OMG - Is this NORMAL? (Tsukiko Aoki)

[Lucy Holiday]

Lucy paced the length of the crowded waiting room as she waited for her name to be called at the pediatrician's office. The impatient teen's black and white polka dotted flip flops slapped loudly against the soles of her feet with each step. The weather had been just warm enough for her to wear them without getting lectured. The lady sitting at the registration desk eyed her with an air of annoyance. Really? With all the loud, obnoxious rug rats crying and whining and fighting over the waiting room toys - her flip flops were what the lady chose to stare at?

Since the lady had always been more than kind to her in the past, Lucy decided to give her a break. Must just be a bad day. With a heavy sigh, Lucy sank into the chair closest to her. The receptionist immediately smiled in relief and threw a wink Lucy's way. Lucy returned her smile and giggled lightly. Lulu's chocolate brown eyes quickly darted away and looked for a distraction. It was very unusual for Lucy to be this anxious for her turn. She usually got so engrossed in playing with the little kids that the time flew by. But not today. Today she had to get into Dr. Aoki's office before...OH NO, TOO LATE!

Lucy's eyes flew wide and her hand clamped tightly over her mouth as her stomach rolled. Now matter how desperately she tried to control her breathing, Lucy could feel it rising. Her hand slipped away from her mouth and her perfectly painted lips parted. "Buuuuuurrrrrpp." The petite girl let out a belch loud enough to make a trucker whistle. Blushing a vivid pink from cheek to cheek, Lucy sank down into her chair and muttered a timid "excuse me." All around her kids from birth to teen burst out laughing and giggling. Several of the male persuasion let out appreciative cheers. Typically the prankster loved the sound of overwhelming laughter - but not this time. This time was just plain...gross!

Lucy had been letting out the epic belches ever since she started her new treatment. Not to mention what was going on at the other end. Thankfully those were silent. Lucy was able to erase the deadly part by using her skills in olfactory illusions. Yes, Lucy's farts smelled like roses. But the whole gastro air issue was driving her nuts! This couldn't be normal - could it? That was exactly what Lucy planned to ask Dr. Aoki!

[Tsukiko Aoki]

The office had been packed since she'd walked in, and showed no signs of slowing down. Not that this was a surprise; she'd known her schedule was full, beyond full even. If Dr. Veeder hadn't been equally swamped she might have been tempted to ask for some help.

Instead she dutifully saw each child, reassuring the parents of the infants and toddlers, answering questions, reading charts, instructing the nurses on which injections were for who, doling out prescriptions. One child after another, from infancy to practically adult.

She was just leading a young man (a child, really, although he insisted that at twelve he was an adult) and his mother back to the waiting room, reminding them to schedule any follow up appointments at the front desk and handing the child a lollipop that, despite his insistence on being treated as a grown up he didn't reject but instead snatched quickly, clutching it to his chest as if afraid she might take it from him, when she heard the belching.

Oh, dear. Someone was having some very loud problems today.

She nudged the door open, waving at the boy and his mother as they left and then calling out, "Lucy Holiday?"She spied the dark-haired girl, who looked more cowed than was usual for her, and waved her over.

[Lucy Holiday]

Gross humor just wasn't her thing. Well, Lucy didn't mind some types of gross - but bodily functions crossed the line. That was her brother Noah's area. He was the whoopee cushion fan. The pink that had spread all the way to the tips of her ears began to fade as the laughter died down. Lucy snatched up the Mad comic lying on the table beside her and hid behind it. She was so very tempted to use her abilities to grow it big enough to hide every single inch of her. But...no. Not a good idea. Dr. Aoki was meta friendly, but that didn't mean everyone in the waiting room was.

For now she would settle for hiding her face and carefully controlling her stomach. It was hard for her not to snap at the pair of preteen boys that kept begging her to do it again. Lucy lowered the magazine and shot them a death stare. She was about to open her mouth and insert her foot when she heard a familiar voice call her name. The two boys whined in protest. "Ha!" Lulu stuck her tongue out at them with a scrunch of her nose before heading toward the familiar pediatrician.

