Lily's face lit up as soon as she saw Jayden. She was a little self-conscious since she was still in the hospital's attire however there was nothing she could do. She usually made herself presentable if she knew that Jayden was coming. However today Jayden suddenly showed up so she was happy but a little self-conscious of how she looked.
"What a pleasant surprise!" Lily grinned at Joyce and Jayden. "Come! give me a hug babe! I am so scared right now. I need a dose of your vitamin." Lily said jokingly.
"What would you do without me???!" Joyce teased her and went to hug her.
Joyce was surprised at how thin Lily had become. since the hospital's attire was quite baggy she didn't realized that Lily had lost so much weight.
Lily was trembling but tried to stay calm. Joyce felt her slight tremble. Smiling comfortingly she made a soothing movement along Lily's back while comforting her. "Everything will be okay... You'll get better soon. You will be fine. I'll wait for you to come out and play again, kay?!" She looked at Lily's face and wiped Lily's silent tears that has fallen out unexpectedly. Then Joyce hugged her again as if she was a baby.
" Don't be scared.... Come on..." rocking Lily slowly to and fro in a soothing motion.
"I don't know what comes over me. Guess I am scared a little after all..." Lily finally calmed down and looked at both Joyce and Jayden with a reddened face.
"It's normal to be scared..." Jayden consoled her. "Be brave. This is just a bone-marrow transplant. You'll be fine. After this you can focus on getting better." Then he gave Lily a friendly pat on the shoulder.
Feeling better, Lily finally smiled.
Mr. and Mrs. Chua was relieved to see her little girl smiling again. Mrs. Chua silently went out of the room and wiped her tears away. She had been holding in her feeling but seeing Lily cried had made her felt helpless.
Lily, Joyce and Jayden chatted for a while. Teasing and joking with each other until a nurse came in and announced that it was time to get ready for the operation.
Joyce squeezed Lily's hand to encourage her. Lily looked at her reassuringly. Mr. and Mrs. Chua followed the nurse as she wheeled Lily to the operation room.
"Good Luck, babe!" Joyce shouted to Lily.
Lily looked back, tried her best to smile and courageously entered the operation room while looking straight ahead. She felt like a pig being butchered. But what need to be done, must be done. Thus, she succumbed to the inevitable.
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Joyce, Jayden and Lily's parents were all waiting at the waiting room outside the operation room. The red light that indicates that an operation is going on has lightened up. Everybody lost in their own thought.
As a parent who has to leave their only child in the hand of the fate, both Mr and Mrs Chua felt useless when staring at the red light. Mr. Chua squeezed Mrs. Chua's shoulder gently to give her strength and comfort while he himself felt like he had all the money in the world but her couldn't save the one person that matter the most to him. God really loves to play joke on him. However, playing joke or not he wouldn't give up for the sake of his only child.
Actually Lily were quite lucky that she could find a matching donor in such a short time since matching donor are really rare and the fact that one of her cousin could match her she must have an extremely good Ba-zi (The birth date and birth time that chinese use to calculate the destiny of a person. It is believed that a good ba zi will give you good luck and make you prosper for your whole life).
Joyce was looking ahead with a blank look on her face. From the outside, you would only see the calm demeanor of her. She looked like she was confident about the result of the transplant. Only Jayden knew how nervous she was as she was unconsciously holding his hand and squeezing it tightly at the moment, but she did it unwittingly. At that moment, Joyce was totally concentrated at the one person inside the operation room.
Jayden accompanied Joyce until it was almost time for Lily to finish her operation procedure. He went to the canteen of the hospital to buy some light dinner for Joyce to eat. He knew that Joyce would not have much appetite at the moment.
The two of them started to eat while waiting. Joyce had offered dinner for Mr and Mrs Chua, however, they refused since they were too anxious about the result.
Finally, the light was turned off. After awhile a staff of nurse came out. A bed was wheeled out. It was Lily! She was sleeping peacefully due to the effect of the anaesthetia. She was quickly wheeled into the recuperating room especially for the bone-marrow transplant patient. It was a special room especially used to let the person who has just received bone-marrow transplant to stay to avoid them being infected with other disease. This is because a patient who just went through bone marrow transplant has weak immune system. Thus, during the bone - marrow transplant procedure which can be pretty exhausting, patient will be kept in this room.