It’s really sweet of her to offer. “It’s okay, I think I need to do this solo.”
“You’ve got this,” she offers in encouragement.
I take a deep breath and leave her to follow the nurse who takes me to an exam room, where a minute later, I’m sitting anxiously on an exam table with a paper gown, and the doctor arrives.
“Hi, Isla, I’m Dr. Forest.” The woman in her forties smiles. “Yes, like the forest with trees and deer.”
“It’s a fun name,” I say. “Not easy to forget. I’m sure you get a lot of jokes about Bambi.”
She smirks at my humor and glances down at her tablet. “Okay, so what brings you in today?”
“Shouldn’t you know, since you’re looking at my file?” I sound kind of surprised.
Dr. Forest laughs. “I do know, but I would like you to confirm it.”
“That’s kind of your job. To corroborate that a pregnancy test at home claims that I’m pregnant.”
She sets her tablet to the side to grab some gloves, still smiling. “Sounds like I don’t need to tell you that your blood work came back also positive, and HCG levels put you at about seven weeks, but we’re going to have a look because your file said that you had an ovary looked at a few years ago for a cyst, but everything checked out.”
An audible breath escapes me. “Pregnancy, yay,” I flatly say and give myself a weak fist pump.
Dr. Forest pauses to look at me. “You’re not sure about this pregnancy? We can, of course, discuss options.”
I shake my head no. “I’m ready for this, the baby, I mean. It is what I want. It’s just… this was really unplanned. Like, ‘surprise November hurricane, a hotel room with a hot hockey player who just so happens to be your brother’s enemy’ kind of unplanned. So… yeah… not exactly sure how to celebrate this one.”
She rolls a machine toward the exam table. “Wow, that’s quite a…” She debates what to say. “I can understand why your thoughts may be everywhere.”
“You’re telling me,” I snort.
“How about we focus on you. How are you feeling?”
My head bobbles side to side. “Tired, nauseous, but so far, doable.”
“Good. If you lie down, I’m going to do an internal ultrasound to check on baby.”
I begin to lie down, with my pulse quickening. Lying on my back, I attempt a few relaxing breaths.
“I’m going to start now,” I hear her say.
But it feels like the thrum of my heart is taking over my ears because I’m a good kind of nervous. I can only imagine what’s about to happen. And when the swooshing sound of a fast heartbeat overtakes my nerves, tears instantly sting my eyes.
I look up on the screen where the doctor is pointing to a blob. “Healthy baby right here.”
A warm tear falls down my cheek. I’m instantly in love. Life-changing emotions hit me in a giant wave.
She zooms in and tilts her head in various ways. “Is there a point to me confirming how far along you are, as you mentioned the one-night hurricane kind of thing?” I appreciate that she has humor.
“Least we can easily calculate, right?” I shrug, with my eyes laser focused on the screen.
“Yes, but don’t forget, pregnancy starts from the date of your last period.”
I raise my long finger. “Yep, got that. I’m quite aware how pregnancy works, which is kind of funny, as you would think I’d have had sense to double up on the birth control, but hey, we’re not always wise.”
“Normally you should be okay on the pill, but sometimes, travel or not taking the pill on time can decrease efficiency.”
“You’re telling me that eastern standard time, that one hour ahead of us, really screwed me over?” I’m sarcastic. I’m 100% sure that I forgot a pill.
Dr. Forest takes a few screenshots. “I don’t think analyzing what went wrong will help. You have a healthy baby inside of you, and you seem at peace with that.”