The brief walk was punctuated by the sound of her flip flops slapping against her soles once again. Lucy shot a sheepish smile toward the receptions before giving the doctor the same. She really didn't know why they were so noisy today. "Hi, Doc. You didn't hear that by any chance, did ya?"

Lucy's hands slid into the pocket of her worn out blue jeans as she stood bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. As usual, her lower lip was being worried between her teeth.

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko wasn't the least bit surprised to see Lucy sticking her tongue out at the teenage boys, though what they had done to deserve it she had no idea; that didn't stop her from being absurdly proud of the young girl for having the guts to stand up to them. At least, that was how she preferred to see it; if she started claiming sticking tongues out at boys was immature she would have to stop doing it to Rome, and where would be the fun in that?

An eyebrow lifted at the embarrassed question and the implicit confession there in. "So that was you, was it?" She made a mental note of that; while it wasn't unusual for people to release gas loudly, it also wasn't something she'd heard from this particular patient yet, and it was a potential side effect for both ailments and medications.

"The green room to the left," She announced, shepherding her charge in that direction. "So how is school treating you? Doing well in all your classes?" Small talk first, to foster as much of a sense of relaxation as was possible in a hospital. They would get to the point of this visit soon enough.

"Do you have any grand plans for the holidays?" That question covered Christmas as well as Thanksgiving; it was all coming up far, far too soon.

[Lucy Holiday]

The tips of Lucy's ears turned pink as she greeted Dr. Aoki. Part of her was hoping the pretty doctor hadn't heard the performance. The other part of her was hoping that she did so that she wouldn't have to say much when it came time to talk about what was wrong. "Yeah. Guilty as charged." A sheepish grin stayed plastered on her face as she confessed.

For once, Lucy didn't have a million jokes to crack as she shuffled off to the green room. It was one of Lucy's favorites - covered with a tree house mural that showed happy kids playing and climbing. Lucy loved the tree house room. She smirked at the doctor's question and felt a bit of her cockiness creep back in. "Making straight A's as usual! The teachers get mad at me." With a shrug, Lucy paused for a split second before explaining. "They don't understand how I fall asleep in class and still pass." Lucy shrugged again. She wasn't a genius or anything, she just had a knack for learning.

Lucy walked into the room and hopping onto the doctor's swivel stool. She spun around a few times as she humored the small talk. "We're doing the usual family stuff. Food, parade and volunteering at the soup kitchen for Thanksgiving. Christmas we're going to the cabin. Oh! But mom said that I get to pick where we volunteer for Christmas. Dad and Noah are pouting 'cause they think I'll pick something girlie." Getting that dizzy sensation in her head, Lucy stopped spinning and grinned up at the doctor with a punch drunk look on her face. "So what are you gonna do for your holidays?"

[Tsukiko Aoki]

The affirmative response was met with a mental note to look over Lucy's medications again as well as to inquire into whether or not this was a frequent occurrence in recent days.

"Straight As! Good for you!" Kiko had also been an A student, and she encouraged good grades and study habits in her wards. Some of the children were more like her sister Hinata, bold and loud class clowns who didn't see the need for study, but Kiko remained adamant that good grades opened up opportunities as adults. Of course, Lucy was every bit the class clown from what her doctor saw, but that she also cared about her grades made Kiko proud.

"Tsk, helping those less fortunate than you is never girly." She intoned seriously. She always loved to hear that families volunteered together; it buoyed her faith in humanity.

"I'll be working." She admitted with a laugh, "But I've convinced my parents and younger sister to meet me the week after for Thanksgiving, and I'll probably have a mini feast of leftovers with my boyfriend later."

She gestured toward the scales, then, "Off with the shoes. Let's see how much you weigh."

[Lucy Holiday]

Despite the embarrassment, Lucy was relieved that Dr. Aoki had heard her. She was glad to get the announcement over with without any unneeded drama. Of course they hadn't really talked about it, yet - but at least it was already known. It would make it so much easier to deal with when Dr. Aoki asked her what was wrong.

