"Right what have I got?" Jac asked Jonny as she reached the nurses' station, in her scrubs with her stethoscope around her neck.
"30 year-old female, admitted from ED, after an RTC" Jonny began as he handed her the file, and Jac began to flip through the notes, "with a tear in her oesophagus… she's in HDU…"
"Great, looks like we'll use the Japanese procedure on this one then…" Jac uttered as she turned around and walked a few paces up to the door to HDU, and walked in, with Jonny following.
"Morning, Ms Hardy, I'm your consultant Jac Naylor… I need to have a listen to your chest… and Nurse Maconie, get me an ultrasound machine," she began as she took the stethoscope from around her neck and listened to her heartbeat and breathing. As she finished, she wrote down something in her notes.
"I definitely didn't see this coming… I was on my way to the airport…" the female patient uttered, slowly, because of the pain.
"Well, sometimes, things don't go as we planned…" Jac said as she let the pen down, when Jonny walked in with the machine.
"Are there any relatives, you'd like us to contact for you?" Jonny asked politely.
"No… it's just me…" the patient uttered.
Jac moved the probe around her stomach, "right… there's no damage to the spleen, no internal bleeding…" but Jac stopped talking, when something else caught her eye.
"You're pregnant… did you know that?" Jac asked the patient.
"What?!" Ms hardy exclaimed as she sat up a bit to see the screen.
"Yep, this is definitely a heartbeat…" Jac added, as she paused so that they all could have a listen.
The patient sat back again, "but that's impossible, I'm on the pill for God's sake!" she said, looking worried.
"Well… you could have forgotten to take one, had a few drinks, forgotten that you forgot…" she mumbled, as she turned around the bed to write in her notes again.
"This cannot be happening! I don't want it! I'm only 30! I have a life ahead of me!" the patient said in tears.
Jac rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe how much life is unfair, even someone on the pill managed to get pregnant and she didn't even want to keep it… and then there was her.
"You know what? The world would be a much better place, if there were no, irresponsible, spoilt brats like you!" Jac told her, straight and plain.
"Ms Naylor! A word?" Jonny said, as he gave her dagger eyes. Jac followed Jonny outside HDU.
"That was out of line!" Jonny told her, furious.
"Oh please, she deserved it!" Jac replied, coldly.
"You're her doctor… just try and cooperate!" Jonny gave her a piece of advice. The both walked back in, next to the patient.
"You have no right to talk to me like that, I want another doctor! Anyone but her! Before I make a formal complaint!" the patient exclaimed.
"I'm sorry to crush your dreams, but I'm the only one here who has the expertise to do this procedure, so you're stuck with me I'm afraid," Jac said proudly, as she folded her arms.
"Fine… what would you do if you were in my shoes?" the patient asked desperately.
"I can't tell you what to do, but all I can say is that, the risk of losing the baby through your oesophageal repair is minimal…" Jac carefully explained.
"So? Even if it survives this, I'm not keeping it!" the patient yelled.
"And I also think, you should be grateful for what you've been given!" Jac tried to keep patient.
"Grateful? For what? For having this thing that's going to ruin my life?! I have a career to think about, plus travelling the world, how am I going to do that with a kid? Oh and do it on my own?!" she argued.
"Oh yes, where is the baby's father?" Jac said, still stood with her arms folded against her chest.
"Not around… not that I care, we had a brief fling, weeks ago, but we ended it, I don't do commitment..." the patient said, not looking at either Jac or Jonny.
"Exactly… is that how you want to spend the rest of your life? Travelling, alone? Having a few casual flings here and there? And what will you have at the end of the day? Nothing." Jac said, coldly.
"You don't know anything, you know nothing about me!" the patient yelled at Jac.
"Trust me, I know more than you think…" Jac said, as she turned to Jonny, "prep her for theatre please," and left.
"What am I going to do?" the patient sobbed, with Jonny by her bedside.
"well, you need the oesophageal repair anyway, we will book you in today… then see what happens after, you will have time to think this through…" Jonny said, as he left her.
…
Jac returned to her office, stood at her desk and took her stethoscope from around her neck and put it on her desk. She ran her fingers through her hair, in a tired way, when she heard a small knock at the door and it slightly opened, to see Michael poking his head in the door.
"Hey…" he uttered, as he walked in carrying a big bouquet of red roses.
"What's all this?" Jac asked confused.
"These are for you…" he told her as he handed her the roses, "Happy Anniversary!" he said as he pulled her closer to his waist.
"What?" Jac was still lost.
"We got married, 5 months ago today…" he said, smiling, "was passing by the florist downstairs and I thought you'd love them," Jac didn't realise what date that day was.
"well, I'm not a roses romantic, but they are beautiful," she told him, as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
"What's wrong? You look stressed…" he said, looking at her.
