The grave expression on the doctor's face scared the bones out of Audrey, sighing loudly, the doctor asked, "Is there any relative of the patient around!".
Audrey quickly said, "me, yes, I mean, I'm a relative of the patient"," okay, let's go to my office while I explain the situation to you," the doctor said.
Audrey's heart thumped loudly, she could hear it and she was sure the doctor could hear it too. She automatically knew that her mother's condition wasn't as simple.
Audrey who was always conscious of entering a room with a man she wasn't familiar with didn't even think of her security, not that the doctor would try anything, it was a hospital after all.
The doctor took a seat and offered her the same. "Have a seat, miss??"," miss smith", Audrey said almost immediately. The doctor pitied her because from what he deduced, it was just the two of them, and he knew the situation at hand needed a lot of money.
"How's my mother doing, is she going to be okay?", Audrey asked with visible eye bags meaning she had cried.
"Well, I'm Mr. Jeremy and I'm your mother's doctor", the doctor said in an attempt to stall the conversation
" Your mother has stage three lung cancer", Mr. Jeremy said. "Lun lung c can cancer, doctor are you sure," Audrey said trying so hard to contain the information.
She felt like she was suffocating, she found it very hard to breathe after hearing the results of the test, everything the doctor said to calm her down was futile as she couldn't even process any other information.
She just paused in her seat, thinking that she was dreaming, she really couldn't fathom the news.
When she finally came out of her reverie, she asked the doctor again, "lung cancer, stage three?", and the doctor confirmed it by nodding his head.
"Can you please explain what that is?", sighing loudly, the doctor said, " lung cancer happens only when there is a tumor, and in your mother's case, she has stage three lung cancer"
"Is stage three that bad", Audrey asked anxiously," no, stage three is not that bad, but I can't assure you how long she's going to live, because the tumor has spread further into the middle of her chest " the doctor replied her.
"The tumor you mentioned, is it a bad thing?", Audrey asked, "it is a bad thing..", Audrey hung her head feeling like everything was over, " but we could try chemotherapy, that could help extend her life", the doctor said.
"You might want to brace yourself, young lady, the treatment is expensive", " it doesn't matter doc, as long as my mother is okay, I'll look for the money".
Mr. Jeremy knew that it was going to be hard for her, he just hoped she could get the money. "Ohhh, your mom also has to stay in the hospital for a few days so that we can monitor her condition".
Audrey nodded briefly and left for the cashier's, she was told that the tests run on her mother and the medicine she was prescribed needed to be paid before she was fully admitted to the hospital.
The fee was far more than what Audrey expected, she was told it was because the cancer tests were very expensive.
Audrey felt a little bit hesitant to drop the money for the rent but she just had to so that her mother could receive proper treatment.
She settled the bills and went back to visit her mother, on the way to the ward, she wondered how she was going to balance it all she knew the fees were only going to get more and more.
'I should never have allowed her to stress herself, maybe if I didn't go to college, I would have noticed, I should have noticed, I should have noticed' Audrey kept thinking as she sat by her mother's ward.
She couldn't bring herself to go inside but she knew she just had to, when she entered, her mother was still sleeping. Sitting beside her ward, she watched as her mother took steady breaths.
Audrey never imagined her mother like this, she never imagined her strong pillar lying weakly on the hospital bed. Now that she thought of it, her mother looked a lot leaner than she remembered, it must have been all the stress she went through.
While she was still crying silently beside her mother, Hyacinth video called, during their call, she noticed that Audrey was a little bit off.
The girls joined her and asked what happened, so, she told the girls that her mother suddenly collapsed and she was diagnosed with cancer. In a panic, they quickly asked the name of the hospital and her ward number.
Fortunately, the hospital's location wasn't too far and they got there on time. The girls offered the support she craved by comforting her," hey, you can't keep crying alright!" Pat said trying to make her feel better.
"She'll be alright okay!", Nelly said, she didn't know how Audrey would break down if the worst happened. For all the girls, this was the first time they were seeing Audrey breaking down.
Audrey was in despair and they all knew it, cancer was a very advanced illness and they knew the treatment would cost much, so they told their parents and guardians and so a reasonable amount of money was generated.
Audrey's joy knew no bounds because she knew how far the amount of money would take them, all she just had to do was work some more to generate the rest of the money.
After some time, Audrey walked the girls to the exit and waved them goodbye. When Audrey entered her mother's ward, her mother had already woken up.
" mom!" Audrey exclaimed as she rushed into her mother's extended arms. "Mom!", " the doctors told me before I slept", Georgia said to her daughter, "as always, we'll get through this"
They continued their conversation after Georgia comforted her daughter, Audrey excitedly told her mother about her day and how it went, she also told her mother that she had gotten not one but two jobs.
While Audrey was talking, Georgia looked at her daughter with so much love, thinking of how she had grown into a fine young lady which she was proud of. After some time, Audrey left her mother to rest so she would be able to go back home and prepare for her job.