Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property ofBuffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
The Waiting Game - Chapter 15
"Yes, what seems to be the problem?" Martin asked without looking up from the notes that he was reading.
"Well it's been over a year now we've been going to that clinic in Truro that you sent us to, and still no baby," Jennie Millinger told him.
"They say it's my fault, low sperm count cos of the steroids, just like you said Doctor Ellingham," Jimmy Millinger said.
"I see. Well they are the specialists in infertility, so I'm not quite sure what you want from me?" Martin asked rather impatiently.
"They've been talking about some procedure or something that might help us, but we don't really understand the leaflets they've given us, so we thought maybe you could explain what it's all about, so we can understand it a bit better," Jennie explained, as she passed the papers over to Martin.
"Ah right, I see. Well I'll try to explain it as simply as I can for you both, Mrs Millinger," Martin said, realising that this could take a while.
He had a full list this afternoon - he was finding that with his surgery clinic taking out at least one afternoon a week, it was putting increased pressure on his appointments on the other days. It didn't look as if he would be able to get home early tonight, much as he wanted to. His eye kept being drawn to his medical bag where he'd put the pregnancy testing kit ready to take home.
"Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection, or ICSI is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg. This procedure is most commonly used to overcome male infertility."
Martin explained the procedure to them, using his slow and loud voice that he reserved for particularly thick patients. Even so he saw by the glazed look of incomprehension on their faces that he was going to have to take it down several more levels for them to have any idea of what he was talking about. He sighed as he privately wondered whether it was really a good idea to let a couple with such an obviously low IQ go to such extremes to reproduce. They finally left after half an hour of explanations and diagram drawing from him.
"Thanks Doc, Uncle Jimmy thinks the world of you, says you've been really helpful with some research and stuff for him. Thanks for putting their minds at rest," Pauline whispered as she handed the next lot of patient notes to Martin.
His next patient was Courtney, one of the giggling bevy of teenage girls that regularly shouted 'tosser' at him when he was out in the village.
She wasn't giggling now though.
"I'm late...you know...my monthly. If I'm expecting, my Mum will kill me, and that tosser Ross from the lifeguards don't wanna know me anymore once he got what he wanted from me, and I haven't got any money to buy a pregnancy test."
Courtney now burst into tears, so Martin had to try to be the sympathetic Doctor figure that he struggled with. The best that he could manage was fetching some tissues and saying,
"Sshh, don't cry now. Umm ...let's find out if you are pregnant before you get too upset hmm, and then we can discuss your options if indeed you are."
'At least she thinks someone else is a tosser now', Martin thought to himself as he carried out a pregnancy test for her, once she had disappeared to the loo and re appeared with a urine sample. Luckily it was negative, so all he had to do then was lecture her about safe sex and adequate protection, wondering to himself what on earth they were teaching them in the sexual educations classes at school these days. But her appointment still overran by ten minutes, putting him even further behind in his list. Now he hoped for a quick, simple sore throat or bad cough case to help him catch up a bit, preferably one unrelated to pregnancy. He needed something to take his mind off Louisa and whether or not she was pregnant, not constantly remind him.
However his next patient was Avril Sumpter, heavily pregnant with her fifth child now.
"I've got terrible heartburn Doctor, and none of the stuff Mrs Tishell gave me had any affect at all," she told him.
Martin wondered whether she had an aversion to using contraceptives for some religious reason maybe, or she was careless, and/or her husband simply couldn't keep it in his trousers – possibly it was all of these things. Either way, she'd been at some stage of pregnancy ever since he'd come down to Cornwall it seemed to him.
"Well what do you usually take for it, and shouldn't you be having your check up at the ante natal clinic at the hospital?" Martin thought she probably knew a lot more about the side of affects and problems of pregnancy than almost anyone else anyway.
"Oh I can't be bothered with going all the way to Truro all the time, can't you just give me a prescription for something a bit stronger that's still safe to take when you're expecting Doc?" she told him.
"Try this." Martin quickly wrote out a prescription for her, glad that she was a quick fix patient.