Dr. Aoki was an expert at small talk. She knew all the right things to say and all the right things to ask. She knew exactly how to distract Lucy from her problems and get her talking freely. The praise of her good grades gave Lucy a surge of pride. The petite brunette grinned from ear to ear. "Thanks. I bet you used to make really good grades, too. Hey, did they give As and Bs in med school, or is it all on a point system?" Lucy thought letters were more encouraging than the point system. A 4.0 just didn't sound very high in her opinion. It would be much more impressive if they went on a 10 point scale.

In a blink of an eye, Lucy went from pondering grades to thinking about the holidays as she spun on the little stool. That was another awesome thing about Dr. Aoki. She didn't lecture Lucy for acting like a kid. Sure she was 17, but Lucy still had a lot of kid left in her and she was determined not to let cancer force her to grow up. The punch drunk look was marked by a wrinkle of her nose as Dr. Aoki explained that she would be working. That sounded like it would suck. The slight frown on her face erased quickly at the mention of the doctor's plan. "That's cool. You can make your own little holiday. I bet your boyfriend is hot."

Giggling turned to groaning as the petite doctor pointed to the dreaded scales. Lucy was hoping she'd get to skip that part. No such luck. Begrudgingly, she slipped off her flip flops and padded over to the scale. Lucy took a deep breath before stepping up on the cold platform. "Ok, Doc. What's the damage this time?" Last time Lucy had gained 5 pounds! Stupid steroids!

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Tsukiko couldn't help but grin at Lucy's assessment of her grades. "I was a good student." She confessed. "You don't get into med school by being a slacker." Health was an important field, and while there were parts of the country that were desperate for trained medical personnel, they weren't desperate enough to compromise people's health by accepting students who weren't willing to work hard. "And I had the joy and privilege of being graded on a point system." It wasn't as bad as it sounded, though; you either passed or you didn't, and that was simple enough.

"Rome works at Maddock, you may have seen him around." She commented as the girl spun around, making yet more accurate (in Kiko's mind) assumptions. "Doctor Roman Tilford." He also worked with the kids, though he was concerned with their mental health rather than the physical. "Health doesn't take a holiday, so we have to be available. But I'll get other days off." And holiday pay was definitely a bonus.

She shifted the little weights at the top of the scale until they were even, then scribbled down a number, announcing to the young woman what, as she said, the damage was. She certainly sympathized; weight was a sensitive topic, particularly for women, and having a stranger know when you were gaining or losing or over or underweight could be embarrassing.

But it was something she, as Lucy's doctor, needed to keep track of.

"You can sit now." She nodded toward the chair in the corner, carved to match the decor, "And I'll take your blood pressure. Then we can discuss why you're here."

[Lucy Holiday]

There was no surprise on Lucy's face when the doctor confirmed that she had been a good student. Of course she had heard a few stories about doctors that had been not so hot students at first, but redeemed themselves somewhere before college. Those stories were pretty rare. She nodded in agreement with Dr. Aoki's statement about slackers. "Really? I dunno. I wish they'd use higher numbers or something." Lucy gave a shrug. It really was a silly little hang up.

The name Roman Tilford spun around in her mind and struck a familiar note. "That name sound familiar! Is he a therapist or something?" Lucy stopped for a moment and tapped her lower lip. "I think he's the one the oncologist says I can go see if I need to talk to someone about ... you know....everything." Her voice was loaded with meaning as Lucy deliberately avoided the word cancer Lucy was by no means in denial, but she had made up her mind not to make cancer the whole focus of her life - and that meant only giving it a name when necessary. It was sortta like the whole Voldemort thing in the Harry Potter books!

