Bear joined me on the bed, scooping me up so I was sitting in his lap. “Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks,” he said, as if he could read my mind. “If you’re more comfortable here, then we’ll do the call from here.”
I nodded as I relaxed into him. All my guys joined me on the bed and Henry clicked a button to join the video call.
I held my breath as I waited for Dr. Ash. With every minute that ticked by, I felt the urge to slam the laptop down and throw it out of the window.
The screen refreshed, and there she was.
“Good afternoon, Westin,” she said. “How’re you feeling after the biopsy?”
“Fine,” I responded. “I was a little sore afterward, but it’s fine now.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it. Well, I’ll jump right to it. As you know, we have your pathology back. We’ve determined that your tumor is a Diomed tumor.”
I glanced at Liam to gauge his reaction, but his face remained furrowed.
“You likely haven’t heard of them because they’re very rare tumors—about two in a million,” Dr. Ash said.
“Is it benign?” Bear growled.
“Yes and no,” Dr. Ash said.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Bear’s chest vibrated against my back.
Dr. Ash looked unfazed by his outburst. “Diomeds are classified as intermediately malignant. They do not metastasize through the blood like typical cancers, meaning this tumor will not kill you.” She spoke the words slowly and clearly.
Gray exhaled heavily as he squeezed my hand. I tried to process the doctor’s words. I wasn’t going to die.
“So you can remove it?” Liam asked.
“That’s a bit more tricky,” Dr. Ash said. “These tumors are what’s called locally aggressive, and they often behave in unpredictable ways. Surgery is not recommended because they have a very high recurrence rate after surgical removal. When they recur, they typically come back even more aggressively.”
Silence hung in the room as we processed her words.
“So that means I can’t get rid of it?” My stomach twisted.
“There are a couple of different treatment approaches we can take,” she said. “The symptoms you’re having—the pain, nausea, dizziness—are due to your tumor pressing against nerves in your neck. I spoke to several colleagues who have experience with this tumor type, and there is one treatment method that has shown some success in killing the tumors completely. It’s an aggressive course of chemotherapy where you’d receive twenty rounds of chemo over four weeks. About forty percent ofpatients have seen complete and permanent tumor death after that treatment.”
The word chemotherapy hung in the air, twisting my insides.
“What if that doesn’t work?” I asked.
“Other chemotherapies have shown success in keeping these tumors stable—stopping their growth or even shrinking them a bit. You would receive chemo on a more relaxed schedule—approximately once a month, which would allow you to continue living your life during treatment.”
“And how long would that course of treatment last?” Liam asked.
“It’s impossible to know,” Dr. Ash said. “Each Diomed responds differently. For some people, six to nine months of chemo is sufficient to shrink the tumor. Others stay in treatment longer.”
“How much longer?” I asked.
“If the initial aggressive treatment doesn’t eliminate the tumor completely, this is something that will require lifelong management. But again, the good news is that it is not fatal. I am also referring you to an oncological pain management specialist to treat your other symptoms. We can make you so much more comfortable than you’ve been.”
Lifelong.
Lifelong.
“Some patients choose to skip the intense chemo option,” Dr. Ash continued. “It’s completely up to you. It’s a short course of treatment, but it can be very hard on the body.”
“But it’s the only chance of an actual cure, right?” I asked.
