The cafeteria was large and open, and a supermarket was near it. I first went to the cafeteria to buy a sandwich, choosing a tuna one that came across as tasty. I then headed to the supermarket and successfully found a six-pack of tangerines. However, I couldn't find the dried apples, so I bought three packs of dried blueberries and made a mental note to tell Christine to prepare those as a part of her snack.
After paying for all of the things I needed to get, I headed back up to where Dawn was, preferably with her PN, so I wouldn't have to hunt her up in the hospital. There were just one too many places she could be at.
When I opened the door, I found the PN with her. I walked straight over to her and said, "Dawn would like to have dried apples, but the market downstairs doesn't have them. Could you prepare them as a part of her snack?"
She nodded and replied, "Of course. She told me about a few others; crackers, frozen-dried strawberries and a few candies, so I'll prepare them along with the others. I'll go tell the kitchen staff to go and buy them, Dawn."
With that, she left, so I had to ask Dawn what she meant by that. She had wanted to get the lollipops from Nanani's candy, the shop which produces the lollipop she had seen in a few still-cuts from the movie 'The Handmaiden'. However, international shipping wasn't available on their site, so she decided to get Lifesavers at a local store instead.
I took out the iPad my uncle gave to me — I told him a clipboard would do just fine, but he said it was easier to contact people through Google Docs instead. — and filled in the list of snacks.
Handing her the bag of tangerines and the packs of dried blueberries, I said, "I got those because they were no dried apples. They should taste fine, though."
"Be honest, you got them because you love the Ironman series." Dawn cheekily smiled as she said that, I just had to nod in agreement. Besides, she already knew my favourite Marvel hero is Ironman — she's a fan of the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) — and that he ate them in a few of the movies.
"You can put them in the mini-fridge here. Christine brought it when I told her you were going to get me some fruits. She promised to make a few fruit juices. There's also a freezer over there and she's going to get me some sorbets, too. She also said I can bring everything to the hospice, so I'm gonna do that."
I was happy to see her talk enthusiastically about food. It was a good sign that she wasn't losing her appetite, and I noticed that her table was empty, meaning Christine took it away after she finished her dinner. She took a tangerine from the pack and peeled it off, being careful not to accidentally make it spill some of the juice. She slipped a piece inside her mouth and said, "These are nice! They're not sour and remarkably sweet!"
"That's nice, and don't offer me any. I'm not a fan of tangerines. You can eat all of them, and when you finish that bag, I'll get you more at the market. If there's anything else you'd like to eat, just let me know and I'll get them for you."
Dawn nodded happily and ate her tangerines while I ate the sandwich. They were nice, so I supposed I could get my lunch from there.
Christine then entered, holding an iPad like mine. "Hey, Dawn, I just came to tell you your schedule tomorrow. We'll be testing the chemo drugs and begin with the irinotecan and cisplatin group since they carry the least amount of side effects. However, if the drugs don't work, we'll have to find another combination. IV drugs will be given, and you will receive them for three weeks, then a resting period begins.
"Lucas, I've added her schedules in the shared Docs file, so if you need to check anything, all of them are there. By the way, Dawn, I told the cooking staff to make the dried apples you wanted, so you'll be able to eat them starting from lunch tomorrow."
After that, she left and let us spend some time in peace. We were in comfortable silence for a few minutes until Dawn broke it by saying, "I want to make a list of people to meet during my stay here. I'll make the list and you can type the messages during my treatment. Then they can come and visit me during the resting period."
"Okay, you can give me the list via message. I'll send the message, but you can send them by yourself if you have the strength afterwards."
The chemotherapies take a lot of strength out of the recipient, especially if the drugs don't fit the patient and cause side effects.
Side effects vary: they can be as common as hair loss, but also very fatal. It differs by the patient's condition and is also a bit by luck. It also differs by the type of drug used, and there is a reason I hope for cisplatin to not work with her. One of the fairly common side effects of that drug is ototoxicity, which contains symptoms of ringing in the ears and if worse hearing loss. Carboplatin — another drug that is paired with irinotecan — also has a few common side effects, but the severity is lower except for peripheral neuropathy, which may get severe enough that the doctor might decide to reduce the dosage. If cisplatin fits her well with just a few of the very common side effects, I suppose it wouldn't be much of a deal to work with that combination. However, I just couldn't shake off the feeling that I'd be wrong.
I paid attention to Dawn again, and I could tell she was getting sleepy. She was dozing on the bed, and her head was nodding, looking very uncomfortable. I suppose it was a bit late, and I couldn't help but think she looked cute, her dozing off like that.