“Rhett, can you walk? This is making me nauseous. It’s okay,” I say. The bright light from outside is not helping one bit.
“I’m coming with you,” my mom says as she opens Rhett’s truck door and loads me inside.
“Of course.”
I sit quietly, panic slowly coursing through me. I’ve been totally fine up until this point. What the hell is wrong with me?I know in my gut what’s happening. It’s getting worse. And the only way to make preeclampsia go away is to get this baby out.
Chapter 37
Rhett
My heart races as I park at the emergency entrance of the hospital in Windy Peaks. I know she really liked our doctor, but with the current situation, the closest hospital sounded like the safest bet.
“Get her inside; I’ll park the truck and then meet up with you guys if I can.” She tries to put on a brave face with a small smile, but behind it, I can see what’s going on. A mom terrified for her little girl.
The automatic doors slide open and the front desk staff immediately sees me with Aspen in my arms. “Let’s get a wheelchair, call Labor and Delivery,” she hollers behind her back to the other worker. “What are you bringing our girl in for?” The lady is older, and I scan the name on the tag. Julie. I don’t remember her from any of Aspen’s stories.
“She has preeclampsia and suddenly got a headache. She also mentioned being dizzy and foggy.” I fumble over my words.
“Okay, if I remember right, you guys were doctoring out of town, correct?”
I nod. “Yeah, we are seeing Dr. Norris. She told Aspen to go to the ER with any worsening of symptoms.”
“Okay, if you can fill out some paperwork, I can get her checked in while they wheel her up for evaluation. They will take her directly to our L&D unit. Dr. Norris works with a sister hospital so all of her notes and important information will be easy to access.”
Within a minute, a nurse comes down and gets Aspen settled in a wheelchair. The knot in my chest loosens a little as I see Aspen smile at her. That’s the one perk of being here right now. We’re in her home hospital. They know her and will take good care of her.
You must be Rhett.” She holds her hand out for me to shake. “I’ve heard a lot about you. It’s great to meet you. I’m Evelyn. I’m an L&D nurse and will be taking care of you guys tonight.”
I shake her hand. “Happy to meet you.”
She smiles, turning back toward Aspen. "Alright, let’s get you checked out sweet girl.” Evelyn runs her hand over Aspen's shoulder, giving her a bit of comfort as she starts pushing her down the hall.
Seeing Aspen in that wheelchair makes me feel so incredibly helpless. There is not a single thing I can do to help her right now.
We walk through the maze of the hospital, lots of automatic doors, badging through doors, and the awful fluorescent lighting.
Finally, I see a set of doors withLabor and Deliveryover them and feel a second of relief.
“Alright, we’ve got you in room five.”
We step in and the light streams through the large glass window, illuminating the large room. The bed fills most of it;a small couch sits flush with the window, and a chair is in the corner. There’s a tiny bassinet next to the bed, and it starts to hit me. There is a very real chance that I will be a dad today.
“Let’s get you comfortable.” Evelyn's voice is soft and calming as she helps Aspen out of the wheelchair and into the bed. Once Aspen is comfortable, Evelyn pulls the blankets up and I walk over to the side of the bed.
I lean in and kiss her forehead. “How you feeling?”
“Not as dizzy but,” she furrows her brow as she searches her thoughts, “kind of like I took benadryl or five.”
“One of the doctors is in-house right now; we’ve already set out an emergent page so she should be here any second. I’m going to take a round of vitals. Once we get some orders in, there will probably be some blood work and maybe some medication.” She walks over and grabs a blood pressure cuff from a machine mounted on the wall.
It’s different seeing this, what Aspen's world looks like when she’s clocked into work here. A different department, but I’m sure it’s a lot of the same stuff. I’ve heard her talk about it a million times, it’s just different seeing it in action, on her.
The first round of vitals come in and I look over to Evelyn's face; her brows shoot up as the initial blood pressure comes through. I don’t know what it means; I know one hundred twenty over eighty is standard, but Aspen's is reading so much higher than that. Even without all the information, I start panicking even worse.
“Your blood pressure is two hundred five over one hundred eleven.”
Aspen looks taken aback as she takes in the information. “Okay, guessing you’re going to load me up with antihypertensives?”