The next patient was Linda Taylor bringing in her three week old baby, she was an older first time Mum and she was worried that he had a bit of a temperature. Seeing such a tiny baby brought back memories to Martin of when Luke was first born. At least now he felt a lot more at ease in handling and examining small babies, he even managed to put the nappy back on quite expertly.
"I've checked him over thoroughly and everything seems normal including his temperature, so just keep an eye on him and bring him back if anything changes," Martin told the mother, a lot more sympathetically than he would have done before he had had Luke. He remembered only too well how Louisa had worried over every little thing with Luke.
The afternoon dragged on, a constant stream of patients passing through his surgery. Finally, later than usual, he sent off the last one, and allowed Pauline to make her way home. Martin groaned as the phone rang.
"Surgery," he answered it wearily.
"Hi Martin, only me," Louisa said.
"Oh, Louisa...are you ringing to say that you've... that you don't need the pregnancy test anymore?" Martin jumped to this conclusion as that was what had happened the previous month.
"No, no not this time, I was just ringing to see if you'd been called away, I can't wait too much longer to give Luke his food," Louisa explained.
"Yes I'm sorry, I've been running late all afternoon, but I'm just on my way home now," Martin replied.
"Ok, I think he can wait a few more minutes, so see you soon then," Louisa said – they always tried to eat together in the evening if at all possible.
xXx
As Martin walked in through the front door, he was greeted by his little boy toddling up to him excitedly. Luke was, as always, very happy to see his Daddy. Martin put his medical bag down, and picked him up, carrying him into the kitchen. Luke took this opportunity to examine Martin's tie, it felt nice and silky, perfect for rubbing against his nose, which was only slightly runny.
"You can put him straight into his high chair if you like, supper is all ready to serve up now. So, hectic afternoon then? They were practically queuing out of the surgery door when I went past after collecting Luke from Nursery," Louisa said to him as she put their food on the plates, after giving him a quick 'hello' peck on his cheek.
"You could say that," replied Martin as he strapped Luke in and put his bib on. "How are you feeling now?"
"Fine, I'm fine," Louisa reassured him.
"About your fainting spells, it always seems to be when your blood sugar is low, so I want you to promise me that you'll make sure that you eat regularly from now on, don't skip any meals, don't leave it too long between food breaks, carry a biscuit with you if needs be," Martin instructed her.
"Yes Doctor," Louisa replied sarcastically.
"I'm serious Louisa – do you really want a repeat of today's episode with an ambulance and crowds gathered round?" Martin told her.
"No, I don't suppose I do," Louisa admitted.
"And if it turns out that you are...you know...pregnant, then it will be even more important to keep your blood sugar levels up. Perhaps I should double check you for diabetes symptoms; I don't think I've missed anything..." Martin carried on.
"Martin! Can we please just eat our supper without turning it into a medical session," Louisa told him irritably. He could be such an old woman at times, she thought.
"Mmm, well OK, but we'll talk more later when we do the test and see what the result is." Martin was not going to be fobbed off, Louisa's health was a responsibility he took very seriously.
"Only me," Joan called out at the back door.
"Hi, come in," Louisa called out. "Do you want to join us, we're only just starting our supper?" Martin glared at her, they were already running late, and he just wanted to get on with things, find out what was what, know one way or the other.
"No, I won't stop, I've just come by to make sure you're alright, I hear you caused a bit of a scene today Louisa." Joan had been worried when she'd heard what had happened, but as she knew Martin had taken Louisa home, she assumed that things were now OK.
"Oh it was all a fuss over nothing. You know what Joe Penhale is like, makes a drama out of nothing to make himself feel important and give him something to do. I just had one of my dizzy spells, you know, time of the month and all that," Louisa reassured her.
"Ah right, yes I see, what we women have to go through eh? You men don't know you're born, bloody hormones," Joan commiserated with Louisa. She had half hoped it might be a symptom of something else, but it seemed that was not the case. Well she would just have to keep encouraging them to have romantic nights together, they really couldn't afford to put things off too long at their age after all.
Martin kept quiet, he didn't want to contradict Louisa, and she may well be right about her time of the month, but he didn't like giving Joan the wrong impression even if it wasn't actually a lie. On the other hand, he didn't want lots of questions before they knew anything themselves.
