammy cried out, wiping a tear from her cheek.

“Believe it,” Xavier said, “You’ve been cured.”