Chapter 37: New Ground
Author: zeusfluff.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Blue Blood's characters. They belong to CBS. But I own all originals. Date Started: 11/26/23. Date Finished: 12/2/23. Enjoy!
Jamie took a deep breath and walked into the semi-cleared out conference room that was quickly filling up with expectant couples. He didn't think he'd be this nervous to teach a Lamaze class. Each couple entered the room and began setting their things down. Once they were all settled, Jamie cleared his throat and smiled at the 6 couples in the room.
"First off, I would just like to welcome everyone. I would like to start off with introducing myself. Give you guys a little back story on me before we get started. Then I'll give the floor to each of you individually and you'll tell me a little bit about yourselves. My name is Doctor Jameson Reagan. I've been an Obstetrician at Saint Victor's for the last four years. I graduated from med school at Colombia. I've successfully delivered 4,500 babies. I have a wife who works for the NYPD. I also have a four-month-old daughter. Who is everything to me. Now, who would like to introduce themselves first?"
Just as one woman to the left of Jamie was about to introduce herself, another from the back spoke up, clearly in some sort of distress.
"Ow! Something's wrong!"
Jamie was quick to get to the distressed woman. Her face was red and full of sweat. Leaning down next to her he spoke.
"What's your name? I need you to take a deep breath and relax."
The woman looked up at Jamie with frightened eyes.
"Estella Grayson. This is my husband, Darren. I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions on and off lately, but this feels different. Am I in labor?"
Jamie gave her a comforting and confident look.
"We'll figure that out, ok? What I want you to do is lie back on your pillow behind you. Your husband Darren is going to get behind you and prop your pillow up, so you're sitting up slightly. There we go."
Jamie knew that everyone in the room was watching with nervous energy. He looked at the rest of the couples and shook his head.
"I'm sorry everyone. Unfortunately, I'll have to cancel today's class. If you could all please exit the door you came in. We'll start again next week."
There were a few groans of disappointment. But they all understood. Soon the conference room was empty and it was just Jamie, Sandy, Mara, Estella and her husband Darren. She whimpered and let out a cry.
"Ow! It really hurts!"
Jamie gave her a sympathetic look.
"I know Estella. I want you to take a deep breath and relax. Tell me if anything hurts when I press down on your stomach ok?"
Estella let out another cry and turned her head away.
"Ow! What was that? The pain in my abdomen! Its different! It's sharp!"
Jamie's concern grew as he pressed on a few more spots on her stomach.
"Estella, I know you're in pain and I know your scared, but we'll get to the bottom of this, ok? Now, have you felt the baby shift at all?"
Estella spoke between groans.
"She moves around like crazy all the time. But she's been less active lately. What's wrong? Everything feels like its stuck all in one place though. What's going on? I thought I felt something wet down by my feet. It's kind of sticky."
Mara was way ahead of Jamie on his same train of thought. She handed Jamie a smaller version of an ultrasound. Sandy squeezed Estella's hand while Mara put some gel on her belly. Jamie took the wand from Mara and moved it slightly. His frown grew bigger as he moved the wand a bit more.
"Estella, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your baby is going to need to come out. You have a placental abruption. It's where the placenta detaches from the uterus. You're going to need a C-section. Who's your OB?"
Estella looked up at Jamie blearily and managed to get a response out.
"Doctor Carollson. Can you call her for me?"
Jamie was already two steps ahead, pulling his phone out.
"Jenna. Hi. Yeah. Jamie Reagan. I have a patient of yours here Estella Grayson. She's here with me right now. She's part of my Lamaze class I'm teaching. She's having lower abdominal pain and a few other symptoms. I'd like your opinion on how to move forward. 5 minutes? Ok."
Jamie hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket. He knelt next to Estella and she pulled him down by his shirt collar.
"Where is Doctor Carollson!?"
Jamie remained calm and spoke to her gently.
"She's on her way. I want you to keep breathing Estella. Just breathe."
Estella nodded and her husband Darren ran a hand through her dark hair.
"It's ok baby. I'm right here. Everything is going to be ok. We'll figure this out ok?"
Five minutes seem to go by and Doctor Carollson walked into the conference room.
"I'm right here Estella. Everything's going to be ok. What have you got Doctor Reagan?"
Jamie kept the frown on his face and handed the ultrasound wand over to Doctor Carollson.
