Chapter 33
Season 5, Episode 23-24
I wish I could say life with a new sister-in-law has been fun. I love her, don't get me wrong, but the only thing it's been so far is stressful and sleep-depriving. If I wasn't already watching Izzie like a hawk before she married my brother, I'm sure as hell doing it now. I'm not going to let Alex lose anyone else and I can't lose anyone else myself. This family we've made, I can't lose it, not a single piece of it.
Despite my constant worrying, Izzie has been responding well to the treatment. Weekly chemo and radiation are slowly shrinking the mets. Unfortunately, last week we discovered another tumour in her brain. Derek has been working tirelessly all week, trying to come up with the perfect solution. When I'm paged to Izzie's room, I'm assuming he's finally come up with one.
"You want to remove her hippocampus?" Dr. Swender, Izzie's oncologist, asks in disbelief after Derek presents his approach for surgery. All of us are gathered in her room, Alex by her side, holding her small hand. I've positioned myself on the other side of Alex, a silent support system.
"One of them. It's a common procedure for seizure patients." Derek defends his plan confidently but I'm not sure how I feel about this surgery myself. The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning, without it there's not much left of Izzie.
"Removing her hippocampus could compromise her memory, her speech. She wouldn't be able to practice medicine anymore." Dr. Swender continues to object and I watch as Izzie looks between the two, features unwavering.
"I have performed this surgery hundreds of times," Derek says, putting his hands on his hips defensively.
"On cancer patients?" Swender asks and I notice Derek falter.
"No, but it's-" He starts but Izzie speaks up for the first time.
"If you do the surgery, I could lose my memory?" She asks and Derek hesitates before nodding slightly.
"It's unlikely, but it's possible." He answers her honestly.
"And if you don't do the surgery?" Izzie asks, the weight of the decision becoming heavier on her shoulders with every piece of information given to her.
"We could shrink the tumour with IL-2." Swender tries to reassure her of her other options but Izzie doesn't let her continue.
"If the tumour doesn't kill me first." She mumbles and Derek nods in agreement.
"Why take the chance?" He says but Swender continues to argue.
"Have you even done a WADA test to see how her memory would be affected?" She asks, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Putting her brain to sleep and asking her to remember a bunch of flashcards is not an accurate assessment of the post-surgical outcome," Derek says before he and Swender continue to argue back and forth. I look over at Alex to see him looking down at his hand holding Izzie's quietly. I put my hand on the back of his shoulder for comfort, but when I look at Izzie, her eyes are closed.
She has been telling me her hallucinations have been getting worse. Before she used to only see Denny but now everything she looks at is altered to fit her tumour's reality. I notice her lean her head back on the pillow as is the yelling increases, no doubt making her head hurt.
"I am her oncologist!" Swender argues to try and end their debate but Derek scoffs.
"And I am her surgeon!" He states before I step forward.
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Fanfiction**author currently on hiatus** Audrey Karev has worked her whole life to make it mean something. When she is finally accepted into a surgical internship program, she doesn't expect to get in a car accident on the way to her first day. This story fol...
