Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Foot in the Mouth


When I stepped into her room, Ann was lying on her bed in a side position away from the door.

"Is my baby alright?"

I wasn't sure how to reply that question so I just shook my head.

She gave me a grim look, shook her head and a tear streamed down her face from the left eye. 

"No." She whispered.

"I'm sorry." I said while trying to comfort her.

"Why did God take her away?" She cried holding tightly to the bedsheets. "What did I do?"

I stayed silent. I should not have said anything. The doctors should been the one to talk to her. Me and my big mouth!

After a few minutes, Ann stopped crying. She sat up in her bed and gave me a hug. 

"Please make sure Mike does not know about this. It will really affect his job." She said. 

I nodded.

The nurse interrupted us politely asking me to leave Ann to rest. I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek then stepped out to the corridor. I stood at the hallway for a minute blinking several times to hold the tears. Ann was going through much.

I removed my phone from the side pocket of my trousers and called Fred. By now he would be at work.

"Hey dear." He started.

"Hey, I'm okay. Ann received the necessary treatment and needs to stay overnight at the hospital." I replied.

"What was the issue?" Fred asked.

"She had a miscarriage."

"What? That's so sad." He exclaimed. "That's tough. How far was she?"

"About four months."

"Wow. Do you think that we should call Mike? He ought to be here."

"No, no, no. That's the reason why am calling." I replied. "Ann told me not to call Mike."

"Why?"

"He is working outside town and if we tell him the news at the moment, it might really affect his work and his journey back."

"Oh, okay." He said. "What about you? Are you okay?" 

"Kinda. But I still have to go to work."

"Do you have to?" He asked. "You should take a rest."

"I know but I have a lot of work waiting for me. I will manage." I replied.

"Alright dear, Ill call you in a few hours to check up on you."

Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Loss


Saturday morning, I drove over to Ann's house. I knocked on her door then forced myself in. She was on her couch holding her tummy. She had called me in the middle of the night telling me of having severe cramps. She could withstand the pain so she suggested I take her to hospital in the morning. Her husband, Mike, was out of town on an assignment.
I helped her to my car as she was really weak. I could see little drops of sweat on her forehead and I knew she was having a fever. As she was trying to sit in the front seat, I saw a red patch on the back of her dress that looked like blood. My heart skipped a beat. Was she having a miscarriage? 

I didn't want to raise the alarm so I just went to the driver's seat and drove off. Despite the hospital being ten minutes away, I felt like it took an hour or so. Ann was now crying hysterically from the pain in her tummy.

I led her to straight to the nurse who was standing near the reception and tried to explain to her. Her look explained the situation. It was bad! She called for a wheel chair and Ann was pushed to the examination room. I was not allowed to go with her so I had to wait. 

I texted Fred. I needed him to know the situation that we were in. I had left him still in the house sleeping as he leaves the house at 8 am. He texted back immediately and asked what was the main issue. I was not sure yet so i told him we need to wait for the Doctor's final diagnosis. 

After about two hours, the nurse called my name and asked me to go with her to the Doctors office. The doctor was a nice young woman with blond hair tied into a pony tail. She signaled me to one of the seats in front of her. 

"My name is Dr. Mary Ward and the doctor to the patient you brought." She started. "She was in a bad state when you brought her in. We did all we could but unfortunately she miscarried."

My suspicions were right. 

"Is she in pain?" I asked.

"No. she is not. We gave her a sedative and she is sleeping as we speak. We initially did a pelvic exam and ultrasound test to check if there is anything that remained in her womb. Since there was some remains, we had to perform a dilation and curettage procedure. So we are now monitoring her condition. She is stable for now."

"Wow!" I responded.

"I know its a lot but she is fine." She assured me.

"What caused this?" 

"There are a lot of reasons why a miscarriage happens. It can be either Chromosomal abnormalities, uterine abnormalities, immunologic disorders, uncontrolled diabetes, bacterial infection, drugs, or stressful environment. For her case, she either was under so much stress both at home and work."

"She has been under stress lately. She doesn't have a nanny and her job is really time consuming." I said.

"She has to take time and give herself some rest." Dr Ward said.

"Ill try and help her. Can I see her?" I asked.

"Yes but only for ten minutes. She needs the rest."