The caregiver's secret

Chapter 40.

Bianca's POV

We left Thailand for home the very night. Luca making a call home to inform our relatives that our holiday had been cut short.

Lucas promising the children we would continue our vacation as soon as I started feeling better.
He insisted we go back home and get another Doctor's opinion just to be sure. If what we feared was true, then I doubt we would be continuing our vacation as promised.

I stare at Luca as he sits in his seat tapping is foot repeatedly, a habit he has which shows that he's nervous. He plays with his fingers, something I haven't seen him do in ages. He even appears to be more nervous than myself.

He has honestly been trying hard to make up for his wrongs. He is almost always present and is the number one advocate for spending quality time together as a family. He's around more often to spend time with us, I couldn't ask for a better husband.

However, I am worried about the doctor confirming what we were told in Thailand. I reach over and grab his hand lacing my comparatively small fingers with his and give a light squeeze.

"We're going to be okay B." He assures me, but I know it's more to himself.

"Always." I whisper back.

As the doctor makes his way back into his office comparing scanning through one of two files, my heart beat increases. I feel Luca stiffen besides me and I please a shaky breath.

The Doctor takes his seat across us, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose to take a good look at the files. We sit in silence for a moment, he nods to himself and shakes his head then nods it again before he clears his throat.

"Okay!" He says, letting out a long sigh. He finally makes eye contact with us, the anticipation getting the better of me I open my mouth to ask what the results say.

"Well the good news, if we can consider it good news is that the first doctor's dignosis was right. But that means bad news for you." He says, waisting no time at all.

Luca and I keep our eyes on him, giving him our undivided attention and thus urging him to explain more.

"The first thing you should understand is that Prion diseases are still a very unknown field to our studies. They are quite complex to say the least. Our understanding of the brain and the workings of it are improving but there is still so much that we don't understand." He starts.

"Can you please give us a little more detail?" Luca asks, my tongue appears to be tides at the moment.

"Not a problem, I was actually getting there. So... Prion diseases are often a result of misfolded forms of the Prion protiens, which also identified as PrP. So in cases of these diseases the Prion protiens fold the wrong way forming a Prion. This further causes the PrP molecules to do the same. Prions can spread across the brain for years in silence without causing any symptoms to alert the patient of the condition." He explains.

We listen in silence as he explains all this to us.

"You have the type of prion disease we abbreviate as TSE. The symptoms can include any or all of the following: change in personality, insomnia, depression, unsteady gait. Patients could also suffer from: involuntary jerking movements, poor memory and/or memory loss, unusual sensations. Please tell me Mrs de la Martini, have you at any point experienced any such symptoms?" He asks.
I make rye contact with Luca before setting my attention back to the doctor.

" It's just that some of this symptoms are harder to identify. For instance, I try to squeeze in as much sleep as I can but work and just motherly duties have me surviving on minimum sleep. Also, we recently went through a very rough patch, plus my mother's passing may have had me on the brink of depression." I explain.