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“I feel like someone’s stabbing my insides with a knife,” Leslie gasped. “I’m…” She paused when Jared returned with his stethoscope and a black doctor’s bag.
“I’m going to undo your shirt and pants, Leslie, so I can check your stomach.”
Wincing, she nodded.
Chelsea got a cold washcloth, folded it and placed it on Leslie’s forehead while Jared gently positioned his stethoscope on each quadrant of Leslie’s abdomen. When he went to lightly palpate, Leslie jerked, grabbing his hand to stay him.
“I need to check,” he advised, keeping confidence in his eyes as he assured he’d take care of everything, that he’d make her pain go away. He’d do all he could to keep that promise. “I’ll be as gentle as I can.”
Leslie nodded. “Hurry, because something’s terribly wrong.”
“I’m not seeing any scars so I assume you still have your appendix, right?” Chelsea held Leslie’s hand, closely watching his examination.
Jared had been thinking appendicitis, but Chelsea’s question beat him to the punch. Positive guarding. Positive rebound pain.
“I’ve never had surgery.”
“Help me get her to where the ultrasound machine is, and I’ll check her appendix.”
“An ultrasound?” Leslie’s eyes looked panicked. “Are you sure?”
Jared didn’t acknowledge Leslie’s question because there was no doubt that they needed to see what was going on, stat.
“I’m going to call 911 and tell them we have an acute abdomen,” Chelsea said as they assisted a doubled-over Leslie to the exam table.
He set up the machine while Chelsea made the call.
After applying the conductive gel, he placed the wand on Leslie’s stomach, searching for her appendix. What he saw on the screen stilled his hands. Oh, hell.
“I know,” Leslie moaned, her eyes pleading for understanding. “I know.”
A thousand questions ran through his mind, but he had no right to ask anything that wasn’t medically relevant to what was causing Leslie’s pain, what had caused her to pass out. What he saw opened up a whole lot of new possib
ilities.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Chelsea said, reentering the exam room. Her eyes settled on the monitor and widened. “Is that…?” She stopped, clamping her mouth closed and staring at Leslie in wonder.
Leslie’s panicked eyes met theirs. “Am I miscarrying? I know miscarriage is common during the first trimester. Is that why I’m hurting so badly? Am I losing my baby?”
Jared didn’t think so, but couldn’t be sure. “Are you bleeding or leaking any fluids?”
She shook her head, straining to see the ultrasound screen, crying out in pain at her movements. “That’s what I went to the bathroom to check, but then I passed out. I haven’t felt anything.” Leslie’s eyes turned pleading. “Please, tell me I’m not losing my baby.”
“The pregnancy isn’t ectopic, and I don’t see any obvious problems with the amniotic sac or the fetus.”
He wouldn’t go further than saying there wasn’t anything obviously apparent. The sac appeared attached and viable. Certainly, the baby’s heart beat strongly.
He shifted the wand, searching for her appendix. Then he found the enlarged, bulging area of her ascending colon.
“I don’t think you’re miscarrying,” he told her. “But your appendix is going to have to come out straight away.”
Thank God Chelsea had called for the ambulance.
Time was of the utmost essence for two lives rather than just one.
CHAPTER NINE
CHELSEA watched as Leslie was rolled into the operating room. Her appendix would be removed immediately and hopefully the trauma of the surgery wouldn’t affect her pregnancy.
