Dream Clinic Chapter 2
“*cough*…*cough*…”
“Sakura, are you alright?” (Nurse A)
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Sakura still remember her experience last weekend. She found the rumored dream clinic however it only makes her remember the shady self-proclaimed doctor. It was actually a scam clinic that is telling anyone who come that they have a serious illness and will do surgery on them. Who knows that it wasn’t even human organ trafficking scheme.
“*cough*…*cough*…”
However since last nigh she has been coughing a lot. It must be because her lack of sleep.
“Sakura-chan, your cough isn’t normal you know.” (Nurse A)
“Yeah, why don’t you take a rest first?” (Nurse B)
“Thank you, I’ll do that.”
Sakura left and go to the sleep room where doctor who is on night duty can take a rest.
“*cough*…*cough*…”
As she lay down, she also noticed what the other nurses are saying. Her cough wasn’t normal. As a nurse, she handles lots of patients from normal sickness to sickness that are lethal. She also knows the type of dry cough and wet cough with mucus. However her cough is not the same.
She also started to have trouble breathing.
“*fuuuu*…*tsuuuu*…”
“What is happening to me?”
She takes some cough syrup, some sleeping pills and tries to rest. However when she wakes up, she starts to feel some pain inside her chest. While hardly walk and put one of her arm on her chest tightly, she goes to see a doctor.
In the hospital, there is a special doctor assigned for the staff. As a nurse working there, she could get examined too. It was one of the benefits working in a hospital. The doctor on duty checked her condition however she couldn’t find anything wrong.
“Sakura-chan, it is better if we do a Rontgen. Just for precaution.”
“Doctor, please just give me some pain killer and medicine for reducing the cough.”
With a worried look the doctor only prescribe normal medicine for her. After all she is a nurse too so she should know what is happening with her body. That is what the doctor thinks. Sakura also asked for going home ahead of time and rest in her home.
She drinks the medication and tried to sleep again however it didn’t work. The pain inside her chest is getting unbearable and the cough gets harder. There is even blood-tinged sputum when she looks at the gooey substance on the sink.
“What is wrong with me?”
As a nurse, she knows clearly that something is wrong with her body. She changes her clothes and head to the hospital once again.
“Sakura-chan?” (Nurse A)
“Please, help me.”
After saying that she passed out because of the pain.
When she wakes up, Sakura found herself on top of the hospital bed. Not in the sleep duty room but inside one of the patient ward.
“Sakura-chan, you have wake up?” (Nurse A)
“Aaah.. Yes, what happened?”
“You passed out when you arrived at the front desk. Wait a moment, I’ll call the doctor.”
Sakura remembered what happened before she passed out. She also feel the pain in her chest has subsided but it is still there.
“Sakura-chan.”
“Doctor, can you tell me what is wrong with my body?”
“When you passed out, I decided to do a Rontgen on your chest area…”
Sakura knows that the paused before the doctor continue to speak isn’t a good thing.
“The result is, you have an acute sickness called Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.”
“Lymphangioleiomyomatosis?”
This is clearly the first time Sakura heard that term. She has heard some weird named illness but this is the first time she heard that word.
“Yes, it was a really rare disease that affects fewer than one out of 1 million people. It only affects women at age 20 to 40 and it was a fatal disease attacking the lung.”
“So, doctor, can you cure me?”
“Sakura-chan… this disease is indeed curable, but it can only be done through lung transplantation. You should have known that lung surgery is very risky and furthermore the number of lung donors is limited. It can easily go past 10 million yen and our hospital won’t cover it.”
Hearing that, Sakura feels as if her life just ended.
“D-D-Doctor, if I didn’t do the surgery, how long can I survive?”
This could be one of the hardest things that are said by the doctor. They don’t want to give a verdict over someone’s life and death but they have to tell the truth.
“It is around two to six months.”
The doctor then looked at her eyes.
“I’m sorry Sakura, there is nothing I can do.”
“Don’t blame yourself doctor, it is not your fault.”
Sakura said that as she shifts her gaze outside of the hospital room to the garden. Is this how her life is going to end?
Sakura remember her childhood. She always hangs around the hospital because her mother is a permanent resident in that place. She only knows that her mother have a cancer on her brain that couldn’t be removed trough surgery twenty years ago. For her who is five years old at that time, she never wants to be apart from her mother. That is why she always dreamed to be a nurse to be able to stay with her mother.
That memory ends 19 years ago after her mother passed out. She also remembers a couple of months before a doctor tell her mother the same verdict: “You can only live two to six months.”
The doctor quietly leaves the room to not disturb Sakura.
“If only there is a miracle that can save me. This all feels like a dream.”
Sakura closes her eyes while saying that but it opened not long after.
“Dream… yes, dream, the dream clinic!”
It may be because of the shock she receive that suddenly she believes in the story that she disregards a couple hours before. Can she believe in a man she thought as a scammer?
With a weak body, she tries to get up and leaves the bed.
“I have to go there. That place might be able to save me. The dream clinic.”