Chapter 290

When the doctor came in, it was clear that things had settled between them and he was holding her hand with assurance. Carissa seemed relaxed and had an expression on her face that indicated that she would rather be with him here than be alone anywhere else. The doctor sat behind her desk and turned to the end of the folder and read something in her mind and looked at both of them. She looked at Akshar and said, "She is a very brave girl with wonderful qualities, one of them is - she is a fighter. She has fought through many things and is still fighting." She looked at Carissa and said "I wish I could say that the fight is over but it is not. This time the ride is going to be tough, very tough as we have two problems" and paused. Akshar looked at her for a long minute and rubbed his hands on hers that he was holding assuring that this time he was there with her. Carissa gave out a deep sigh and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had feared this moment as her instincts told her that this time it was going to get worse. She held his hand really tight and looked at the doctor and said with an ironic smile adoring her lips, "Let's see what's going on now. I am sure I have breast cancer to fight, I knew that when I felt the almost invisible lump but let’s see what is the second one - I am not sure what's going on". Akshar looked at her in shock. His face had tightened and his eyes wide with his pupil dilated as if he was looking into the dark, his face not its usual but with a fine line underneath his eyes as if the blood near his eyes were starting to drain. The doctor continued and said, "Well as you had expected it is the reoccurrence of breast cancer on your other breast now, but the good thing is due to your regular periodical screening that is not something to worry about and as it is extremely small and can be just eliminated by simple chemotherapy." Well, that's the good part of it.

The blood had started to drain from his eyes and was slowly spreading to the rest of the parts of his face. He starred at her unable to comprehend how she was handling this and as he had suspected she had something and this time he knew it was cancer. He wanted to be wrong. He was desperately trying to catch up with what was happening and the fact that this was the second occurrence made it more difficult to grasp the things that were happening around him. Looking at him the doctor realized that he needs more than a minute to catch up and offered him a glass of water that was on her table. Carissa looked at Akshar and asked, "Are you okay?" He took a sip of water and started to feel better. It wouldn't have been a shock if she had been diagnosed with cancer, but the fact that it was the second time had thrown him out of loop. The phone rang and after a brief conversation, the doctor excused herself and said, "I will be back in a couple of minutes." Akshar looked at Carissa and said, "When did this all start? Why did you decide to keep him hidden from all this? I would have been there as a friend for support?" She didn't say anything. The doctor came in and said, "Sorry, I had to take care of that. Some patient’s husband was just being irrational and I had to step in." She looked at the chart and continued, "Now for the bad news; I ran a culture once I noticed a small cyst in your right ovary and as I feared it is the same you had in your Uterus that we had to remove eight years ago. But one good thing is, it is not malignant. The bad part is it indicates signs of rapid growth. So I don't want to delay anymore and want to run more tests and clear everything. We might be able to take care of both the problems, but since you have to handle both now and under the circumstances I am not sure how well your body will react. I want you to get admitted tomorrow and I will make all arrangements as I don't want to delay anymore." Neither of them could understand the expression on Akshar's face. It had changed into something else when he had found out for the very first time that she had her uterus removed eight years ago.