Lucy sighed softly as Dr. Aoki explained why she would be working. "You got that right. Crap doesn't leave you alone just because it's the holidays." A bit of bitterness crept in her voice that time. Her crap meant that she had to take a shot every day of her holiday break. Between the shots, weight gain, tummy problems and hair loss - Lucy was getting very tired of dealing with her crap. Even her ears cringed as she waited for the doctor to announce her weight. Once she did, a small smile of relief spread across her face and she gave a little hoot of victory. "Only one pound gained! Ha! Take that, steroids!"

The small victory stayed with her as she hopped down and made her way back to the chair. Lucy held her arm out with a grin. "Here ya go." The grin was a slightly nervous one as she realized that it was almost time for her to spill the beans about her issues.

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko shrugged lightly, echoing Lucy's own gesture at the stated preference. "The powers that be never asked my opinion on that. I really don't know who decided to grade that way but..." But she didn't have any input there and so she had simply accepted it. It had never occurred to her as something to like or dislike; it was the way that things were.

Her expression turned to one of delight as her patient recognized Rome's name. "He is." She confirmed. He was wonderful with children, perhaps because he hadn't mentally matured past them.

Yet.

She held out hope.

"He's easy to talk to." She assured Lucy. The girl put on a brave face, but the benefits of having someone to talk to where monumental. Stoicism and self-reliance were admirable, but sometimes having another person for emotional support was necessary.

The edge of bitterness in Lucy's voice only served to illustrate her point. Well, mental point. She knew that some of the other doctors had already politely suggested that Ms. Holiday needed therapy so she would keep that to herself.

For the moment.

She velcroed the armband around Lucy's upper arm, squeezing her end so that it tightened as much as it could before letting it go, watching as the numbers on the screen of the blood pressure reader flickered upwards.

"Looks good." She announced, jotting the numbers down on her chart before unstrapping her patient.

And now for the actual reason for the visit.

"So what brings you in off your regular schedule?"

[Lucy Holiday]

Lucy's mind reacted like a cat sniffing out a bag of catnip as Dr. Aoki confirmed the connection between her and Dr. Tilford. Lucy had actually been referred to several therapists and had refused to follow through with any of them. Even at school her teachers and trainers kept encouraging her to at least talk to the counselors. Lucy insisted that she preferred her online support group. It wasn't until this very moment that she began to consider talking to a therapist face to face. A very hot therapist had just gotten endorsed by her favorite physician. That had to count for something, right? Let's face it - dating someone is the biggest vote of confidence ever. Oh, the brilliance of teen logic!

As she slipped her flip flops back on, Lucy nodded. "Yeah. That's what I've heard. He must be pretty cool if you put up with dating him and all." The building interest could be heard in Lucy's voice as she spoke. Lucy respected Dr. Aoki's taste in people. She was the one that helped the Holiday family put together Lucy's whole team of oncologists and meta healers and they had all turned out to be pretty cool. Maybe it would be a good idea to talk to someone. Maybe it would help out with some of the bitterness that Lucy felt building.

She didn't mean to let it slip. She didn't mean to let the frustration seep into her voice, but it was getting harder and harder to hide. At least her weight gain seemed to be slowing down. Lucy clung to that small victory. Her small feet swung merrily as she sat to get her vitals taken. Once the cuff began to constrict around her arm, the feet stopped swinging so that Dr. Aoki could get an accurate reading. Lucy playfully filled her cheeks with an air bubble as the cuff expanded, then let it out as the cuff deflated. Unfortunately, playing around with air in her mouth was not a good idea at the moment.

As she let the air out, she felt another belch rising. Talk about perfect timing. At the same moment that Dr. Aoki asked the dreaded question, Lucy's body prepared a demonstration. Unable to reply at the moment, Lucy just sat there and gave Dr. Aoki a look of panic. Once again, Lucy's eyes flew wide and she clamped her hands over her mouth. Behind her laced fingers a very loud burrrrrrp echoed. Once it was over, Lucy let out a deflated sigh. "Ugh. That. It's been happening all...the...time." Lucy's reply was laced with embarrassment and all the normal teen angst that a young girl typically felt when it came to body functions.