"Difficult patient… I'm due in theatre soon…" she said, still in his arms.
"Aw that's a shame, thought we could go on a short coffee break…" he added sarcastically, as he searched for her lips again. But they soon got interrupted, when the door knocked and opened quickly. Michael and Jac pulled apart.
Jonny felt awkward, "sorry to interrupt, Ms Hardy is prepped and good to go, we'll take her to theatre soon,"
"Thank you Jonny," Jac said, before he closed the door, "that's my call… I'll see you tonight," she said as she kissed him on the lips and left.
…
A few hours after surgery, Jonny walked in HDU to check Ms Hardy's obs. She opened her eyes and asked him, "how am I doing?" slowly.
"Good, the consultant checked you over earlier, surgery went well," Jonny said, as he checked her IV fluid, "you are okay now… you both are…" he said smiling as he took down notes in her file. But the patient didn't smile back, she looked away.
…
Jac wearing her coat, handbag in one hand and the roses in the other, she approached the nurses' station and stopped by to speak to Jonny.
"Right, I'm off…" Looking at the patient in HDU, she asked, "How's she doing?"
"BP, pulse and sats remained stable so, yeah all good…" Jonny said, before he left to treat his other patients.
Jac decided to walk in HDU to talk to her before she left, "I think the nurse already told you, everything went well, so I'll see you tomorrow…" she said, as she turned to leave.
"I have decided you know… about the baby…" the patient said slowly.
"and?" Jac asked curiously, as she hesitated to leave.
"I'm going to keep it, I don't want the termination…" she added slowly.
"What changed your mind?" Jac asked her.
"All my life it's been just me… and you were right… now it isn't… I'll see how this goes…" the patient uttered. Jac gave her a smile.
"Nice roses you got there… you must be very special…" the patient added.
"yeah I guess. You know I was in a situation like yours once, but as I said, things don't turn out as we planned them to and sometimes they turn out for the best. Good luck." She said, as again, she turned to leave.
"Ms Naylor…" the patient stopped Jac from leaving again, Jac turned again.
"Thank you… for everything…" she told her.
Jac smiled, "just doing my job," she turned to leave and headed to the lifts.
As she got into her car, and put the roses and handbag on the passenger seat beside her, she sat back and closed her eyes. She opened them and looked at the roses. She realised she couldn't keep living a lie, keep lying to the one person she loved and had in her life. She had to tell him the truth.
She started the engine and drove out of the car park, heading home.
…
As soon as Jac arrived home, she kicked her shoes off her feet, and could smell a pleasant smell of home cooked dinner from the kitchen.
"Michael I'm home!" she raised her voice.
"In here!" he called out from the kitchen. She walked down the corridor and into the kitchen, to see the table all set, with a lit candle in the middle, two glasses of red wine, and dinner served on two plates.
"Dinner is served," he told her smiling, as he slid Jac's chair out from underneath the table, for her to sit.
"wow… you did all this by yourself?" she asked, as he sat down beside her.
"yeah, I finished early, and I thought why not do something special for my wife?" he said, smiling as he leaned across the table and kissed her.
Jac forced a smile, "right… where's Mason?" she asked.
"He's sleeping upstairs…" he said, as he dug into his plate. But noticed Jac hasn't started eating yet.
"Honey, your dinner is going to go cold…" he told her in his typical American accent.
"Sorry, I can't eat… I… um… I have to tell you something…" she said, as she looked at him.
"Is it urgent, can't it wait?" Michael asked, as he took a sip of wine.
"No… I have to tell you now…" Jac said, worried.
"Okay…" Michael said, as he let down his fork on his plate and sat back, "what's wrong?"
Jac paused, "a while ago… I had a pregnancy scare…" she blurted out, even though she lied a bit, she couldn't tell him the whole truth just yet.
"right… but I thought you're on birth control?" Michael asked confused.
"yeah but I… forgot to take one or two and messed up my whole cycle…" she tried to explain.
"But you're not pregnant? Right?" Michael asked confused.
"No… but that's the thing… I stopped taking them…" she was trying to reveal all, slowly.
"I'm confused… we never use anything because I thought you were on birth control…" Michael told her, looking at her, from across the table.
"Exactly… I wish I was… but I can't be…" Jac said slowly, "there is something wrong with me…" partially this was a lie, but she didn't want him to get mad.
Instead of engaging in the conversation, Michael looked down and didn't say anything.
"What's wrong?" Jac asked, who couldn't understand what happened all of a sudden.
He looked up at her again, "look now that we're at it, there is something you should know about me too… something I've been holding in, for so long… I didn't think it would matter to you… that's why I never bothered telling you…"
"Michael, what is it?" she asked curiously, looking at him in the eye.
"You are not the problem… I am. Around a year ago…I had a vasectomy…" he revealed the truth slowly.
Jac's whole body froze.
To be continued...