Deadly Prescription

Workaholic Bostonian Ivy Fisher, who runs a small online business with her best friend and partner Skyler Parsons, has suffered from migraines since she was in college, the stress-related headaches which increased a year ago upon dealing with her mother's passing from cancer, and have been exacerbated of late in preparation to make a pitch to venture capitalists for $10 million to expand the business. She ends up seeing neurologist Dr. Mark Laurie after she faints, and despite his early diagnosis that the way to reduce the migraines is to cut down on the work and that the fainting spell was probably a panic attack about the pitch, he reports back to her upon receiving the results of a plethora of neurological tests that her symptoms are not stress induced but are caused by a brain tumor. Without chemotherapy which she refuses to undergo having seen what it did to her mother, the prognosis is terminal. The diagnosis is confirmed by his colleague, Dr. Asher. With no family, Ivy tells no one about the diagnosis, she not wanting to burden Sky with all that is going on in her own life and with the business. As Ivy becomes resigned to the fact that she will soon die, Dr. Laurie tells her that he may have access to experimental drugs that, in early testing, show promise in shrinking such tumors, and thus may save her life. The problems are that the drugs have not been approved by the FDA and thus, if he can get them under the table from his colleague, no one can know about the treatment, which costs in excess of $100,000 per year obviously not covered by insurance, meaning that Ivy has to come up with the money herself. She agrees to it all. In the process of treatment, Dr. Laurie is able to get her to change from her generally unhealthy lifestyle, from eating more produce, to exercising, and to having more than just work as a passion to relieve that stress. In return, Ivy begins to develop romantic feelings for Mark, the two who begin a relationship, they being able to justify it in he no longer officially being her doctor. In reality, everything is a scam on Mark's part, from the diagnosis, to the legitimacy of Dr. Asher, to the authenticity of the medication, all which Mark is able to justify in his own psychotic mind as truly helping Ivy lead a better life. He has pulled this scam before with similar results not only being able to pocket hundreds of thousands of tax free dollars in cash, but starting sexual relationships with grateful women patients, one, Claire Collins, who has filed misconduct charges against him which could result in him losing his license if successful. If Ivy is able to discover the truth, it may truly place her life in danger as Mark is willing to kill to protect his operation.