The Treatment

Chapter 2

c h a p t e r  t w o - Trouble in Paradise 

During one of the routine scans I had been told that Twin One(Neon) was breech and because of this I was being monitoredextra closely. At thirty-four weeks I still had a little while left togo. Having read all about giving birth to twins, I was aware itwould be highly unlikely for me to do a full-term pregnancy offorty weeks but I presumed that I had at least a few weeks to gobefore the big day.It was the evening before my scan was scheduled. I knewsomething was not right when I was having trouble focusing. Tobe able to see things properly I had to look at them sideways. Inmy peripheral vision, I was seeing white sparkly spots, my bodyfelt heavy and I became lightheaded. I had some pamphletsand pregnancy information and compared my symptoms,double-checking on the Internet. I knew the symptoms I wasexperiencing were something I had previously read about and itwasn't long before I self-diagnosed myself with pre-eclampsia.When I relayed my self-diagnosis to the nurse at the hospitalearly the following morning she was quite cutting.  

'I'll tell you what you've got,' she told me.After they checked me over and did a series of tests, the nurseconfirmed I was right. Because of my sky-high blood pressureand diagnosis of pre-eclampsia, I was admitted to hospital.Later that night, I was wide awake when the gates openedat one o'clock in the morning. I buzzed for the on-duty nurseto tell her my waters had broken. I was monitored carefullyand given steroids and various other prescribed drugs as partof the process of giving birth to premature twins being bornat thirty-four weeks. The nurse told me the steroids wouldhelp the babies' lungs to mature, which were likely to be alittle underdeveloped because they were preterm. This wasall a standard procedure. I was glad to be in the hospital andtrusted the medics implicitly.It was the middle of the night when Ben arrived and eventhough he curled up on the single sofa in the corner of the roomand went straight to sleep, it was good to have him there whileI lay awake observing my contractions getting closer together. Ihad to wait until the morning for the surgeons to arrive.The on-duty nurse had become concerned about the twinbabies' heartbeats.'We would like to give you a spinal, Sally,' the nurse said, 'wedon't have time for an epidural. We have to do an emergencycaesarean.'As Twin One was breech I had been advised to opt fora caesarean anyway, so it came as no surprise. It was justhappening much quicker than I had anticipated. I agreed towhatever the experts suggested. All I wanted was my babies tobe born in good health with no complications.At 10:04am our little boy was born, followed at 10:06amby our little girl. There was no crying, just pouting andindescribable sounds of pleasure as they were welcomed into theworld. They were wrapped up and whisked away so fast I barelygot to see them. When the spinal wore off after the surgery and  I was allowed to leave the recovery room, Ben wheeled me downto see our babies, which were each in their own incubator.I was struck by their beauty. Even though they were so tiny,the first thing I noticed when I saw Neon were his big feet. Iwas in awe of how exquisite our little boy and our little girlwere, they were absolute newborn perfection. Love poured outof me, I felt like the luckiest mother in the world to have givenbirth to the most gorgeous babies I had ever seen. Consideringhow tiny they were, Neon weighing only three pounds ten andElektra three pounds thirteen, I thanked my lucky stars theywere both okay. Being premature it took one month before bothbabies latched on to my bosoms and were feeding properly.That milestone achieved, we were allowed to take them home.With such perfect babies, we had to find perfect names. Benand I agreed that if we had a boy we would call him Neon.We asked Ben's sister Lucy what she thought. She let out anexcited laugh, clapped her hands with joy, jumped into the airand shrieked, 'Yes!'My parents weren't as impressed. 'You can't call your childthat, Sally.'Laying eyes upon him no other name would do – we justhad to call him Neon. Elektra was the same, we simply had tocall her Elektra – she suited it beautifully; after all, you needelectricity for Neon to light up.'Are you sure?' Ben's mother Christine asked us.'Yes, absolutely,' we replied, thrilled at our choice, choosingto ignore the dislike written across her face and festering in hervoice. Having given our twin babies double-barrelled names,Neon-Luca and Elektra-Lily, Christine chose to call them Lilyand Luca.Anyone who has had the good fortune of having a multiplebirth can appreciate how much twins kept me busy. One babymust be such a breeze. Sure it was double trouble, but it wastwice as nice. Soon after the twins' birth, my parents announced that they were selling their flat in Wimbledon and would buy ahouse in Devon to be near us. Although they only ever stayedthe summer before returning to NZ, having them around whenthey were in the UK made all the difference.Ben and I had talked about getting married, but I couldn'thelp but be surprised when one evening in the studio heproposed to me. We had an eighteen-month engagement andgot married in 2009 in Barbados on the coral sand beachbeside Ben's parents' restaurant, The Lone Star. We invitedour nearest and dearest to come and join us in the tropicalsunshine. Neon and Elektra looked like angels in their whiteoutfits. It should have been a perfect day, but there was troublein paradise. It was a series of mini-disasters and I couldnot help noticing that Ben's sister Lucy, my maid of honourClaudia and my brother's girlfriend Antonia, had all chosento wear black dresses.'I'm going for the ying yang thing,' Clauds commented.Lucy, who had been doing a detox, was crying as Ben and Isaid our vows. As the sun went down a friend told me why. 'Shesays it's because she feels like she is losing her only brother.''She could see it as gaining a sister. It's just what I havealways wanted,' I said in all seriousness.Lucy left the next morning back to London. I could not helpwondering if it was all an omen. At least the rings were notdropped in the sand.Back home in the UK the recession had begun to bite. The strainof our long engagement and the wedding had taken its toll andour relationship began to deteriorate. Ben was constantly in thestudio and it was bothering me that when he was coming backto the house it was very late, he was making himself tired andoften grumpy the next day, especially in the mornings.