"Well make sure you look after her Martin, however busy you are at the surgery," Joan told Martin firmly.
"Well I would if she would only let me," he responded rather curtly.
"Don't start, Martin," Louisa looked at him warningly.
'Like that is it', Joan thought to herself, 'better leave them to it to sort things out then'
"OK, well as long as you're sure you're alright, you know I'm always happy to help at any time with this young man," Joan told them as she gave Luke a kiss goodbye, after helping him to take another mouthful of his dinner, most of which ended up in his bib as he smiled back at Joan.
"Thanks Joan, see you then," Louisa replied.
xXx
Once they'd finished their meal, Louisa took Luke up for his bath while Martin quickly cleared up in the kitchen – there wasn't too much to do, Louisa always cleared up as she went along, she was pretty organised and tidy on the whole, so for the most part she and Martin got along together well in the kitchen, where they both enjoyed cooking.
Martin went upstairs to the bathroom and watched from the doorway.
Luke was enjoying his bath time, Louisa had given him his plastic stacking cups and various other toys to play with in the bath. She was trying to ensure that he emptied the cups in the bath rather than over the edge onto the floor. Luke was having great fun, his gorgeous naked little body all clean now, laughing and chattering – he was such a happy little boy most of the time. A huge surge of love hit Martin as he watched Louisa with their son.
"He's a very lucky child, Louisa, having you as his mother," Martin told her, entering the bathroom and picking up the towel ready to take Luke out of the bath.
She looked up at him and smiled at the unexpected compliment.
"And having you as his father too," Louisa told him back as she lifted Luke out, not noticing that he still had a cupful of water, which he then tipped onto Martin's lap, in a rather embarrassing area.
Finally Luke was sorted, read to, sung to, cuddled, kissed and tucked up in his cot. Martin thought that no child could feel more loved than Luke. He would certainly never grow up feeling that he was unwanted, despite him being an unplanned baby.
xXx
Having changed his wet trousers, Martin and Louisa sat down together on their bed.
"Come on Louisa. I don't think we should put it off any longer," Martin told her. "It doesn't matter if it's negative, because I freely admit that I'm rather enjoying all the trying."
"Yes, so I'd noticed," Louisa teased him.
"And you're not? That's not the impression you've been giving me," Martin told her with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe I'm just a good actress," Louisa replied, kissing him.
"Then I think you deserve several Oscars," Martin said as he returned her kiss.
"Where's the sample pot then, I'll see if I can come up with the necessary goods," Louisa said.
Martin didn't need asking twice, he disappeared off to get the sample pot and the test. He took the opportunity to take the phone off the hook, switch off their mobiles and lock the doors. He felt they deserved a few minutes of no interruptions, and he wasn't on call after all. Joan had already been in, so there was no one else they need worry about.
"Here you are then," he said as he handed it to her, and she disappeared into the en suite bathroom.
"Present for you," she joked as she returned with the pot filled.
"You certainly give me the nicest things," Martin joked back to cover his nervousness. He was pretty sure that Louisa was going to be upset if it was negative again, whatever she said. So was he for that matter, he realised.
He did the test and they waited. To cover his nerves, Martin did his usual trick of waffling on with a medical explanation.
"Pregnancy tests detect the presence of the pregnancy hormone in the body. This hormone is called Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or HCG. usually this is present from a very early stage of pregnancy and can be detected, however..."
"Martin – shut up!" Louisa told him playfully as she kissed him on the lips, knowing him well enough now to understand how he was feeling.
Finally it was time to look, which they did together.
"Positive. It's positive, you are pregnant Louisa," Martin said, suddenly feeling very emotional. He'd done tests many times before for other people, and had watched in a detached way how they reacted, but now he was experiencing those feelings.
"Wow. Pregnant. Another baby. We're going to have another baby, Martin," Louisa ran her hand to her belly, not quite believing this was happening.
Martin put his hand on top of hers on her belly too. This time he knew about it at exactly the same moment that she did, and it made him feel very privileged and emotional. He took her in his arms in a big bear hug, and buried his face in her neck to hide the tears in his eyes.