Chapter Summary: Lea has a miscarriage scare.
AN: It is the last week of school (for the students, that is) and summer is beginning which means I'll be teaching summer school for the first time, but at least I got this story to look forward to uploading. I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)
It was the middle of the night when Shaun and a 15 weeks pregnant Lea were sleeping peacefully in their bed, thinking about all the things that were on their minds - Shaun's last year of residency and deciding which field he was going to choose for his fellowship next year, the surgery Shaun was working on and his shift that was in seven hours, Lea's to-do list of technical projects and training the new intern, which of the job candidates Lea was going to hire as her assistant, and of course the pregnancy.
Suddenly, Lea was awoken by the feeling of a dull, sharp pain in her abdomen and lower back as she felt a drop of liquid trickle into her panties. Concerned, she pulled the covers off and then turned on the bedside lamp only to see crimson stains that saturated the inseam of her pajama bottoms.
She was bleeding. It wasn't a lot…but still, it was enough to make her jump to the heartbreaking conclusion that she lost this pregnancy.
No! It can't be! She thought.
She and Shaun successfully tried for another baby, and then failed once again, and she was devastated right down to the bone. She actually believed pessimism would minimize her disappointment, but it didn't. She felt the exact same amount of heartache she had experienced the last time.
Was this the universe's way of telling her that she doesn't deserve to be a mother, by punishing her with pregnancy loss?
"Shaun!" She cried, bursting into tears.
Shaun, who had been sound asleep the entire time, was jolted awake by Lea's yell. He looked around the room and then saw the blood.
Terrified, he just froze.
No! No! No! He thought. This wasn't fair! This wasn't supposed to be happening!
As Shaun's anxiety and tension built up, so did the rumbling path that usually leads to a meltdown, which he was now squarely on the road for. But he needed to pull himself together and assess the situation and keep Lea calm given her own current emotional state.
They had already suffered through pregnancy loss, and now they were going through it again just like they dreadfully expected.
Whatever was happening, he knew that he needed to get Lea to the hospital because the first diagnosis he could come up with was a miscarriage. If this was an incomplete miscarriage, bits of tissue from the pregnancy could still be in her uterus.
He grabbed for his phone, ordering a Lyft, and then scooted over towards Lea, who was sobbing uncontrollably, to comfort her. Shaun was shedding tears as well. He and Lea tried not to get so attached to this baby out of fear of losing it, yet now that they've actually lost their would-be rainbow baby, sadness, disappointment, and heartache was all he could feel right now.
He remembered that Lea didn't want another fish at first when they lost Hubert, and she made it very clear when she found out that she was pregnant this time that she did not want to try again if she also lost this pregnancy.
"We have a Lyft on the way. It'll take us to the hospital," Shaun blubbered, trying to stay rational as he held his wife in his arms, before asking her a necessary medical question. "Do you know if any tissue with clot-like material passed from your vagina? This is important because we'll need to bring it to the hospital."
"I don't know," Lea whimpered, shaking her head. "I can't even bear to look. I don't want to see the dead fetus."
"We need to go to the hospital. There is a risk of hemorrhage or infection if the fetus isn't expelled."
Their Lyft eventually arrived, and then they made their way to St. Bonaventure.
When they arrived at the emergency room, Morgan was the on-call doctor who assigned herself to see and tend to them.
Shaun stood by Lea's side, holding her hand as Morgan performed a pelvic exam, searching for the source of the bleeding.
Strangely, she didn't feel the pain anymore…but still, better safe than sorry.
Some people would think that Lea would feel awkward and uncomfortable at the idea of her husband's colleagues examining her right below the waist, but Claire had already given her a transvaginal ultrasound once. Claire, Jordan, Dr. Lim, and a few nurses have already seen her half naked as she definitely wasn't wearing any underwear for the surgery she received to fix her vasa previa during her previous pregnancy.
However, she wasn't sure how she felt about Shaun's male colleagues doing this as she was definitely uncomfortable with that.
