SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: NO END IN SIGHT

 "No End in Sight" by Carrie Richerson  (from More Phobias:  Stories of Unparalled Fear, edited by Wendy Webb, Richard Gilliam, Edward E. Kramer, & Martin H. Greenberg, 1995)

Carrie Richerson (1952-2019) was a science fiction fan and bookseller who lived in Texas and was involved in running science fiction convdntions, including the LoneStarCon 2, the 1997 World Science Fiction Convention. Richerson authored nineteen short stories over a fifteen-year period.  She was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award (now the Astounding Award for Best New Writer) in 1993 and 1994.  Only six of her stories were ever reprinted, and one (Geckos, 1994) originally appeared as a chapbook.  She died after years of illnes at age 66s in an Austin rehab center at age 66.

The protagonist of "No End in Sight" is a tough Texas Panhadle rancher who is haunted by memories of her son, Jason,  who had died twenty-five years before at Trin Lao.  Lately her dreams seem to foretell her own death.  Now 65 and having buried two husbands, she has discovered a lump near her armpit.  It turns out to be a very aggressive kind of cancer,  At first it was very small and he waited two weeks before having it seen.  Luckily there are new drugs that can treat the cancer.  One, Juprex, is injected directly into the center of the cancer, and it destroys the cancer completely from the inside out.  It's a painful treatment and a sedative is given before the Juprex is injected.   But something went wrong -- the doctor, thinking he was injecting the seditive, accidently injected the Juprex first.  Rather than going into the tumor, the drug coursed through her body and began to rapidly destroy her organs.  There was no cure or treatment; she will be dead within days.  The doctor, the hospital, and the insurance companies want to settle before she dies, but she is holding them to the fire.  In addition to a large payout, she insists that they keep her alive by any means possible...

This is not a major story, and it certainly isn't the best story that Richerson wrote, but it is an interesting character study of a woman who has faced hardship and incredible odds her entire life, and she is not about to give up now.

Worth a look if you can find it.