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    The Chemo Affair: when cancer strikes a marriage
    The Chemo Affair: when cancer strikes a marriage
    The Chemo Affair: when cancer strikes a marriage
    Ebook93 pages1 hour

    The Chemo Affair: when cancer strikes a marriage

    By Gary Lewis

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    About this ebook

    “The gastroenterologist said she’d found two cancers and, smiling cheerfully through a sedated haze, Will thanked her and beamed up at Faith wondering why she seemed so perturbed.”

    Told he has advanced bowel cancer Will begins extensive chemotherapy.

    At the same time Faith discovers a major misappropriation of funds by a trusted colleague in the organization she directs.

    At first Will thinks the chemo isn’t going to be too bad, but he’s wrong. The side-effects are awful and not just physically but psychologically and emotionally.

    Faith’s wrong, too, underestimating the stressful impact Will’s chemo is going to have upon her at work and at home.

    Weary and dejected, feeling useless and lost in a chemo-fog preoccupied with survival, Will tires of telling Faith he’s sorry.

    Forever anxious and exhausted, feeling as if she’s being taken for granted and overwhelmed by work and caring for Will, Faith resents having to feel guilty.

    Inevitably misunderstandings develop and unresolved antagonisms once masked by youth, career and family resurface to push the relationship to the brink.

    When Will’s treatment and Faith’s employment end with a disturbing twist, they face an uncertain future.

    Was their faith in chemotherapy warranted? Will they survive The Chemo Affair?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateOct 15, 2017
    ISBN9781543915051
    The Chemo Affair: when cancer strikes a marriage

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      Book preview

      The Chemo Affair - Gary Lewis

      © Gary Lewis all rights reserved 2017

      Print ISBN: 978-1-54391-504-4

      eBook ISBN: 978-1-54391-505-1

      This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The Chemo Affair is fiction, all characters are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons living or deceased is purely coincidental.

      For James Freeman (c1767-1830)

      Faith came singing into my room

      And other guests took flight.

      Grief and Anxiety; Fear and Gloom

      Sped out into the night.

      I wondered that such peace could be,

      But Faith said gently, ‘Don’t you see?

      They can never live with me?’

      E. Cheney

      Contents

      The Chemo Affair

      Acknowledgements

      The Real James Freeman

      The gastroenterologist said she’d found two cancers and, smiling cheerfully through a sedated haze, Will thanked her and beamed up at Faith wondering why she seemed so perturbed.

      Faith knew something was wrong the minute they rang but never expected this. ‘There must be a mistake,’ she said, stunned. ‘Will’s very fit and strong. He’s careful with his diet, exercises and doesn’t smoke. He’s a modest drinker ….’

      But when the doctor showed them pictures of a mushroom-shaped protuberance in Will’s colon and another spread like a rust along the wall, fear gripped her heart: the prospect of life without Will!

      ***

      The biopsy confirmed two cancers, one irregular in shape, pierced like a sieve with small holes lined by active cells invading into tissue and blood vessels, the other associated with enlarged lymph nodes, suggesting local tumour spread.

      The surgeon wanted to remove all his large-bowel but, as the tumours were confined to the splenic flexure and descending colon on the left side, Will thought that was too radical. ‘Can’t the rest be left alone?’ he asked the doctor, adding cynically, ‘Maybe the idea has more to do with the hospital’s bottom line than mine, you know: wheel the old bloke in, whip the bowel out, wheel him off – next!’

      ‘Will,’ the surgeon said kindly, ‘reconnecting half a bowel to the rectum is a difficult operation,’ illustrating this with pen and paper. ‘Nerve centres, vital organs and major blood vessels need be traversed. The slightest nick,’ he said, suddenly making a slip of the pen, ‘can cause a catastrophic injury.’ Then, with a wry smile suggesting he’d like to stick one up the bean counters, too, added, ‘I’ll wait until I open you up to decide. Much of your large bowel remains unchartered territory, you know. The colonoscope couldn’t reach there because of the tumours.’

      Studying the face of this man who literally held his life in his hands, luminous with intelligence, Will glanced at Faith, shared a trusting smile, signed documents and a date for the operation was set.

      ***

      It was hard for Will to know who to tell and who not to; difficult enough for him to grasp let alone anyone else. And he didn’t want to worry anyone unduly, knowing from friends’ experience how ‘cancer babble’ came to dominate everything, inviting unsolicited advice, unwanted opinions and pity for a disease you had but they didn’t. He considered not telling the children but Faith insisted they had a right to know and would find out anyway and be hurt, even angry, if they didn’t.

      ***

      The kids couldn’t believe it. One, the least expected, was tearful and emotional. Another cross-examined him on every detail. The third sat quietly taking it all in. Will knew they were dealing with their own fears and anxieties and unsure how to react and he, weary from many sleepless nights, sounded vague and evasive, as if he was making it up, which in a way he was because it was all still so unreal and he’d had no occasion to use such ‘terminal’ language with the family before.

      ‘Are you going to have chemotherapy, dad?’ one asked.

      Fearing chemotherapy almost as much as the disease itself, Will replied, ‘I’ll wait until I know what stage the cancers have reached before deciding. The surgeon says he’ll try to save enough of the bowel so I don’t have to wear a stoma.’ And pointing to his stomach, added, ‘Everything depends upon Thomas and Ken.’

      ‘Thomas and Ken?’ they asked together.

      ‘Your father believes naming the cancers helps focus his resistance,’ Faith explained, ‘and there’s medical evidence supporting this view. You remember the malignant melanoma a few years back? That was Debby, after an objectionable colleague.’ The kids knew exactly who Debby was. Her bullying had caused their father much anguish. ‘Now the bowel cancers are Thomas and Ken. Thomas, Ken and Debby. Silly undergraduate nonsense if you ask me but if your dad thinks it’s helpful I’m not going to argue with him.’

      ‘Are you going to join a support group, Mum?’ the quiet one asked.

      ‘No, I have no wish to be swapping stories of pain, sickness, death and isolation, reinforcing a victim mentality in my view. And I don’t have time, anyway, with dramas at work.’

      Everyone, Will included, immediately wanted to know about the dramas at work but Faith changed the subject. ‘And in case anyone has any bright ideas about live-in help, we don’t need that either. I’ll be retiring in a few months and can look after dad, myself.’ And she added with emphasis, ‘We can manage by ourselves, as we’ve always done.’ The kids glanced at each other wondering if there was a hidden agenda in there but nothing more was said.

      After the family departed for all points of the compass a sense of dread fell upon the house, Faith and Will both struck by how utterly alone they now were, left to deal with their sinister home invaders, Thomas and Ken.

      ***

      Will was arranged like a roast turkey on the operating table: supine, head lowered, legs raised, bent and separated. The surgeon inserted a urinary

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