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Chapter Twenty-Seven
On admission, Dr. Simpson, the doctor on duty, took a thorough history of Billie’s health before taking blood, urine, vomit, and stool samples for culture. He explained why it was important to do this before starting antibiotic treatment. Although he said he could use a broad spectrum antibiotic, the samples were necessary to exclude the need for a more specific treatment.
Next he inserted a line in the back of her hand and initially gave her some fluids with glucose to give her some energy, until the blood and urine tests came back. When he poked his head around the door again ten minutes later, we were surprised he had come back so soon.
“I have the results of your urine sample Billie, and this is surprising since you have an IUD inserted, but I need to inform you, you’re pregnant,” he said, glancing from Billie to me with a nervous half-smile.
“Pregnant?” we both chimed at the same time and turned to look at one another in shock. Billie’s eyes went wide, but she turned her head to the bowl she held and vomited again
“It’s routine, we run a pregnancy test on all women of childbearing age before we begin to use equipment that may be harmful, such as X-rays, CT or MRI scans, and also to help us to know which drugs we can safely use. Do you need a few moments alone, or should I bring in a portable scanner to confirm the findings of the pregnancy test? It would explain why you’re having such a rough time this past twenty-four hours.”
“Bring it,” I said, my mind in complete meltdown wondering when this could have happened and glancing at Billie’s face to gauge her reaction. Unfortunately she continued vomiting, and I never caught her initial reaction to our news.
Feelings of exhilaration mingled with fear, apprehension, and wonder at the possibility of being a biological father, and the only thing that kept my feelings positive was that Billie had already admitted to wanting a child with me before her current state of health.
Rubbing my wife’s back, I swapped out the full sick bowl for a clean one and was placing it over by the sink when the doctor reappeared with a small machine on a stainless steel cart.
Billie flashed me a sober look and I knew what she thought in that moment. I had told her we’d discuss it again, and I knew she wondered whether I’d be happy if her pregnancy was confirmed. As far as I was concerned at the time, if it turned out to be a happy accident the decision would have been taken out of our hands and it was a child that was meant to be. I slipped my hand into hers and squeezed it in reassurance.
Preparing Billie’s abdomen with some translucent gel, the doctor turned on the small machine and took what looked like a conductor of some kind from a cradle attached to it. After directing the gel to her lower abdomen he centered it toward her pubic bone. He did this several times before his movements got less haphazard and more targeted.
“Ah, here you go,” he said, when he found what he wanted us to see. A small white grainy image that looked much like a cashew nut stuck out in the small sea of black and gray that surrounded it. There he is,” and my brow creased at the gender he used.
“He?’ I asked quickly.
“Well, it really, its genitalia is undistinguishable as yet, I don’t like the use of the word ‘it’ where a life is the subject.” He continued to wave the conductor and suddenly bent closer. “You see the small flicker? That’s the heart beating.” I was mesmerized and he turned up the sound. The fast regular bump-bump-bump caught my breath in my throat. Billie had my child inside her and my heart was fit to burst. I bent and kissed her head.
“Are you okay?” I asked, meaning about the baby and how she felt in physical terms.
Billie continued to stare at the screen and nodded. “Yeah,” she replied in a whisper and I immediately realized she was overwhelmed by the shock of finding out she was pregnant. She looked choked with emotion.
The doctor moved the wand like he was about to take it away again and immediately moved it back, leaned closer and cleared his throat.
“Do twins run in the family?” Billie’s eyes went wide and shook her head while she stared up at me and looked overwhelmed.
“Not that I know of,” I replied, my eyes flitting over the image again.
“You see here,” he asked, and both Billie and I shook our heads, the image hadn’t appeared any different than previously.
“Damn it’s moved, just a second,” he advised us, and continued to search with the transducer again.
“There!” he exclaimed, and we fleetingly saw a second sac with another peanut inside.
“Twins, Mrs. Wild. A good six weeks I’d say, maybe closer to seven, but we’ll get a dating scan to confirm this. It would certainly explain the sickness you’ve been having. There is a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. It’s a little less common in someone your age, but as it’s a twin pregnancy we would expect a higher level of Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin, or HCG, the hormone in the blood. This is the hormone which maintains the pregnancy. Once we rule out food poisoning, which I expect we will, then we can move forward to help Billie manage this.”
“So, this is morning sickness?” I asked, sounding as if his explanation was too incredulous to comprehend. I knew morning sickness could happen at any time of the day as my sister, Tammy, had been subjected to this with all of her girls.
“It’s more severe than morning sickness and if this continues we’ll need to monitor your weight and nutrition carefully, Billie. The good news is it improves in most cases by around week twenty.”
“Fuck me,” I blurted. “Sorry, you mean she’ll be like this for months?” My heart sank and ached simultaneously at the thought. Poor Billie looked so pale and fragile and I was partly to blame for this.
“Well maybe, maybe not. But given your age and the multiple pregnancy I think we’ll be monitoring you very closely.” I glared at the doctor and almost growled at his age comment, but he was the expert and I knew there were higher risks of complications in older women. Tammy was thirty-eight and she had said no more, with three healthy girls she wasn’t willing to take the risk.
The doctor went on to glean more information from Billie, such as her method of birth control, her OBGYN’s name and how her previous pregnancy had gone. As he listened, he casually turned off the ultrasound scanner and wiped Billie’s abdomen clean. I sat in a stunned silence as they spoke and heard Billie describing her pregnancy and Colby’s birth.
As the news of the babies sank in, their voices faded and their mouths moved, but I heard very little as chaotic thoughts ran through my mind. Billie’s health came first, no matter what, and my heart clenched when I wondered what she might have felt inside right then.
Thoughts then skipped to the future and how she would cope with two more babies, and Colby’s feelings too. Eventually when I could no longer suppress them, my own thoughts came, which were mainly ecstatic, but quickly swamped in concerns for my wife, Colby’s feelings in light of how James had felt when I was born, and lastly my commitment to my band.
