Wish Upon A Sunset

I Wish I Hadn't Called

Emma

Present Day...

"Oh my gosh, Emma," Molly breathed. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that nightmare. I can't believe how traumatic that whole experience was for you. Just hearing the details is terrifying." She put her hand over her protruding belly, and I could see she was worrying about her own future delivery.

I nodded slowly, my eyes glazing over as I recalled the aftermath. "I know, right? When Dr. Carr came to explain everything after the surgery, I was in complete shock." I shook my head in disbelief. "He said my uterus had literally ripped open-something he'd never seen happen so early in a pregnancy without a major accident or trauma causing it."

Molly's eyes widened in horror. Gasping, her hand covered her mouth. "What? But how is that even possible? You didn't get hit or have an accident, did you?"

"No, that's what was so baffling to Dr. Carr and the other doctors he consulted with," I explained, throwing my hands up. "My uterus just spontaneously ripped apart when I was only seven months pregnant. He said in his entire 40-year career, he'd only seen that kind of catastrophic rupture from something like being punched brutally in the stomach or getting into a serious car crash."

Molly slowly lowered her hand. "That's absolutely insane. No wonder you were in such excruciating pain!"

"Right? And that's why I couldn't breathe-because my abdominal cavity was filling with blood and pressing against my diaphragm. When Dr. Carr opened me up, he had to literally scoop out blood clots that were pushing on my diaphragm."

"Oh, my god..." Molly grimaced, looking nauseous.

"And get this," I continued, "The spinal anesthesia could only numb me so far up, so I could actually feel his hands brushing against my diaphragm when he was removing those clots. That's why I could still feel everything, even after the anesthesia."

Molly shook her head slowly, her face contorted with horror and sympathy. "I think I might be sick. Em, that's horrible!"

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I blinked them back. "It was definitely one of the most traumatic experiences of my life." I collected myself before continuing in a shaky voice. "The trauma wasn't just on me, though. My daughter had such a tough start too after that horrific delivery. As soon as they got her out, she had about seven or eight nurses working frantically on her."

Molly's face fell. "Oh no, what happened?"

"Both of her tiny little lungs collapsed that very first night in the NICU." Voice cracking with emotion, I continued, "They had to put her on a morphine drip, can you imagine? My little baby on morphine."

"That's heartbreaking," Molly said softly, blinking back her own tears. "The poor little thing."

I nodded, a few stray tears escaping down my cheeks. "It really was. I couldn't even hold her for that entire first week because her condition was so critical. She also had some lesions on her brain that needed to be watched. She spent two whole months in the NICU, struggling to keep her oxygen levels up. It was so scary not knowing if she would make it or not."

Reaching over, Molly pulled me into a tight hug. "I can't even fathom how incredibly difficult that must have been, having you both go through that. But she eventually recovered."

I returned her hug for a moment before pulling back. I swiped at my damp cheeks and gave a small, grateful smile. "Finally, yes, after two long months, her lungs were stable enough that they discharged her from the NICU. But by that point, life just never seemed to get any better."