After Cancer I Turn into A Badass novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Second Opinion

The head of oncology at Dayton Heights Medical had a bow tie and a standing desk.

He shook Glenn's hand like an old friend and mine like a stranger's, and then he did not sit down.

"Mrs. Horvath, I've reviewed your scans and your bloodwork twice," he said. "I'd like you to sit."

I sat. Glenn stood behind my chair with one hand on its back.

"Before I tell you anything, how are you feeling?"

"Fine," I said. Then I made myself stop. "Hungry. Angry. Tired of being polite."

"Good," the doctor said, and smiled. "Because there is no cancer."

I waited for the second half of the sentence.

"Your pancreas is normal," he said. "Your labs are normal. The report from Miami Valley describes a sixty-one-year-old patient with almost the same name and stage four disease."

"I'm Veda Prewitt."

"Yes. And somewhere in their system, two charts with nearly the same name were joined into one. Your scan was clean. Hers wasn't."

Behind me, Glenn made a low, rough sound.

"A mistake," I said slowly.

"A very serious one. I've already called their chief of staff, and you'll have a written apology and a corrected record by Friday. I'm so sorry you went through this."

I sat very still.

Six months.

I had cut off my family because of six months.

I had bought a red dress and knocked on a door.

The doctor pushed a box of tissues toward me, and I realized my face was wet.

Then a sound came out of me that I didn't recognize, high and cracked.

I was laughing.

I laughed until I couldn't breathe, and then I was crying.

Glenn came around the chair and went down on one knee on the doctor's carpet.

He pulled me against his chest.

"It's all right," he kept saying. "It's all right. It's all right."

"I'm not dying," I said into his jacket.

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