Rachel's Best meal

 I thought I was analytical, I believed I decided after taking everything into factor. Impulsivity isn’t natural to me. I like to plan my day and I don’t ever drink or do drugs like the other teenagers my age because I don’t want bad consequence to happen. I plan and I have checklists, I think 3 times before making a decision and I never have an incident where things didn’t go exactly like I planned. But after this decision of mine, I no longer believe that. I no longer believe that you can predict every outcome to your decisions.

*

‘I need to eat. We have been shopping for the past 3 hours Rachel.’ Alex cried. I know she is right we have to eat but the line at the checkout counter is too long and the if we don’t leave now, we might not get a table at my favorite restaurant.

‘okay they are only 2 more people in this line, and after this we will go to your Thai restaurant you love sooo much.’

This made her happy. Obviously. She does anything for Thai and it makes my life easier.

We walked out of the departmental story 30 mins after I made my promise and now, we were walking towards the restaurant which was around the corner. As we made ourselves comfortable in our seats, I went ahead to order my usual dish I order at most Thai restaurants, pad Thai. I have never been here before but the décor was very traditional and soothing. Alex started yapping about her crush on the new English teacher till our food arrived.

I saw the dish in front of me and I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. We both dived into our food and within a few minutes we had even finished! Within 10 minutes we had eaten our food, paid and now were walking out of the restaurant. As we started walking, I suddenly got a very drowsy feeling, my head started to feel heavy. I must have stopped walking because Alex was now asking me what happened. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I try to gasp for air and I failed. Next thing I knew I was collapsing at the side of the road.

*

My eyes slowly opened to see a big room, with multiple beds, people rushing here and there, IV drips and patients flooding the area. I realized I had woken up to the emergency room of a hospital.

‘Hey, how are u feeling? The doctors said u had an allergic reaction to something.’ I heard Alex say. I got up to sit upright and faced to the right to face her.

‘Oh god. The last thing I remember is that I fell. Did they fin-’I stopped as soon as the doctor came.

He was a smart looking doctor in his 30’s and the scrubs were matching his light green eye color.

‘Hey Rachel. We gave u an injection for the allergic reaction and have put you on IV because of weakness. Now we have sent a blood sample to find out what you are allergic to, but I’m more concerned with your fall. Now I would like to do an MRI before discharge you.’

‘Okay but I don’t get how I had an allergic reaction. I must have eaten pad Thai 10 times before.’

‘Did you maybe try out a new place? Could have been they used different ingredients. Someone will come take you to the MRI soon.’ He said and he left to take the elevator.

‘Okay Jesus Christ. Did you call my parents? They need to be here for all the paperwork.’

Alex sat near my leg in the gurney, ‘Yeah they said the will be here soon. But dude you legit scared me today. We are never eating Thai again.’

Okay wow, that’s something coming from Alex.

I kept thinking in my head from what I could had this allergic reaction. I tend to overthink and that’s exactly what I continued to do till nurse Kathy came to take me to the MRI machine.

It’s a very strange experience being in that machine, its not uncomfortable but I wouldn’t want to do it again. I had to lie perfectly still and there was this loud clanking noise. Apparently, a lot of people can’t dot this because they are claustrophobic.

I used the time inside making a list of all the ingredients in the dish trying to figure out the cause for this that deviated my entire day. I had a lot of studying to do and it’s going to disrupt my entire calendar now. Did I mention I overthink and plan everything?

When I was back to my bed in the ER, I saw my parents enter with the most frantic looks ever. Dammit Alex. She probably told them I was dying. They hugged and asked me if I was alright. When they were caught up to whatever happened, they seemed to have calmed down. I gave Alex a look that said, you are going to pay for that later.

My parents finished up the formalities and now we all were just sitting. Me on my bed, my dad and my mom on a chair to the left and Alex to the right.

They doctor came back but this time he wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by an older looking man who looked like he has done this 100 times before and along with him 2 more people who looked like interns.

Why would they need to teach interns about some allergic case?

They wouldn’t.

‘Hey Rachel. This is Dr. Browne, one of the finest neurosurgeons in this country.’

My dad got up from his seat and shaked his hands with both the doctors, ‘I’m sorry but why does she need a neurosurgeon?’

I felt Alex’s hand tightened the grip around my hand. We had been best friends since before birth. Our moms were best friends and that was inherited by us as well.

I felt an array of feelings and that clearly showed on my face because the Dr. Browne looked at me and, ‘Let me explain Rachel.’ He pointed to one of the interns and told her to explain the reports.

The girl was way too excited and spurted out, ‘Cashews saved your life.’

HUH.

What did she just say? I think she might need a neurosurgeon more than me right now.

Dr. Browne rolled his eyes and continued, ‘In essence she is correct, although I wouldn’t have phrased it quite like that. So, our tests showed that you are allergic to cashews and that’s what caused that reaction.’

The younger doctor continued, ‘We talked to the restaurant that you said you went to and confirmed that they had put cashews in today’s food because they didn’t receive the stock for almonds.’

Okay that cleared up somethings. I had to be careful from now on to make sure cashews are not in my food.

‘Okay thanks but I’m still confused how it saved my life.’

Dr. Browne step forward to show the MRI scan, ‘We found something in your MRI. It’s a malignant tumor.’

My mom half crying, ‘what?’

My dad let out a huge breath and Alex was too quiet and she is never quiet.

‘Don’t worry, we actually just got it in the nick of time. You would have never known there was even a tumor if you hadn’t had an MRI. It gives no symptom but it is fatal. We would do a surgery today and take it out.’

‘This saved your life Rachel.’ The doctors left us with that.

I can’t even describe what I’m feeling. I have never been out of words ever; I have never encountered something so unexpected. I’m terrified knowing I have a fatal tumor, relived because we got it and mostly in awe of how we found it.

My parents are happy and kissing my forehead and Alex hasn’t said a word.

I looked at her and said, ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay.’

‘Wow I feel bad, I always underestimated cashews.’

We all laughed at that and with that the mood went back to normal.

*

It’s been a month since my surgery and I am tumor free and completely healthy. This was a turning point in my life was a lot of reasons. Some are obvious but I think the most important one is that it showed me life is mysterious, it is unexpected and I can’t predict everything. In fact, no one can. I have actually even stopped overthinking everything. I make unexpected plans and I enjoy life. Before I was living in a rigid lifestyle just surviving through my life. Now, I’m finally living it.