Wild One | Bbangsaz

Chapter 19

Hanni's

At four weeks pregnant, it's time for my first prenatal appointment. I wait patiently as the nurse checks my height, weight, pulse, blood pressure, and temperature, then takes blood and urine samples. I already gave a complete medical history the first time I came here, but she asks me the entire survey again, with bonus questions about Minji, until I've recited what feels like every cough and headache our families have ever suffered for generations.

Finally, she hands me a paper gown. "Change into this and lie on the table, please. The doctor will be in shortly to do your pelvic exam." Then she leaves me alone for the first time in almost an hour.

Whew ... I knew when I started trying for a baby that I was signing up to become a lab rat, but this level of scrutiny will take some getting used to. And I'll be repeating it more and more frequently until the day I give birth. Hopefully, next time won't be so intense, now that we've established a baseline for my health.

I unfold the paper gown, cover myself the best I can, and lie down just as someone knocks on the door. "Come in," I call out.

Dr. Katrina bustles into the exam room. "Nice to see you again, Miss Pham. How are you?"

"I'm fine, you?" I reply automatically.

"Good, good." She washes her hands at the sink before joining me near the exam table. Unfolding the paper that's covering me, she explains her movements as she goes. "Now I'll just check for lumps here ..." She squeezes my breast and I wince slightly. "Tender?"

"A little. I assume that's normal."

"Yes, but still, I apologize." Moving much more gently, she continues interrogating me as she works. "Do you smoke or drink?"

"I've never smoked. I used to have one or two drinks occasionally, but I stopped as soon as I knew I was pregnant."

She hums an approving murmur. "Exercise?"

"I go to the gym twice a week." Or I try to, anyway. Hopefully, a tiny bit of exaggeration isn't a medical sin. Besides, sex is a form of exercise, right?

"Feet in the stirrups, please. I'm just going to take a look at your cervix."

"Will you bring me back a souvenir?" I joke as I prop my legs up.

She gives the tiniest possible huff of polite laughter. "Ideally, I'll find nothing there. Now, you might feel a slight pinch."

Lies, all lies. It feels like she's digging around for buried treasure, and I resist the urge to flinch. Ow ... is it really necessary to crank that thing open so wide?

While she pokes and prods around, she asks, "Any significant sources of stress?"

Well, a person in a lab coat is currently barking questions into my vagina, so ... "I've been having some trouble with work lately, but nothing unusually stressful." Trying to keep the business afloat has been an adventure right from the word go.

Oh yeah ... and figuring out what the fuck I'm going to do about Minji. I still don't have a good answer to that one. For the sake of my sanity, we've kept sleeping together, and she gets my hopes up by doing sweet things like texting me things she's researched about the pregnancy, even when she doesn't have to. But all that has to end eventually, right?

Hell, I don't know. And I don't even want to think about it. What's that saying, ignorance is bliss? In this case, ignoring it has been bliss, so I'm just going to keep on ignoring the situation between the two of us.

I breathe a subdued sigh of relief when Dr. Karina finally finishes and steps outside to let me get dressed. When I'm decent again, she returns and sits at the computer. She scrolls down for a minute, skimming the nurse's notes. "You mentioned that your partner's grandfather died of cancer. Do you know what kind? And how old he was?"