Lying on the operating table was scary. I tried to not talk but the doctors kept asking me questions, "Do you live in Ann Arbor"? "Do you go to school here"? I suppose they wanted to make sure I was coherent enough to know what they where doing to me. Going through Cancer treatment you're going to have to get used to getting stabbed with needles. It's inevitable, I remember one day in particular being punctured in both arms at least four times each before the nurse could get an intravenous line into a vein.
So here I lay on this huge operating table, I've just been wheel-chaired in, I didn't think I needed one but who am I to argue, so It's a huge table with this giant x-ray camera thing attached to it. They put some ointments and assorted liquids on your arm and then cover your chest with a heavy metal jacket to protect you from being radiated. Next comes the drugs, I was so transfixed on this little dot on top of the x-ray camera that I didn't see them stab me with this needle but I felt it and it was huge and it was right in the arm. It feels exactly like a giant bee sting, except after this sting you don't feel any pain, in fact quite the opposite. "Do you want to watch this three feet of tubing being inserted into your heart through your arm above your elbow"? I remember the nurse asking. "Uh, sure how could I refuse that". She pulled the monitor close so I could see the x-ray camera view of the inside of my arm with a three foot tube being threaded into it, all the way up the shoulder and into one of the main heart valves.
It sounds like a terrifying procedure, but honestly if you can find a way to zone out and go to another place mentally it's not as bad as it sounds. The real advantage of having a tube inside of your arm veins going directly to your heart is that they don't have to poke you as many times after that, they can pretty much pump anything they want into you at that point, they'll also take from that port when they need blood tests. So that means less pricks and nobody likes too many pricks.
"Get ready to take him, Jeff just called and they're on their way with the dope"? The other guard said through his mask. I just saw my Father Jeff shot so I wasn't sure if they were trying to mess with my head or what, I went to my zone, I knew if I could remain calm I could get through this.
Just then my Father walks up with huge bags of herbs under each arm. "What's going on here, what are you guys doing with him, that's my son". said Jeff. He grabbed the gun of the guard with his mask still on and hit the unmasked guard over the head with it. The guard stumbled to the ground "I thought you'd like to add him to the Air, he'd be a perfect candidate." said the unmasked guard. "Dad," I groaned. "What"? he replied. "I'm feeling a tad deadish over here, you think you could take care of this snake bite pretty soon sweety cakes"? I said dazedly. He had his guards rush me over to a table where Jolene proceeded to suck the venom out of my arm, they gave me some pills and within minutes I was feeling better.
After resting for a moment I started to hear African music, or was it. "Wait, I know who that is, that's Fela Kuti, I can recognize those rhythms anywhere." I left the medical tent and followed my ears to the music. As I lifted the flap to the tent I was greeted with a cloud of smoke, I was buzzed from the contact within an instant. I moved to the center of the tent where my Father sat in an easy chair holding an Indian peace pipe, "Come, sit down, relax my son" Jeff requested. I obliged and sat down next to Jolene, the other two guards where sitting on bean bag chairs starring at the ceiling. I took a puff off of the pipe and asked Jeff, "So, what's this whole Air thing you guys were talking about, you weren't really going to take my brain were you"? I said. Everyone in the tent starting laughing hysterically including myself for a moment. The one guard collected himself and then said to me "Well sort of, yes, we do still need your brains Thomas, we need it to save the world".
Good writing.
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