Life and Death-1

Raising Hell

Thank you for the support. I love all of the comments you've made.

A month ago

"Let's begin." Cristina squeezes my hand. "Genevieve, you have suffered a miscarriage correct?"

"Yes."

"How long ago was that?" Dr. Norris asks me.

"About 3 ½ years." I inform her. She jots down the information.

"And was that the only one?"

"Yes."

"Okay well, I am going to perform a transvaginal ultrasound to get a clear picture of your cervix." I nod my head. Dr. Norris gets the wand ready. "You're going to feel a little pressure and some discomfort but that's all part of it."

"Okay..." I look up as Dr. Norris inserts the wand.

"Gen, on the screen this is your cervix." I nod my head. Dr. Norris grabs another scan and shows me. "Now this scan in my hands is of a normal cervix. As you can see this one is about 40 mm and yours..." She uses the measuring tape. "Gen, yours is barely 8mm."

"How can it be that small?" Cristina asks Dr. Norris.

"What you have Gen is incompetent cervix."

"What?" I ask confused.

"This a condition that can affect 1/100 women that usually have no symptoms."

"How can there be no symptoms?" I ask her confused.

"Something like this typically arises after a woman suffers from a miscarriage or childbirth while others are complications from surgery or you're just born with it. It's not a problem until it becomes one." I squeeze Cristina's hand tighter.

"So what does that mean for her?" Cristina asks me as I can't help but cry.

"Gen." Dr. Norris places her hand on top of my mine. "I know this is not the best news..."

"Not the best news. You just told me that I have a damaged cervix!" I exclaim to her.

"Incompetent cervix does not mean you can't have children."

"What?" Cristina and I say in unison.

"Your condition makes conceiving and keeping a pregnancy harder but it's not impossible."

"So I can have children?" I ask Dr. Norris and she smiles.

"If you are thinking about getting pregnant there are some vitamins you can take that make it easier to conceive."

"Yes, I would love those." I sit up smiling at Dr. Norris.

"And if you do get pregnant then I would like to follow closely. More frequent check-ups than a typical pregnancy."

"Absolutly. That I can do."

"She'll have full support. Her people will support her and..." Cristina looks at me and smiles wide. "She will have so much support."

"Gen is going to need it. Pregnancy is a beautiful thing but it can be full of stress and worry. And that is something you will need to try to control."

"Yeah being a surgical resident that's not stressful." Cristina remarks.

"I know this was a lot of negative Gen, but you need to know there is a bright side to this. This is not a no for you. You have a chance so go home knowing that." I smile at her.

__________________________________
Present

"Gen...why have you kept this to yourself all this time?" Mark asks me.