Chapter three. I don't own SWAC. Please review! :)

"Morning, sunshine."

I looked up at Chad's beautiful face and smiled. It took me a while to remember I was in a hospital bed, a bunch of wires connecting me to a machine that was making sure my heart was about to explode. "How long was I asleep?" I asked. I could see light streaming through the plain white blinds in the corner, but that alone told me nothing about the time of day.

"A while. You fell asleep at ten last night and it's nine in the morning now. A nurse came in and checked your vitals around four am," Chad told me.

"Really? I don't remember waking up."

"Yeah, I guess that Benadryl they gave you knocked you out pretty good. The nurse didn't approve of me sleeping with you, but you had your fingers wrapped so tightly around my arm there wasn't exactly a question of me leaving."

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

"That's okay. I didn't want to leave you anyway." Chad brushed his lips against my forehead, and a shiver went down my spine.

"I'm glad you didn't," I told him sincerely, kissing him back. Unfortunately we were interrupted a few seconds later when a short, older woman knocked on the door and walked in, followed by a portly, middle-aged man with a goatee. I looked at them with disdain, wishing they'd just go away so I could have a few more minutes with Chad.

"Hello, Sonny. I'm Jennifer Azzi, doctor of endocrinology," said the woman, her lined face splitting into a calm smile. Her papery skin was a light brown, and the long braid going down her back was thick and dark. I guessed she must have had some Middle Eastern somewhere in her background, especially considering her surname. "This is Dr. Coleman, my colleague," the woman gestured to the man.

"What's endocrinology?" I asked, feeling a little stupid.

"Endocrinology is a branch of medicine dealing with the endocrine system, which is a system of glands that secrete hormones," Dr. Azzi explained, her voice calm as ever. I couldn't understand how someone could be so at ease in a hospital.

"What does that have to do with Sonny?" Chad asked. I was glad to see he didn't know any more about this than I did.

"Well you see, the thyroid plays a major role in the endocrine system, and yours hasn't been functioning properly. At first we thought it was just hyperthyroidism, which is a condition where the thyroid produces an excess of hormones that the body doesn't need, but other factors have determined that it's beyond that. According to your test results, you have Graves' disease."

I stared at the doctor blankly. What the heck was Graves' disease? It sounded ominous—I mean, sticking 'graves' in front of anything, especially a word like disease, will make it scarier—but the name didn't tell me much. I wasn't even sure where my thyroid was, but considering that every nurse and doctor who had seen me had felt my neck, I figured it was somewhere in there.

Dr. Coleman must have noticed my bewildered expression. "Graves' disease is an autoimmune disease. In most cases it makes the thyroid increase in size and become overactive, causing such symptoms as increased heartbeat, muscle weakness, irritability, and weight loss. It also causes things like a tremor in the hands and protuberance of the eyes."

I looked down at my hands. It wasn't until now that I saw that they were shaking slightly, almost imperceptibly. Why hadn't I noticed these things before? I mean, I felt perfectly fine. Every time someone had asked if my eyes or neck hurt in any way, my answer had been no. Anything that I had noticed, like throwing up all the time or being irritable, I had thought was entirely part of being pregnant.

"You probably weren't aware of a difference because it was so gradual. We believe you've had this disease for nearly two years now, according to when your husband told us some of your symptoms began to arise," Dr. Azzi said.

I narrowed my eyes at Chad, feeling slightly betrayed. Why hadn't he talked to me about it first?

"It was very hard to detect, however, especially since your heart rate didn't start to escalade so much until recently. Now, because of your pregnancy, we have to be very careful with treating the disease. Since we can't entirely eliminate the problem radioactively or with surgery without running a risk of harming the baby, we're going to try putting you on two medicines; Methimazole, which regulates the thyroid, and Propanolol, which slows down the heart rate and lowers the blood pressure. If all goes well the Graves ' disease will go away. We'll be watching you carefully, however, to make sure nothing goes wrong. You may actually improve during the rest of your pregnancy, although this kind of disease has a tendency of returning and sometimes even worsening after the birth."

I sighed. In other words, I was going to be seeing a lot more of the doctor's office and the hospital in the next couple of months than I cared for.

****

"Are you okay?" Chad asked. We were driving home in his new Mercedes SUV—a vehicle chosen, according to him, for the baby, although I had my suspicions.

"Can you stop asking me that? I'm fine. It's not like I have cancer or anything." I hated myself for being so snappish, but I was tired of being looked at like I was about to break. True, I was a little depressed about the whole Graves ' disease thing, but other people had it a lot worse than I did. It wasn't like I had been given only a few weeks to live or anything.

"Honestly, Sonny, the doctors just asked me a bunch of questions. It wasn't until then that I started remembering all the little things that had changed since I first met you."

"You still could have told me first."

"What would you have done? Yelled at me and then ignored me for a week? I don't see how that would be any better."

I bit my lip, knowing he was right. Had he told me about any of the little changes in my behavior beforehand, I wouldn't have taken it so well. "Sorry," I said in a small voice.

Chad reached over with his free hand and covered mine with it. "Hey, everything's okay. At least we caught it before it was too late. They're going to get rid of it in no time. And remember, I love you. I'm going to make sure you get better."

I smiled at him, comforted by his touch. "I love you too," I told him.

I actually have experience with what Sonny has. Last year I found out I had Graves' disease after going to see the doctor. It scared me even more that the doctor was freaking out lol. Anyway he sent me to Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN (which is near where I live) and I had to do all the things Sonny had to do. Yes I was crying lol. But at least they found out before it was too late. I'm doing better now--I was taking Methimazole and Propanolol and now it's actually going away. So anyway yeah I thought I might as well incorporate it into my stories at some point, especially since it's an unusual disease; I hadn't heard of it at all before I got it. Unfortunately, I didn't have someone like Chad watching over me ha.