Christmas day, I was expecting a telephone call at 10:00 am from a family member stationed in Afghanistan. The call never came, and I figured either the connections were bad, or he had work to do and couldn’t make the call time. About 1:00 pm, there was a knock on the front door, and there he was!
When I realized I was pregnent. After years of trying, drugs, shots and finally surgery (the infertility shebang) the test was positive. My first reaction was panic, I had lost sight of the goal and was only invoved by the process. Severe panic. Then, after a few minutes, absolute joy!
Oh yeah. I went to the hospital for a migraine that wouldn’t stop, next thing I know they are thinking stroke. They admit me and the next morning a doctor walked in and just as casual as she could be,“oh, and by the way…you have a cerebral anureysm.”
That was it, she walked out. I was alone. My husband was on his way, my mother was stuck in traffic. Friends were working. I just felt so alone, scared and small. Sickening feeling.
@cak : Yeah, I’ve had my share of “matter of fact” doctors, too. They seem to forget that the words can deal a heavy axe blow, and walking out and leaving you alone after news like that can be as bad as the news itself. What a boon that you are here, now, telling us!
@cak Being used to it doesn’t excuse it. I’d love to see you reading a doc like that the riot act. If anyone could get through to them, I bet you could.
Oh never mind. They are probably just as scared of delivering bad news as patients are of receiving it.
When we finally got pregnant after trying for four years, my wife let me know by putting a pic of the sonogram in a Father’s day card – took me a minute to process – and then, of course JOY!!
@stratman37 – That is a wonderful surprise! And yes, so much for bedside manner!
@wundayatta: I was absolutely speechless. You hear aneurysm and think, “Now, this is what is going to kill me? After all of this, it comes down to this…no way.” By the time my husband got there, he was white as a ghost and found the doctor and had words. She didn’t come back into my room. I love my husband.
I have been the beneficiary of an large inheritance that came out of nowhere from the proverbial long lost ‘Uncle’ 6 years ago.
But probably the biggest surprise, divorcing 8 years ago after 22 years of marriage and discovering how much I LOVE living by myself!
I will never live with anyone, ever again…‘life #2’ is so much better than life #1. :-D