"Lower abdominal pain, decreased fetal movement, she also has an unusually large uterus. The baby is tiny for being 27 weeks. She's having contractions but they aren't close together. But they do keep coming. It's not Braxton-Hicks. She also mentioned she felt something sticky down by her feet."
Doctor Carollson nodded and looked at Estella seriously.
"Estella. Is it ok if I have a look? Don't worry, I'll be quick. I just want to see what we're dealing with here."
Estella nodded and moved her legs slightly. A blanket had been placed over her. She had become cold all of a sudden. Jamie nodded his head and confirmed with Doctor Carollson.
"Definitely a placental abruption. Let's get her up to the OR. Quickly."
Estella's eyes became wide.
"A C-section? I promised myself I'd never get one. Can't I just deliver naturally?"
Doctor Carollson shook her head and reassured Estella.
"Estella, I know your scared right now, but the safest thing right now for your baby is if we do a C-section. Doctor Reagan and I will make sure everything goes smoothly. Everything's going to be just fine."
Estella couldn't think straight. She tried to stifle another scream. Doctor Carollson and Jamie quickly and gently helped her up onto a stretcher. Mara and Sandy were getting her situated on her left side. Sandy placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. Jamie and Doctor Carollson rolled Estella down the hallway towards the OR. Sandy and Mara rolled her into OR and started working on setting up eight different trays of instruments. An Anesthesiologist was explaining to her what was going on.
"Hi Estella. I'm Doctor Mathews. I'm going to be giving you something to make you feel sleepy. I'm going to be monitoring your vitals. Doctor Reagan and Doctor Carollson are excellent doctors. Your in good hands. Now what I want you to do for me is breathe deeply and count backwards from 20. Good."
Estella felt herself getting sleepy and soon she was down for the count. Doctor Carollson and Jamie entered the OR with confident looks on their faces. Mara and Sandy each helped them put masks and surgical gloves on and put gowns on over their scrubs. Doctor Carollson was the first to look over at the Anesthesiologist and speak.
"How are her vitals?"
Doctor Mathew's looked at each of the machine's Estella was hooked up to and nodded.
"Holding steady."
Doctor Carollson gave a satisfied nod and looked to Jamie.
"I'll let you do the honors Doctor Reagan. You were the one who suspected the abruption."
Jamie nodded and Mara handed him a scalpel. Steadying his breath as he took one in, he spoke.
"Ok, skin to baby in 60 seconds. Almost through. There we are. Mara, Sandy, need both your hands to pull."
Jamie frowned as he took the baby in his arms. He'd been so focused on getting the baby out that he'd completely forgotten about Darren up in the observation lounge just above them.
"Doctor Reagan! She's blue!"
Doctor Carollson quickly took the tiny baby girl from Jamie and placed her in an open and heated crib. A couple of other nurses attended to her while Doctor Carollson and Jamie went back to work trying to control the bleeding. Doctor Carollson was now frowning behind her mask.
"She's going to need at least 5 more units of blood. Someone get some A positive blood from the blood bank! It's really boggy in here. Staying ahead of all this active bleeding is going to be challenging."
Jamie smirked behind his mask.
"You and I can conquer this challenge. We're going to need more lap pads to do it though."
Doctor Carollson nodded her head and kept concentrating on what she was doing. Jamie felt a pit begin to form in his stomach. This was the exact scenario from his nightmare. Maybe it wasn't about Eddie after all. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Mara moved slightly to the left and kept suctioning, but the bleeding continued. She raised a question to both Jamie and Doctor Carollson.
"I think we may need a little more than 5 units of blood. She's going into D I C."
Jamie kept his cool. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Estella. She was going to live.
"I'm not going to let her bleed out. Doctor Carollson won't either. Let's stay ahead of the active bleeding with another 3 units on top of the 5 we already ordered and see where we go from there."
Mara nodded and kept suctioning. Doctor Carollson looked at Sandy and spoke.
"I need more lap pads. These ones we put in are already soaked."
Even though Jamie was breathing, he felt like he was holding his breath. He let out a sigh of slight relief when he heard a single cry behind him. The baby was crying. Not a strong cry, but it was a cry. He hoped this would all work out. He'd never forgive himself if his nightmare came true, even if it wasn't about Eddie.
To Be Continued…
A/N: So here is chapter 37. It's kind of messy all the way around. Let me know what you guys think! Thanks!
