The Waiting Room
prompt: indicate a person who has had significant impact on you, describe that influence.
Title: The Waiting Room.
White! The white walls, white sheets and white fluorescent light pierce my eyes; I hear the distant beep from the strange machine attached to the very still body of my uncle on the bed.
I hate hospitals. Not because of the strong smell of disinfectant that infiltrates your nostrils or the tension in the waiting area where everyone there wears anxious looks with over a million prayers on their lips each passing second, not just the crippling fear that consumes you while you stare at the clock which seems frozen in time, leisurely ticking away while your heart beat increases.
No, all those come second, I dread hospitals because whether or not you accept it, death lurks about the building; you hear of patients who seemingly were improving suddenly relapse till finally they are no more. Every one of us has been to the hospital, it could have been for an infection, a pain in the back or suffering from a serious condition.
But has the condition ever been cancer?
I was in my final year of high school, the twelfth grade, when we got news that my uncle Paul had cancer, Multiple myeloma they had said,
‘’He’s in a lot of pain’’, his wife told my mom on the phone.
In my head the words multiple myeloma kept flashing in neon lights, a voice kept repeating it, till finally I decided to check it out on the internet hating the fact that I knew absolutely nothing of this disease that apparently kills hundreds. As I read in the article, a few things stood out such as Multiple myeloma being a type of cancer that begins in the plasma cells which slowly starts to affect the bone marrow causing bone fractures, tiredness due to hypercalcaemia, radicular pain or even spinal cord compression which occurs in the later stages. Its causes are unknown and it is also more common in African-Americans, radio or chemotherapy is administered to alleviate pain. Myeloma is
Title: The Waiting Room.
White! The white walls, white sheets and white fluorescent light pierce my eyes; I hear the distant beep from the strange machine attached to the very still body of my uncle on the bed.
I hate hospitals. Not because of the strong smell of disinfectant that infiltrates your nostrils or the tension in the waiting area where everyone there wears anxious looks with over a million prayers on their lips each passing second, not just the crippling fear that consumes you while you stare at the clock which seems frozen in time, leisurely ticking away while your heart beat increases.
No, all those come second, I dread hospitals because whether or not you accept it, death lurks about the building; you hear of patients who seemingly were improving suddenly relapse till finally they are no more. Every one of us has been to the hospital, it could have been for an infection, a pain in the back or suffering from a serious condition.
But has the condition ever been cancer?
I was in my final year of high school, the twelfth grade, when we got news that my uncle Paul had cancer, Multiple myeloma they had said,
‘’He’s in a lot of pain’’, his wife told my mom on the phone.
In my head the words multiple myeloma kept flashing in neon lights, a voice kept repeating it, till finally I decided to check it out on the internet hating the fact that I knew absolutely nothing of this disease that apparently kills hundreds. As I read in the article, a few things stood out such as Multiple myeloma being a type of cancer that begins in the plasma cells which slowly starts to affect the bone marrow causing bone fractures, tiredness due to hypercalcaemia, radicular pain or even spinal cord compression which occurs in the later stages. Its causes are unknown and it is also more common in African-Americans, radio or chemotherapy is administered to alleviate pain. Myeloma is