Answered Prayers

“I’m sorry we got the tests back, Ava has been diagnosed with..”

*Two months before*

“Ava get your softball things we’re heading out!” yelled my mom.

“I’ll be down there in a minute mom!” I replied.

            I grabbed my bag and hurried down the stairs. I had a game today and, we are facing our neighboring town rivals the Knights. When I get to the fields, I went straight to the dugout to talk to my friends.

It was a nice and sunny day and a perfect day for a softball game. We warm up for a bit, and I felt really tired and exhausted, but I thought I just needed some Gatorade.  The game starts; we are away so we bat first. I go up to home plate, and I hit the ball into center field I start running the bases as fast as I can.

I collapse while running around second base; I could hardly breathe. Usually since I’m in good shape, I could destroy running around these bases. I looked down at my body to see some blood on my elbow, but that’s about it. I instantly think something might be up. I still get up and walk to the dugout. I didn’t play for the rest of the game.

Over the next two week or so, I started to sweat and wake up with a high temperature in the mornings. Also my elbow wasn’t healing. I had this for awhile maybe a month or so before I finally decided to talk to my dad and mom about it. My mom set up an appointment for me.

After school, we usually have softball practice. I was tired throughout the school day, but thought I should go anyway. When practice started I felt fine, but as practiced went on I became more and more exhausted. I just blamed this on the heat. It was my turn to bat, and I walked up to home plate.

I hit the ball to third, and took off towards first. My first base coach told me to steal the next pitch. I took off leaving first base in the dust, and turning second after the girl missed the catch. I hit the corner of third because of being so tired and exhausted I couldn’t catch myself. I did a somersault straight into a pole that held up our metal dug outs. My coach instantly called my parents after she saw the blood pouring from the left side of my head.

When my parents showed up I was knocked out cold from hitting the pole. They rushed me to Children’s Hospital’s Emergency Room. They looked at me and said I would need stitches and then a little break from softball. They asked me what happened and why I fell. I told them about what happened earlier that day, and also talked about how I have been exhausted for a while now. They said I just probably needed more sleep and then I would be fine.

The next week nothing changed and my mom took me to the doctors for an appointment. The doctor started with the normal tests: checking ears and nose, reflexes, and other basic stuff. The doctor was going to take one last test which was blood. “We rarely test this, but something may have been going on in Ava’s blood stream,” the doctor delivered to my mom, Abigail.  The doctors drew my blood and took it to their fancy machines. They came back and told us they may have some bad news. They said I might be really sick, but they are not sure yet. They told me to come in a week again to test.

My whole family came in the next week to support me. This involved my family: my dad, Craig, my mom, Abigail, and my sister, Crystal. The doctors did the same things as last time. This time more doctors came into the room. Doctor Jacobson told my family and I, “I’m sorry we got the tests back, Ava had been diagnosed with leukaemia. We’re guessing that it’s acute versus chronic because the cancer has been growing so fast.  

My parents started to cry, and I started to bawl. My parents asked what I can and can’t do to stop the speed of the cancer. The doctors said there’s really nothing that you can do to slow it, but to go through chemo and other recovery tests. I had to go to school still for awhile my friends helped me through school. I got a lot of questions I just didn’t know how to answer. This made me very scared. I didn’t know if I could do the things I used to love to do. “You can’t play softball, run, play soccer, and other physical activities for a while”, the doctors ordered.

I fell into a depression right away. My family became more worried and started to not go out with friends more often. I started to feel like it was my fault so I tried to start being happy. After awhile I had to go in and get my hair shaved off. I started to gain more friends that started to help me. I started to get happy again our family started to go back to normal we went out more, talked more, and I also even went back to school. I still went to softball  practices and tried to do as much as I can, which wasn’t much. I had another doctor’s appointment, when I showed up we talked and did the normal things.

The doctors came back in with the results they said,”The results of the test came back for Ava, it’s getting worse.”

“Ava has about two months to live”, replied the doctor in a tone that almost broke me.