My Grandpa
... this office and it was not really as busy as I had imagined. Just two patients were waiting for the doctor. Every five minutes, we could hear the voice of his receptionist answering the phone. Moreover, this answering was repeated again and again. Nine o’clock passed, the time when we had an appointment with the doctor, but still there was nobody calling my grandfather’s name. So I massaged my grandfather’s shoulder to make him more comfortable while we waited there. My aunt and my sister were talking about what we planed to do after this appointment. I think it is usual that patients often have to wait for the doctor without knowing when it is going to be their turn to see him. Although they are scheduled at the time they wanted to be scheduled, they still have to wait for the doctor if he is late. It just makes me think about how the doctor always charges us for coming late for an appointment but when we have to wait for him for a long time, he seems to ignore the time he had scheduled for us. I think this is unfair, do you not think so? When it was twenty minutes passed nine, his assistant came out and called my grandfather’s name. I stood up quickly and helped my grandpa get up from the chair. I went inside with my grandpa to see the doctor. My aunt and my sister waited in the waiting room. My grandfather and I followed his assistant to the doctor’s room. Her greeting was formal and filled with warmth. And again we waited in the room for five minutes until the doctor arrived. I asked myself what took him so long to come in because I did not see a lot of patients in the waiting room today. My mood started to grow cranky at that moment because we were waiting for the doctor a long time and besides I was starting to get hungry. But I was remained silent and patient without saying anything. I just thought he could have had an emergency with a patient before meeting us and that was why he could not see us on time. My grandpa’s doctor was in his mid-thirties and of medium height. He walked in with a little smile on his lips and said hi to us. He sat down on the chair in front of me and started asking me about how my grandpa was doing lately. My grandpa was sitting next to me holding my hand all the time and tried to listen to his doctor as much as he could because he does not speak English fluently. Then, the doctor started talking about the result of his film x-ray. He diagnosed my grandpa as suffering from renal cancer. I was shocked by what I heard. My head spun and I could not think of anything else. My tears started to fill up in my eyes but I kept silent. I tried to calm myself down and asked the doctor about the treatment. I hoped the answer the doctor gave me was that there were ways to treat my grandpa in dealing with this disease. I felt hopeless when he said my grandfather was in the last stage of renal cancer. First, he said my grandpa would be able to live about three weeks but he said he could be wrong. Grandpa might be able to live longer than that but again not over six months. The doctor asked me if my grandfather understood what he just said to me. Grandpa smiled at him but still held my hand. I answered the doctor that my grandpa understood him but not every detail. I told him I would tell my grandpa more about his illness later. Then, the doctor turned to talk to my grandpa again and asked if he knew he had a cancer and could not live much longer. Suddenly, my eyes could not hold back my tears any longer. I turned around and hugged my grandpa and told him it was okay. Grandpa’s face looked sad and his smile was gone when he saw my tears. I finally stopped weeping because I did not want to make grandpa feel more discomfort. I talked to the doctor about what we should do and then left the room. Grandpa and I walked out to the waiting area to see my aunt and my sister. They asked me what the doctor said about grandpa’s diagnosis. I did not say anything but I thought my aunt could read the result from my face’s expression. When we got into the car, I pretended nothing happened and told everyone that we should have lunch together at Chinese restaurant, my grandpa’s favorite place to eat. Before we had lunch, we stopped by the pharmacy to drop off the prescription for grandpa’s medicati...