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko smiled at Lucy's burgeoning enthusiasm at the idea of talking to Rome; good, she hoped the girl would follow through on that. She thought it would do her some good to talk to someone about her problems, particularly someone who was trained to be emotionally supportive in ways that other people weren't.

"I'm fortunate in that most of the time it isn't putting up with him."

She didn't bother trying to mask her affection for him; she was entirely biased, and she didn't care who knew. If she didn't believe he was competent at his job she would never have asked him out in the first place; that had been the first thing she had noticed about him.

"Ah." She murmured as her question was answered by a demonstration, followed by Lucy's explanation. "Have you had any other side effects?"

This definitely sounded like a steroids problem, though not a big one. At least it wasn't causing blood pressure problems; increased bodily functions weren't dangerous, merely annoying and embarrassing. "Are you menstruating regularly? Had any vision problems? An increase in your appetite?"

[Lucy Holiday]

Dr. Aoki's open gushing over her boyfriend brought a smirk to Lucy's lips. That was just too cute in that grown up sort of way. Lucy chuckled at the woman's reply. She'd never had a boyfriend that she didn't feel like she spent a lot of time putting up with. Which was exactly why they were all exes. Well, that and a few other million reasons. Sounded like the doc was lucky. Lucy kept her mouth shut and dropped the subject. She was glad to have the doc's endorsement, but she didn't want the conversation to turn to appointment talk.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the subject changed on its own. Lucy was both embarrassed and relieved by her body's demonstration. Immediately, her stomach felt less swollen and achy. Poor Lucy. The embarrassment was only beginning. Lucy set aside her mortification and plowed forward with answering the doctor's question. "Yeah. My stomach feels really swollen and tight a lot. It usually gets better after I do that...or... you know - let the air out another way." Of course Lucy meant fart, but she just couldn't bring herself to say it.

The other questions caused her to think a bit harder. "My eyes are fine. I'm eating like a horse most of the time. When I'm not gagging from the chemo." Lucy paused for a moment and shook her head. "But now that I think about it, I should've started my flow last week." Lucy bit her lip and looked up at Dr. Aoki with a hint of worry in her eyes. The oncologists had warned her about this. They had said something about preserving her eggs just in case.

[Tsukiko Aoki]

Kiko murmured sympathetically as Lucy explained her symptoms. These confirmed her hypothesis; not that she needed much grounds to base this on as this was within the realm of her experience. She wished it wasn't, if only because she wished that nobody need go through any of this.

But as cancer was an unavoidable reality, she did her best to help those who suffered it have it disrupt their lives as little as possible.

"Well, Lucy," She began as she scribbled down these most recent symptoms onto Lucy's chart. "It sounds like what you have here is a reaction to the steroid's. It's not uncommon, so don't worry. It just means we're going to have to try giving them to you in a different manner and see if your body will react better to them that way."

It was a wonderful truth about modern medicine that for so many afflictions there were multiple medicines available, so even if something had unfortunate side effects (or even didn't work at all!) there were others one could try.

And even changing the manner in which the drugs were given, or the dosage, could do wonders.

[Lucy Holiday]

Lucy put her game face on and listened intently as Dr. Aoki began her explanation. Lucy took her health seriously and thought of herself as a student learning one of the most important lessons in life - how to take care of yourself. Hearing that it was the steroids was actually a bit of relief. Lucy knew that those could be changed. The chemo, however, was set in stone. The petite teen nodded as she took in the doctor's advice. "That makes sense."

Sensing that it was time to play 20 questions, followed by instruction - Lucy dug in her back pocket to prepare. Out of the tight jeans, Lucy pulled a small zebra striped note pad. On the front the word hope was repeated in various fonts and bright colors. The little notepad was Lucy's guide to cancer. It's where she kept tract of all the doctor's advice, instructions and lectures.

Pulling a tiny purple pen out of a slit on the side, Lucy gave Dr. Aoki a nod. "Alright Doc. Lay it on me. What ya got in mind?"