Summary

In Chapter 9, "Bubble Girl," Suleika's parents took her to the hospital. Anne gave Suleika a charm, promising to give her one "[f]or each new milestone” she reached in treatment (66). At Mount Sinai, Suleika went into surgery. She woke up with "a plastic tube with three dangling lumens" sticking out of her collarbone (67). She looked around her room, realizing she "was crossing over into a new land" (67).

Over the following days, Suleika got to know her roommate and the other patients. The more they talked the more Suleika realized how "[i]llness complicated everything" (73).

A week into chemotherapy, Suleika naïvely began planning her future. Her symptoms were not severe. She thought she might recover quickly. Four weeks later, she was still in the hospital and feeling less hopeful. The next week, the doctors told her that her biopsy results looked...