Chương 50: My Sci-Fi Life

Robin's life became science fiction. They pumped Indium-111 into his veins to make his blood radioactive and wheeled him into the Nuclear Medicine section. He had to lay on a hard, flat table and stay perfectly still for fifteen minutes, staring into the eye of the Anger camera. The machine chittered as gamma rays hit the sodium iodide crystal. Blobs appeared on a cathode ray display and the technician snapped pictures of the screen with a Polaroid camera. Robin asked if he could see one.

The technician said he wasn't allowed and the doctor would explain everything. Back in his room, there was a tag on his bed that said 'RADIOACTIVE' and warned elderly people and pregnant women to steer clear. Una wasn't allowed to visit until he cooled off; the half-life was 2. 8 days. The second shoot was six hours after the injection. Robin managed to catch a glimpse of one of the Polaroids. The outline of his skull was full of dark voids and angry flares. He spent hours worrying that his brain was full of holes.

When the oncologist finally went over the results with Robin, he laughed and explained it didn't work like that. The hot spots were where the tracer pooled and the cold spots were where the blasts had traffic-jammed the flow of his cerebrospinal fluid. The build-ups were probably causing his pulsing headaches. The linear accelerator would target the blockages and hopefully kill them without hurting too many neighboring cells. The oncologist told Robin he was very lucky they had the new technology.

The old cobalt-60 machines had a much broader beam, and the radiation burns were far worse. In the simulator, they drew a grid of dots on him in permanent marker to help target the beam. Then, he had to be perfectly still while they made plastic casts of his face. They showed him how they poured molten cerrobend into thick blocks of armor that would protect the rest of his body. For two days, everyone asked him constantly if he needed to use the bathroom.

His urine was radioactive and they didn't want to have to decontaminate their equipment. Robin was at once deeply interested in the process, and terrified of what it would do to him. They kept him moving through the stations, but there were too many places to stop and think. He daydreamed a half-dozen hairbrained ways to escape the hospital. He pretended this was all happening to someone else and he was just a passenger in his own skin. Mostly, he was just tired.

As soon as he realized he was sick again, all the aches and pains he'd been ignoring insisted on themselves. He couldn't read or write in his diario. He couldn't rest either. There was always someone waking him up, wanting something. When Una called, he tried very hard to seem like he was doing okay. She did the same, but he wasn't fooled. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Una said Father Jonás wanted to come visit, but Robin begged off, saying he was too sick.

He really was, but he knew the priest would come anyway. It was just one more thing to dread. He shoved it to the back of his mind with the rest. *"How are you feeling today, Robin?" Robin paused too long, searching for the words that wouldn't make a scene. Terrified. Dying. Una was watching him.

"I'm okay." Dr. Flores watched him through thick glasses. There were so many doctors; it was hard to keep them all straight. Robin had only met him once before. He wished it was Dr. Suarez. Despite his name, Dr. Flores didn't speak Spanish. His mustache made him look like a policeman.

"Today, we're going to do another lumbar puncture. You're going to receive what's called intrathecal chemotherapy, where we inject cytarabine and methotrexate along with hydrocortisone. We do this and the radiation treatment on the same day because they have a synergistic effect. That means one treatment helps the other work. You'll be under a local anesthetic. I know you suffered a pretty rough post-dural puncture headache last time. This time, we'll have you on an analgesic."

"Which one?" Una asked.

"Morphine." Una stiffened.

"Could I speak with you for a moment, please?" Dr. Flores and Una stepped into the hallway. Robin couldn't hear them, but he was sure they were talking about Lucinda. He heard Dr. Flores' voice raise, not a lot, but enough. Una was upset when they came back.

"The headache wasn't that bad last time. I don't have to be doped up," Robin lied to try and help Una out.

"It would be best if we proceeded with the treatment as planned. You'll be under close observation. We don't administer this lightly, Robin."

"Will it be that bad?"

"It's a strong treatment and I don't want to take any chances. You'll recover better if you're not in pain."

"Okay." They left Una in the waiting area and led him away. Dr. Flores was right about the morphine.