January 15th 2011 – Back with the Consultant

The doctor had been correct. The treatment had been far from nice. Eve had needed a combination of radiotherapy and weekly chemotherapy. She never seemed to be out of the Oncology unit at the local General Hospital. And now they were back in the consultant’s office. The little girl had been for another scan and the results were on the desk in front of them. One glance at the consultant told Chloe all she needed to know.

“I’m sorry. There’s no real change. The treatment doesn’t seem to be making any difference.”

“But there must be something. It’s on TV all the time. New treatments, drugs, something, anything……”

Chloe’s voice trailed off despairingly. The consultant took off her glasses and placed them on top of Eve’s file. She rubbed her eyes and her temples, then sighed. She never got used to this part of the job. Her voice was quiet, not much above a whisper.

“There really is no point going any further. Your little girl has suffered enough. Please, go home and take care of her while she’s with you. I’ll arrange for the nurses’ visits.”

Chloe gasped. Her body slumped forward and her head disappeared into her hands. A disturbing keening rose from her throat and the young man closed his arms around her in a forlorn attempt at comfort.

Somehow they managed to remove themselves from the office at the hospital. And Tom still had enough about him to call a taxi.

Her dad could tell immediately from the young couple’s faces that the prognosis was not good. They slumped together on the sofa, pale complexions and blank eyes.

Tom’s phone rang and he answered. Chloe couldn’t hear who was speaking on the other end and to be honest, just didn’t care. But Tom listened for a few minutes. Then he turned to Chloe and her dad.

“Look, just give me a few minutes. It’s that old history dude on the phone. I just need to go and see him for a few minutes. I won’t even be an hour. Then we can have a talk about what we are going to do.”

Chloe hardly registered what he’d said. She was staring at her baby daughter lying prostrate on the sofa. Eve’s breathing was weak just like the rest of her. Something stirred within the young woman and a feeling approaching rage started to course through her veins. There just had to be more treatment than was available at the arse end of nowhere, where they lived. Crossing to the kitchen table, Chloe opened up the laptop.