Dr. Gorgeous chuckles. I can’t wait for Julia to meet him. I want to watch her gobble him up like a little snack and toss his remains over her shoulder when she’s through with him. He sits on the edge of my bed, like we’re old friends.
“Last night—” he begins.
“Last night?” I yelp in disbelief. “What is it now? What day is it?” I widen my eyes. “What year is it? Who is the president of the United States?”
He lays a hand on my hospital-warming-blanket, right over my ankle and tries to stop the smile that spreads across his handsome face.
“Everyone was right. You are pretty hilarious. You had the entire ER in stitches last night.”
I’m not trying to be funny, and I don’t remember any comedy act I performed last night. I close my eyes and inhale a deep breath.
“Last night,” he continues, “you were brought in because you collapsed and began hemorrhaging.” His tone is serious, and his expression turns sad, brimming with sympathy.
“What do you mean hemorrhaging? Where? Why? Did I fall and hit my head? Are my brains still in there?” I try to lift my hands to feel around my skull, but they reach halfway before becoming too heavy and dropping back down. Hysteria is rolling through me in waves and I can do nothing to stop it.
The doctor’s smile straightens into a tight white line. He’s not so pretty anymore. And then he says the words that send my roller-coaster racing heart into a free fall from an awry wheel, knocking my life right off the rails. “You suffered an ectopic pregnancy. Did you know you were pregnant?”
I blink up at him, as sparks of heat prickle out across my chest. “No…I’m…pregnant?”
“No. I’m sorry. Sadly, even with current technology the embryo couldn’t be saved.” He speaks low and steady. “An ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg attaches itself in a place other than inside the uterus.”
I cover my mouth with my hand.
“Yours attached to the inside of one of your fallopian tubes. You may have heard it called a tubal pregnancy.”
I shook my head. I never heard of this kind of pregnancy.This better be a nightmare and I want to wake up.
“Fallopian tubes aren’t designed to hold a growing embryo. You might not have even realized you were pregnant. You might have felt sharp cramps and had vaginal bleeding and thought it was part of your normal menstrual cycle.”
“But, you’re saying I waspregnant?” I can’t get that part out of my head. “I got pregnant? I’m…I’m on the pill. I take it religiously.For years."
“Birth control pills are 99% effective. And ectopic pregnancies happen in one out of five pregnancies,” he explains.
“Thanks, Dr. Math.”
“But, in your case, Jane, it ruptured your fallopian tube, and you started hemorrhaging. We had to make an abdominal incision right here,” he points to an area on my covered stomach that feels a little sore. “And we had to remove it,” he says gently.
A weight slams down on my chest. I feel sick again. “You had to remove what?”
“One of your fallopian tubes. The procedure is called a salpingectomy.”
“But…don’t I need that piece if I want to…try and have a baby someday?”
He shifts his weight and takes a deep long breath. “The female body has two fallopian tubes. Another egg can join with a sperm in your remaining tube and then travel to your uterus for a healthy future pregnancy. It might take longer than average with only one tube, but it is possible.”
I’m thirty-three and Dex and I are on a break. Longer than average is a terrifying thing to think about. I start to cry.
“The rupture caused a lot of blood loss, so there was also a blood transfusion,” he continues.
I cry harder.
Dr. Ames stands up and pats my covered ankle again. “Losing a pregnancy is devastating, even if you’ve only known about it for a few minutes. You and your partner need time to recognize your loss and grieve. Rely on each other for support.” He walks to the curtain and glances over his shoulder. “My advice is for you and your significant other to seek out the help of a support group, or a grief counselor so you can get through this together.”
But me and Dex?
We’re not together anymore. I remember throwing him out of my apartment.
I told him to lose my number.
