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“Hello, Bella, follow me, please.”
I followed her down a hall where she stopped at the first door she came to and opened it up. “Take a seat. The doctor will be with you shortly,” she said, placing my file in the hanging folder on the door.
As I sat there looking around, my eyes kept landing on my file that sat in the holder on the door. I could always just take a quick peek, I thought to myself. When I had just about built up the nerve, I heard a door open and the doctor appeared.
“Bella. I’m Dr. Alonzo Love.” He opened the file and looked over a couple of things before he shut the door. He smiled at me and then sat down behind his computer. “So, what is bringing you in today?”
“Well…” I looked around the room and rubbed my hands together, trying to gather my thoughts. “Sorry, I’m a little nervous.”
“No need to be. This is a safe space. Take your time.” He smiled at me and sat back against the chair.
“A few years ago, I was having a hard time trying to conceive, and Dr. Kavanaugh diagnosed me as being infertile. It seems, though, that perhaps the diagnosis was incorrect, and well, after being intimate with someone recently, it seems I am pregnant.”
“I see. So, what did Dr. Kavanaugh say the cause of the infertility was? Did he do any tests?” he said, glancing down to my file.
“From what I remember, he didn’t say what the cause was. He did some blood work, other than that, nothing. My ex-husband and I at the time were trying to have children, and I just couldn’t conceive.”
“I see. Do you think the problem could have been him?”
“I don’t know. He said it was all me.” I shrugged.
“Who did? Dr. Kavanaugh?”
“No, my ex. He was irritated, perhaps disappointed, and he booked me in with my family doctor, who sent me to Dr. Kavanaugh. After the blood work that Dr. Kavanaugh ordered came back, he told me I couldn’t have children.”
“So, he did no other tests, no ovulation testing, no hormone testing, imaging tests?”
“No.”
Dr. Love flipped through my file, studying my history, then he stopped to look at what I hoped was my most recent blood work report. “Well, Bella, I can tell you that your recent blood work came back, and you are pregnant.”
“Hmm.” I nodded my head. “I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time understanding how that is possible.”
The doctor sat back and clicked his pen. “Bella, would you say at the time of the diagnosis that you were highly stressed, perhaps a little anxious? That the situation you and your husband were facing was, perhaps, a little more than you could handle at the time?”
A lot anxious and extremely stressed was more like it. Miles wasn’t patient or understanding. “Yes, it would be fair to say that.”
“Were you at the time being treated for depression when this was going on?”
I nodded and picked at my fingernail as I sat there. “I wasn’t on depression medication, but my family doctor said he had noticed changes in me, and he was watching me for signs of depression.”
“I see,” Doctor Love said, clicking his pen. “Did you know that high periods of stress, anxiety, and depression can severely alter your ability to get pregnant? That it can take years for you to regulate your body again after the stress is gone?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t.”
“I take it Dr. Kavanaugh didn’t mention any of these things to you?”
I shook my head. “He never even hinted at any of those questions.”
“I see.” Dr. Love made some notes. “How long has your ex been your ex?”
“We are closing in on a year now.”
“And how have your stress levels been?”
“Good, aside from recently. My mom just passed away. But I spent most of the summer working with a friend of mine at her bakery and just focusing on myself. I met someone, but I was upfront and honest about what it was I wanted, which was only friendship. It just so happened that things went an unexpected way between us.”
“There is nothing wrong with that. Also, self-care is an amazing way to heal. You need to more of that, especially right now, after all the stress of your mom. Which I’d like to say that I am sorry for your loss.”
