- - - last day *

[jaeda renée cohen]

_{MY BEST FRIEND GAVE ME THE BEST ADVICE HE SAID EACH}
day's a gift and not a given right !

» Her record, the one she was breaking now, kept getting broken every second she didn't puke. It should be weird and scary, or would be for any other teen, to be spending multiple nights in the hospital, but for Jaeda it was old hat. After all, how many people actually kept track of how long it took the side-effects of treatment to catch up with them? She'd been nauseous, sure, but had yet to actually vomit. Her record, previously, was an hour, though it usually only took her a fraction of that. The new record? A whole day and counting. The prospect of actually not losing everything she ate was an exciting one, but also something Jaeda knew wouldn't happen. And if it didn't, actually, she would be more worried than if she'd been doing it constantly. After all, in order to get better, she would have to get violently ill. It sucked, but that was how it worked- it meant that they were successfully destroying her immune system, and along with it (hopefully) the abnormal cells that had plagued her for nearly her entire life. Maybe the new record she was setting had something to do with the new combination of drugs the doctors were trying. Whatever the cause, she was grateful that, at least for now, she could eat something.

» Normally, she wouldn't be alone. Her mom, dad or one of the siblings that didn't hate her would be sitting on her bed, talking to her, trying to make her feel better. But now, nobody was there. It was definitely visiting hours, but everyone was busy. Her father had to work, and Caleb, Lucas and Alyssa were all in school. As for Mom... the woman was home, thinking Jaeda wouldn't know she was crying. This had happened way too many times already, and everyone involved knew that she may not survive treatment. Jaeda didn't even want to start, but her mother, desperate to keep her alive as long as possible, made her. In a way, Jaeda wanted to keep fighting, to prove that she could overcome as many relapses as her disease threw at her. But in a way... she was tired of it. It was always the same thing- she'd fight, get close to dying, rebound, be healthy for a while, then relapse. The kidney transplant was the only thing saving her life last time. What would she need next- a heart? Lungs? Liver? She knew there was no way Alyssa was giving her any more body parts- and Jaeda didn't want them. Her sister had been put through enough on her behalf, and she found it ridiculous that their parents made Alyssa give whatever cells, whatever organs Jaeda needed. No wonder the other girl hated her.

» Jaeda was laying in her bed, half asleep. A Hickman line poked out of the top of her gown, and attached to the "appendages" protruding from her body were the IV lines, whose bags hung on an IV pole beside the bed. That was one good thing about the situation- instead of repeatedly poking Jaeda over and over again each time she came to the hospital, everything was done through the Hickman line, which saved Jaeda some pain and discomfort. They could even draw blood from it, so unless she needed fluids, she didn't have to endure any needle-pokings in her arms. The Hickman line still sucked, but it was a hell of a lot better than getting poked repeatedly. Anyway, while Jaeda hadn't puked yet, she was definitely not completely side-effect-free. She was incredibly tired, and all she really wanted to do right now was sleep. Yesterday wasn't so bad- as they started administering the chemotherapy drugs, she was basically herself, on her laptop, IMing and such. But today, now that the drugs had started doing things, her energy seemed to have drained. But at least she wasn't bald yet. That, too, would eventually happen, and would probably start before the week was up. She was on an aggressive treatment schedule- a week on, a week off- and depending on how she was doing, she might be able to go home during the "off" weeks. But if history told her anything, it was that she would hardly see her home in the coming months.

» Just as she was starting to doze off for the tenth time today, Jaeda felt another wave of nausea. She tried to mentally fight it back, to will it away like she had been all day, but soon realized it wasn't going to work. Just as she sat up, she heard a knock at the door. "Don't-" was the only word she managed to utter before her arm shot out, grabbed the hideous pink emesis basin and vomited into it. Groaning, she hovered over it, vomiting twice more before the nausea subsided, and she felt... not exactly better, but at least the sense of impending doom was gone. She put the basin back on the rolling table beside her bed, next to her laptop, and laid back down, before glancing to see who had been at the door, and if they were still there- or, if they were particularly daring, if they had come into the room.

leave no stone unturned, leave your
^{FEARS BEHIND, AND TRY TO TAKE THE PATH LESS TRAVELED BY !}

tag » rissa. ?!
status » finished. ?!
outfit » hospital gown, yo. ?!
lyrics » "if today was your last day" - nickelback