Excising My Cold Surgeon Wife

Summary

By the time my mother's follow-up scan results came back, she had already been sitting on a hard plastic chair in the lobby of Mercy Oncology Center for three solid hours.

She hadn't dared to call me directly. Instead, she’d sent me a blurry screenshot of her check-in ticket.

When I finally rushed into the clinic waiting area, she was clutching the thick envelope of X-rays from our hometown clinic to her chest, whispering to the receptionist:

"Excuse me, sweetie, is Dr. Regina Ward seeing patients today? I'm her mother-in-law. I was hoping she could just take a quick look at this."