"The amniotic sac hasn't ruptured," informed Morgan, glaring at them with sadness. "I'm going to need to perform an ultrasound to confirm if a miscarriage occurred. You're also going to need a blood test."
Once the ultrasound was given to Lea, she and Shaun were surprisingly able to take a breath of relief when they heard a thumping sound.
"Is that the fetal heartbeat?" Shaun pondered, immediately recognizing the sound and wondering if he was just imagining it, hoping he wasn't.
"Yes," Morgan immediately smiled at the couple, looking relieved herself as she continued to examine Lea and what was happening on the monitor. "Honestly, everything looks just fine with the fetus. You may have just experienced a threatened miscarriage."
Shaun had just realized that in hindsight, although he knew bringing Lea to the hospital was the wise thing to do.
So, I had a miscarriage, but it wasn't a miscarriage? She questioned silently.
"So, I did miscarry?" Lea inquired, looking confused and not understanding the medical terminology or the paradox Morgan had told her.
"Not really," Morgan explained. "You're still pregnant and the fetus is still alive and stable. What you are experiencing is a threatened miscarriage, which is a false miscarriage…which also explains why your pain has stopped and why there wasn't a lot of blood. But it's completely understandable. Abdominal pain and bleeding can be scary when you're pregnant, especially after loss."
"What is the outcome?" Lea asked, relieved yet still scared. She looked at Shaun, who was also still scared.
"Most women who experience a threatened miscarriage go on to deliver healthy babies. Your cervix is still closed shut and the fetus is still attached to the wall of your uterus," explained Morgan. "Therefore, it is possible for you to carry to term."
"Okay," Shaun blubbered, relieved that they still had the baby, but still afraid that something was wrong. "I would still like tests to be done and be double-checked, though. I want every possible complication to be ruled out - cervical polyps, fibroids, subchorionic hemorrhage, placental abruption, placenta previa, vasa previa, blood clots."
Morgan rolled her eyes at Shaun's list of possible diagnoses (all of which included vaginal bleeding as a symptom), but completely understood why he wanted the tests done, especially vasa previa. Lea was carrying his child and the last time she was, she lost the pregnancy. Shaun probably wasn't going to be relieved until it was established that absolutely nothing was wrong with Lea or the fetus.
Typical Shaun, she thought.
"He won't sleep until every possibility is ruled out," reminded Lea, smirking a bit.
"I'll page Dr. Garcia and have her do the tests," sighed Morgan, looking for the OB/GYN that was on call.
After every test was performed, Dr. Garcia told Shaun and Lea that there were no complications affecting Lea or the fetus, so they were safe to go home. However, she recommended that Lea takes it easy for two weeks, which also meant no sex during those two weeks.
On their way back home, Shaun and Lea were immediately brought back to the night that they lost their last baby. It was one of the worst nights of their lives, and the fact that this was just a scare didn't make them feel any more relieved.
Suddenly, his phone dinged and then he saw a text from Dr. Lim.
DR. LIM: I just heard from Morgan about the scare, and I'm glad that it was a false alarm and that Lea and the baby are fine. However, I think you should take the day off tomorrow because you and Lea had a rough and scary night.
Honestly, Shaun was too freaked out and paranoid to want to go to work tomorrow, and was glad that Dr. Lim gave him permission to stay home.
As for Lea, she was going to be working from home for a couple of weeks because although this wasn't an actual miscarriage, she wondered if her body was showing signs that she might miscarry later on like this was an infant or pregnancy loss omen.
There were no serious complications…yet.
When Shaun and Lea finally got home, instead of hugging each other for sighs of relief that their baby was okay, they were tightly embracing each other because this moment triggered their memory of Lea collapsing outside the hospital from abdominal pain and Shaun frantically yelling for help.
They still haven't moved on from Eleanor.
AN: Let me know what you think of this chapter and how you think this incident will affect the rest of Lea's pregnancy. Also, what field do you think Shaun should choose for his surgical fellowship?