“Yes, it was.” He nodded.
I sighed, relieved that I could remember.
The paramedic and his partner wheeled me through the glass doors of the emergency room where I was immediately rolled into a curtained room. Nurses and doctors descended like flies and I was moved from the stretcher to the hospital gurney.
I spent the next five hours being poked, prodded, X-rayed, and MRI’d. I had a new IV stuck in the top of my right hand and a clip to measure something was snapped on my finger. Everything was taped securely in place. I had a rectal exam, a vaginal exam, was stuck repeatedly with needles, and they took my blood pressure with that stupid automatic machine a thousand times.
During the moments that I wasn’t being poked or quizzed, I allowed myself to cry. I felt so alone; I just wanted to see Ryan. I needed him to hold me.
Eventually my left arm was wrapped in a cast, from my hand to my elbow. The doctor gave me a blue wrap because he said the color matched my eyes. I think he was just trying to calm me.
An older female orderly wheeled me back into the emergency room, returning me to the same little curtain area I was in before. A doctor and a nurse came in a few moments later; the nurse was pushing a large machine into the room with her.
“Ms. Mitchell, I’m Doctor Willsten. I’m the attending OBGYN. We have the results of your urinalysis and you’ve tested positive for being pregnant.
We’re going to do an ultrasound of your uterus.”
“What?” My thoughts spun wildly. I shook my head in disbelief. “Um, that’s impossible. I can’t be pregnant. I take birth control pills. You must be mistaken.”
He smiled as he wrote something on a clipboard. “You know that birth control pills are not one hundred percent effective in preventing pregnancy. Have you recently taken any other types of medications? Any over-the-counter products?”
I remembered how sick I was after Thanksgiving, but that was weeks ago. “I had a bad sinus infection and bronchitis at the beginning of December. My doctor gave me antibiotics.”
Doctor Willsten looked up from his paperwork and smiled at me again. “That will cancel out the effectiveness of the birth control medicine.”
I heard a commotion coming from outside my room, distracting me momentarily.
“She’s this way,” I heard a female voice say. I pulled the cover up higher to my neck in case reporters or photographers were going to come ripping around the corner.
The weight of a thousand worries lifted off my chest when Ryan came running around the curtain. He rushed right to my side.
“Honey, are you all right?” He kissed my face, my forehead. I knew I had a busted lip. I could feel it was swollen. “Oh Honey,” he cried out softly.
His eyes looked me over to assess the damage.
Tears of relief streamed down my cheeks; all I could do was nod my head.
“I was just about to review the extent of her injuries with her,” the man with the Doctor Carlino nametag announced. “Could we please get you to wait outside for a moment, sir?”
“No,” I said fiercely, holding Ryan’s hand with my good hand. “He stays. This is my boyfriend.”
Doctor Carlino nodded. “We have reviewed all the test results and I’m happy to inform you that your injuries are minimal. Your left ulna is fractured above the wrist, but as you see we’ve already addressed that with a cast. Your ribs are severely bruised, but luckily there are no fractures.
You’ll be quite sore for several weeks though. The contusions on your skin will eventually fade. We will treat your injuries with pain management medications. Your lip and face are swollen from the impact, but fortunately it doesn’t require stitches. And you’ve got a fair amount of bruising and what we call ‘road rash’ but that will all heal with time. We expect you to make a full recovery.” He smiled. “My colleague, Doctor Willsten, has been called in to assess the fetal risk.”
I looked up at Ryan; he was trying to soak that one in.
I gasped in a few ragged breaths.
“Ryan, they just told me I’m pregnant.” My voice was shaky with fear of telling him this news. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. My eyes flickered back to his.
“Pregnant?” He shook his head slightly. “I thought…”
“The doctor said that the antibiotics I took a couple of weeks ago could have affected my birth control pill.” I felt a tear leave my eye. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“I’d like to do an ultrasound now,” Doctor Willsten announced, rolling the cart closer to the bed.
My legs were draped in a sheet while the doctor inserted a long probe inside me. The anxiety of finding out that I was pregnant made my legs shake.
“Ow…” I winced from the pain.
“Sorry, I know it’s uncomfortable.” My pain didn’t stop him.
The doctor was hitting a lot of buttons, taking some sort of readings. He marked an X at one end of a circle and another X on the opposite side.
I was staring intently at the monitor, wondering how the hell he knew what he was looking it.
“You’re about six and a half weeks along. Hmm.” He looked at a little calendar and counted backwards. “Christmas baby!” He smiled at us. I felt Ryan squeeze my hand.
He clicked a few more buttons and we heard this strange noise over the machine’s speaker. It was a fast whooshing noise.
“What is that?” Ryan asked hesitantly.
“That’s the heartbeat,” the doctor stated.
The machine printed out a picture, which the doctor handed to Ryan. “That’s the embryo.”
Ryan leaned on my pillow next to my head. A huge smile crossed his face.
“That’s our baby? I’m going to be a father? Oh, Tar!” He kissed my forehead.
I was so scared to see how he would react. Nervous visions of him being angry and fleeing the emergency room were instantly replaced by calm and joy. I was so relieved that he seemed okay with the news. Our life had just made a monumental turn in a new direction.
Doctor Willsten spoke to another doctor on the other side of the curtain. I could only make out several words, some of which were “continue to monitor” and “possible placental abruption.” When he returned to speak to me, his face was stoic.
“Ms. Mitchell, we have a private room ready for you now. We’re going to move you to the neo-natal wing. We’ve noticed some abnormalities on the ultrasound. We’re going to continue to monitor you overnight just to keep an eye on things. The impact from the accident was centered on your abdomen and we’re concerned about your well being. If all goes well, you should be able to go home in a day or so.”