Suffering

"Ugh! My head hurts!"
"Do you have a headache, or did you hit it getting into the car again?"
Lisa was rubbing her temple where the pain was growing. This was the second day in a row that she had woken up with a migraine. Normally she never got migraines. Maybe she needed to go get her eyes checked. Francie was chuckling, probably remembering the time last week when Lisa had hit her head on the door frame and almost blacked out. Personally, it had not been that funny.
Francie drove on, talking animatedly about her date last night with her boyfriend. Lisa could barely hear her over the pounding in her head. Maybe she would just skip out on school and spend the afternoon sleeping in the lounge.

The day had ended up dragging on. Lisa had taken a short nap on the couch in the school lounge, but awoke with the migraine still. She was looking forward to getting home and taking some aspirin and going back to bed. Why was she so tired?
The second her alarm went off, Lisa sat up in bed. And then she wished she hadn't. A sharp pain spread throughout her forehead and top of her head. This headache still wasn't gone!
"How did you sleep, Lisa?" her mom asked from the stove, making pancakes. Thursday was pancake day.
"Not very well. My head has been hurting a lot."
"Didn't you have a headache on Tuesday too?"
"Yeah..." Lisa contemplated whether she should add yesterday to that mix too. She could see where this was going, fueling her mother's concern.
"If you've been having headaches so frequently, maybe we should go to the doctor."
"No, mom. I'm fine. I'll just take some more aspirin before I go to school."

The aspirin didn't help. Lisa spent the day in class miserable, barely able to focus on a word the teacher was saying. Again she came home and went straight to bed without saying a word to her mother.
"Mom, where's the aspirin? Are we all out?"
"Is your head still hurting?" her mother turned to her with a furrowed, worried brow.
She took some time, thinking about whether she should tell the truth. She could barely make that decision without wanting to stab a knife into her forehead to get rid of the pain.
"Yeah..." *sigh*
"Honey, aspirin will only numb the pain for awhile. Maybe we should go to the doctor to see why you've been having so many headaches."
"No...I'm fine, mom. It doesn't hurt that bad. It's just a dull pain now, almost like it's going away." Flat out lie. Oops.
"Okay..."

The next morning Lisa could not even contemplate getting out of bed. It was a Saturday and she really didn't have to if she didn't want to. She would use that to her advantage. No one would have to know that it was because her head hurt so bad that the side of her face was numb. She turned that side to the cool pillow and applied as much pressure as she could without wanting to vomit. Why did it hurt so bad? She wanted to take a bazillion aspirin and go back to sleep, hoping that the pain would go away if she just slept more.
Later that day her mom came in to check on her.
"Lisa, are you okay, dear?"
"I'm fine," she mumbled. She did not want to move her mouth too much or her head might explode.
"Are you sure? It's nearly 2 o'clock and you haven't gotten out of bed yet. Aren't you hungry?"
"No. I'm fine."
Her mom turned to leave and Lisa became desperate.
"Mom? Can you get me some aspirin?"
"Is your head still hurting?"
She didn't answer.
"I'm going to go and call the doctor. We're going to go and see what's wrong. If your head still hurts, after how many days, then aspirin is not going to help."
Lisa didn't have the strength to argue.

"I'm so glad we caught you in time. The tumor looks like it's cancerous. But thank God it hasn't spread very far yet."
Lisa was feeling oddly empty. What would have happened if she hadn't gone to the doctor?
"We can get you into chemo as soon as next week, and then over the next few months, we'll be able to shrink the tumor until we can get rid of it."
She wanted it gone now. She had stronger medication now to ease the pain, but it would be months before it was actually gone. Why would it take so long?