Hhoooeeekkkk... You poured your stomach content into the toilet bowl before wiping your mouth and flushing it down the toilet. You received a glass of warm water from Mark gratefully. He eyed you carefully, "Are you okay?"
You nodded lightly, "Yeah, I'll be fine. Most women experience morning sickness, so it's nothing new."
He crossed his arms, "Are you still going to work with that condition?"
You huffed a short breath, "It's just morning sickness, which is natural for pregnant women. It's not like I'm dying," you rolled your eyes but Mark wasn't having it.
"Seriously Mae, you need to take it seriously. I swear...," he shook his head, unable to finish his sentence as you've cut him.
"I'm fine. I'll pay attention to my body more, and I'll take a break if it gets worse," you promised him.
When you found out that you were pregnant, it was still early. The sonogram only showed the gestational sac inside your womb. At least they have ruled out ectopic pregnancy and you only carried single fetus in you. However, since it was still early, there was a possibility that the fetus wasn't viable. You had to wait until its heart formed and beat then you could be sure that the fetus was alive. And it scared you. You didn't want to admit it, but you were afraid that maybe it was just false pregnancy. Maybe the fetus wasn't viable. There were so many bad scenarios running through your head and it made you feel worse since you experienced bad morning sickness. Mark's mother and his older sister were kind enough to share their experience, advising some peppermint tea or ginger tea and other remedies to soothe the nausea. But your work didn't allow you to sit and enjoy a cup of hot tea. You just sucked it up and went on with your work as usual.
You just forced yourself to chow down your sandwich to fill your stomach but several minutes later it all came back and went into the toilet bowl.
"You okay?" your colleague looked concerned when you came back to the office.
"Yeah, I'm okay," you dismissed her but she kept looking at you.
"You look pale. Are you sure you're not coming down with any bug?" she asked.
"No. I'm not sick," you reassured her and she let it go at last, returning to her post, leaving you by yourself in your office. You knew that even though it's called morning sickness, it didn't mean that it only occured in the morning. You've hears that some women experienced it all day. Even throughout the pregnancy and not just the first trimester. You hoped that wasn't the case with you. You couldn't imagine not being able to work for the whole pregnancy.
You managed to finish a cup of hot sweet tea, just the regular one, without vomitting. That was good, considering nothing else could get into yout stomach aside from some water. You decides to try eat some digestive biscuits to fill your stomach. It might not be the most nutritious, but you had to fill your stomach with something. You were relieved when you managed to swallow a piece. And then another, and another one. You stopped yourself before the nausea came back. At least you got some fuel to go on with your work.
Mark was beyond concerned when you threw up again after dinner. He interrogated you and you confessed that you could only eat several digestive biscuits. Luckily, when you tried to eat some fruit, nothing happened so Mark let you go back to work the next day. Though with strong warning that if you kept vomitting, he would pick you up and carried you back home despite your protest. Back at the hospital, the nausea was getting worse. You couldn't stand the smell at the cafetaria so you decided eat more digestive biscuits. With a cup of hot sweet tea. You knew that it wasn't enough, so when the nausea got worse, you asked one od your colleague to inject you with anti vomitting medication. With your OBGYN's permission, that is.
But the drug didn't help much. In fact, the lack of proper meal started to show its ugly rear. You started to feel dizzy but you needed to be on you feet, especially since today there was a training for the new nurses. You had to supervise the whole event. You eyed your watch nervously. Two more hours ans you wore you would go home right away. Or Mark would be on your toes. He threatened to pick you up if you dared to work late. You chewed the inside of your cheek, wondering what uproar that he would cause in the hospital if he ever showed up. Since you moved to the LA branch, Mark has never stepped foot into the hospital per your request. Your colleagues mostly wasn't into k-pop so they didn't follow the news of your infamous proposal and wedding and you intended to keep it that way.
"Sorry, I need to go back to my office for a bit," you excused yourself since the dizziness was getting worse. You calculated that you could get another injection and then forced yourself to eat so you could face the last 2 hours. You marched toward the emergency clinic to find someone to help you. Slowly, since the dizziness has turned into pounding headache. The nausea came back as well. You paused midway, leanimg against the wall to give you support. But then, everything happened so fast. You heard someone yelling your name, but when you turned to see who it was, your legs gave in and your vision blurred. The last thing you saw was Mark running toward you while shouting your name. You must've beem hallucinating, you thought before giving in to the darkness.
When you woke up, you saw a white ceiling. Typical hospital ceiling. You turned your head to inspect the surrounding but the dizziness came back so you covered your eyes with your arm. But something weighed down your arm as you tried to pull it and seconds later, Mark's face came into view.
"How do you feel?" He looked worried and you closed your eyes. You were doomed.
"Awful," you answered honestly. "My OBGYN let me take the anti vomitting medicatiom but it didn't help. I was going to get another shot when I lost consciousness."
"Yeah, she came to check you and your blood sugar is low so she ordered iv and you need to finish a bag before going home," his face darkened and you knew there was something else that he hasn't told you.
"You forgot about the sonogram schedule, didn't you?" You raised am eyebrow at the sudden turn in the conversation but you nodded when you realized you indeed forgot the schedule.
"So, since you were blackout and you have a schedule for checkup, your OBGYN did the exam."
You gulped, thinking about all the worst possibility as Mark's face stayed the same. "And?" You prompted.
"You have borderline low blood pressure, low blood sugar and terrible morning sickness so she ordered you to take a rest for two weeks. Then if there's no change, you'd probably need to be in bed longer," you groaned at the verdict but you complied as you have pretty much guessed it already.
"But..," Mark continued, a smile broke on his face and his frown was gone. "She managed to capture the heartbeat. Our baby is alive! It's strong and healthy," his voice was close to squeal, exciting at the news and you smiled as well.
"So... Mrs. Tuan," he cleared his throat, "I suggest you start familiarizing yourself with our bed as it will be your best buddy for the next two weeks. If you still can't eat anything despite the anti vomitting, then you'd be put on iv again."
You exhaled, "Oh well, fair enough. I suspect you won't let my feet touch the ground again until the end of two weeks?"
He nodded, "Damn right I won't. If I didn't arrive on time, you'd banged your head on the floor and I can't imagine what could happen to our baby," he shuddered.
And he was true to his word. Once the iv was finished and you were good to go, Mark carried you bridal style all the way from the emergency room to the parking lot. Earning lots of envious stare from the other nurses and some doctors as well. Some didn't recognize Mark but they still swooned by his pretty face. Some did recognize him and you bet the news would be all over the hospital once you got back in two weeks. Oh well, you'd think about it later when you could go back to the hospital. For now, you needed to fight for your baby. Bracing yourself to face the boredom and getting used to being confined to the bed. Anything to keep the baby healthy.
