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Well, this wasn’t what I’d expected to come home to. Lilly was sitting on the couch worried about something, I was sure she had received a letter from Jeff in the mail, or heard something that had upset her about Luke at school. Not that her birth control couldn’t be found and that she’s late for her monthly visitor.
I try to be calm, but I know she’s nervous that I won’t believe that she only now noticed it was gone. I am worried and not about being a daddy, I’m worried that the anesthesia that she underwent could have affected the baby since we didn’t know that she might be pregnant. No one said anything about the blood work done before the surgery, so apparently it hadn’t showed up then.
I head out the back door and onto the porch. I dial the only person I trust with this kind of knowledge, Chris’ dad. He answers his phone and I explain to him what Lilly told me about her implant. He lets me know that it is rare, but they can fall out. When I ask about the effects of anesthesia on the baby he tells me that typically they wouldn’t do surgery during the first trimester unless it was necessary, so apparently she was early enough in her pregnancy that the hormone was undetectable. If that is true, and she is pregnant then the baby shouldn’t have been affected by the anesthesia.
He tells me to take her to the hospital and see if they can locate the implant before we start to panic. Sometimes a medical professional can find them when the person it’s been put in can’t because it moved. Also they can do a pregnancy test and tell her almost immediately if she is pregnant or if the period is just late because of her hormones during the surgery. I thank him for his advice and then I call Chris to come over and watch Luke after we eat dinner so that I can take Lilly to the hospital. Then I order the go to pizza it’s the quickest to be delivered to the house and once its ordered I go back to talk to Lilly.
“Lillybear.” I call out as I head into the bedroom. She must have fallen asleep. I gently shake her and she wakes up. “Hey babe, I spoke with a doctor and they recommend we go to the hospital later tonight to see if a doctor can locate your implant. Also, if they can’t find it they can do a pregnancy test and tell us right away if we are expecting or not.
“What about Luke?” She asks concerned about how we will explain this to him.
“Shh. Babe, I’ve got Chris coming over and he’s going to stay here with Luke so we can leave and he’ll not be alone, or know until we are ready to tell him what’s going on.
“Okay. What’s for dinner?” She asks me knowing my go to for dinner.
“Pizza.” I say and she rolls her eyes. I don’t think that she wanted pizza tonight. The pizza arrives, as well as Chris who pretends he’s just visiting. We let Lilly put Luke to bed and Chris stays in the living room watching television allowing us to slip out of the house without Luke knowing we’d left.
The drive to the hospital is quiet, Lilly is worried herself sick. She barely ate any of her pizza, but Luke had made up for it by eating an extra slice than normal, since Lilly didn’t make a salad to go with the pizza. We arrive at the hospital and check Lilly in. Since she’s not an emergency we have a while to wait. I hold her hand until they call her back. She has to rehash the whole story to the triage nurse who takes her vitals and sends us back out to the waiting room. The hours are ticking by until Lilly is finally called back.
When the doctor comes into the room he reads the chart that has been made and asks Lilly why she didn’t just go to her obstetrician to have it checked, he’s slightly annoyed that we came to the emergency room for a non emergent case. She explains that she doesn’t have an OB here and that there was over a month wait to see one as a new patient. He now sees the urgency in this particular case.
He has her show him where she had the implant placed and where she usually feels it. He questions her when the last time she felt it was, and how often she feels for it and she answers him, apparently it was satisfactory since all he does is nod and try to manipulate the arm to find the implant. He can’t find it either so he wants to do some more tests. He says an X-ray will show if the implant is still in her arm. He also orders blood work and a urine sample.
I feel bad for her, she is worried sick and an X-ray could affect the baby. I can’t go with her to the X-ray, but she informs me they took all precautions during the X-ray to prevent any fetus from being exposed. The nurse comes in and takes a vial of blood and gives her instructions for giving the urine sample. I don’t understand why people have to be told how to pee in a cup, but that’s just me.
A long wait later and the doctor finally comes into the room. He’s holding an X-ray and he puts it on the light board. When he turns the light on he points to the area where Lilly usually can find her implant, but it’s not there. It’s nowhere in her arm. With this being confirmed I ask the question, since the doctor is beating around the bush. “Is she pregnant, or is her period just late?”
He clears his throat and steps closer to the door before he answers my question. “My lady, you are pregnant. You need to contact an OB of your choice and start getting prenatal care. I am concerned since you mentioned that you underwent surgery before you knew you were pregnant that there may be side affects that we aren’t aware of.” He answers my question and gives Lilly some advice. Before he asks her, “I know this wasn’t planned, and it’s too late for the plan b pill, do we need to discuss the options you have?”
She only shakes her head she knows the options. She’s been through this once before, that I know of. I can tell from her reaction that this isn’t what she wanted. I don’t know what to say to her to let her know that it happens, and I’m okay with being a father. Truth be told I can’t picture her not in my life anymore. Being a father isn’t going to trap me, I’m kinda looking forward to it. It’s her body and I’m going to let her decide what she wants to do about the situation.
The doctor writes up the discharge notes and in another hour we are finally out of the hospital and on the way home. We get home and it’s past midnight. Chris has passed out and Luke is in his room sleeping like a baby. Chris woke up the moment we opened the door. He’s sitting up when we enter the living room he says, “So what’s the verdict?”
I hadn’t told him exactly why I needed to take Lilly to the hospital. At hearing this she starts bawling. I shoot him a go to hell look, and he shoots back a questioning look. I pull Lilly closer to me and hug her tight I whisper in her ear, “It’s okay. He doesn’t know.”
She looks at me with tears in her eyes. I want her to know that everything is going to be fine and I won’t tell Chris if she doesn’t want me to. I ask her,”Is it okay to tell him why we went to the hospital?”
She nods in agreement because she’s going to have to tell Kathy if she needs her help with anything. I look at Chris who is anxiously waiting on me to tell him what’s going on. I let Lilly take a seat on the couch before I sit next to her and hold her hand. Then I finally spill the beans.
“Well, Lilly’s birth control apparently fell out in the last six weeks and she couldn’t find it earlier today, so we decided to go to the hospital.” I pause as I can see that Chris is processing the information that I’m dumping on him.
“Well, Lilly and I are expecting a baby!” I finally blurts out.
“Wow! That’s great my best friend and my wife’s sister. I was wondering how long it was going to take the two of you to realize what y’all have.” He says smiling. Apparently it’s not the kind of reaction that Lilly was expecting especially after she got pregnant with Luke at sixteen and the reaction her family had.
“Really, do you think that Kathy will be happy for me?” She questions her brother in law.
“Hell yeah! She’s been telling me how much better you look since Anthony and you started living together.” Chris tells Lilly and it seems like her tears start to dry up.
“I promise you Lilly if Anthony does anything to hurt you, you tell me and I’ll straighten his ass out.” Chris tells Lilly.
I can see that this is all weighing on Lilly’s mind. She still isn’t sure what to think about the surprise pregnancy. I am happy for us, Chris is happy, and he’s sure Kathy will be happy for us.