A Long Hard Fought Journey (Completed)

Chapter 28:Being SickPregnantTired and Sore All At Once

A/N: I added a song that I thought went with this chapter,it is called By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North.

Joseph went downstairs quick and came back. He felt my forehead and checked my temperature. My temperature was really high. The thermometer read 100.4. I wanted to reassure him.I'm fine Joseph really,I said and coughed. To be honest that wasn't true I felt terrible. Go check on the girls,I told him. Nope,I am not leaving you alone again especially since you are pregnant,sick,and we were in an accident yesterday,I don't want anything to happen to you and you will be fine I promise,he said. He grabbed a few extra pillow propping me up on them so I was almost sitting up and he had one behind my head. It was probably just a cold. It couldn't be the flu since I had my flu shot yearly. He dabbed at my face with a cold damp wash cloth.Joseph went downstairs and brought some medicine and a bowl of soup back with him. He spoon fed me even though I can feed myself I liked him caring for me.If I held this down I was going to be lucky. I knew the only reason I was hurling this morning was probably morning sickness.Just as I was finishing the last bite of soup,I felt my baby boy kick for the first time. Joseph,I squealed. What,what's wrong,are you okay,he asked panicking. The baby kicked for the first time,I said. I took his hand and placed it over the baby where he was still kicking. I added a little pressure pushing his hand in a little and you could really feel him kicking. I wrapped both of my arms around my very pregnant stomach,my hands over top of his. I smiled looking down  at the invisible baby and then looking up at Joseph. My cheeks looked very flushed and dull. I coughed a little bit. I was also a little sore from yesterday and missed my baby girls. My back hurt a little but that's okay it is worth it I have a good life. Joseph had went downstairs to let me rest and get some sleep. I ended up reading a few chapters out of my latest novel. It was about this nurse and spy who can't find someone to love and when they try to save the world is when they realize that they love each other. It was an amazing book. Joseph told me to holler if I needed anything. I eventually dozed off. I woke hours later. Joseph came in with more soup. So far since this morning I haven't gotten sick anymore which is good. It was probably just morning sickness.My fever had also gone down. I was getting over it. I coughed a little more. He spoon fed me and then put the antibiotic stuff on my stitches and re-wrapped them. He gave me my meds. I fell asleep. When I woke again,I had had a terrible nightmare. There was also some pain. I ran to the bathroom and started getting sick again ignoring the trash can. My nose was bleeding a little a minute ago.Joseph came running in hearing me getting sick and his hair was all messed up which means he must've been asleep.I looked down into the toilet. I then realized that this time it wasn't puke this time it was blood.Oh,god,I hope this doesn't hurt the baby,I thought.I sat back leaning against the wall breathing heavy. Joseph went to say something and that was when everything went black. I had passed out. He picked me up,flushed the toilet and ran with me to the car,grabbing a bag shoving clothes into it. He grabbed his phone quickly. Since my car was totaled and we didn't want to mess my brand new one up even though I could care less,we took the Jeep. He called Alexis and when we pulled to their driveway she was there ready to go. She took Joseph's spot and he sat with me in the back. She drove as fast as possible. Joseph covered me with a blanket that was back there that we kept there in case I went into labor. Arriving at the hospital,Alexis pulled up to the Emergency Room entrance. She ran inside,getting help for me while Joseph stayed behind with me with the door hanging open. The last time this had happened with us rushing to the hospital in a vehicle was when I was a teenager. I am 25 now. They came outside with a gurney. Lucky there was a roof over-top because it was pouring down rain. They lifted me onto it. I was slowly coming to consciousness. When I woke they were sliding an oxygen over the lower half of my face and was connecting me to an IV drip. I need to start a IV drip now,yelled Kate. She is severely dehydrated, someone else yelled.Kate was here and so was Alexis but where was Joseph. I was shivering we were still outside and even though I had on long pajama pants and a tank top I was freezing. Joseph,I mumbled but apparently it was loud enough. I'm right here and I'm not leaving,I will be by your side,he said grasping my hand holding it and feeling my wrist for my pulse. Pulse is fast,BP 90/60,Heart Rate 120,A few different people were shouting things at one another. They rushed me inside,Joseph stayed with me too. They had me on several medications,and fluids.They took a blood sample,checked my stitches,and did a couple of scans. They had me in my room.I was unconscious still since they had given me something to make me sleep and keep me distant from the pain. I eventually woke up again. Just then the doctor came in and Alexis and Kate were standing outside my room,crying,looking in the window at me.The look on the doctor's face gave away that he was about to drop a bomb on our family and what we didn't know was that it was going to forever change us and the words he is about to say will haunt us for years to come.I'm so sorry,the doctor began,we looked at the results from your blood test,you have AML 7 which is a type of leukemia usually seen in younger children but we have had a few adults with this disease,we don't want the baby to be harmed by your treatment so we have planned a C-Section for this afternoon,not to include that we are going to have you on oxygen for a while,you were so out of breath and went into coughing fits your husband told us and it came from your lungs I am sorry to admit this but you have lung cancer and mixed with AML 7 this is going to be a long hard journey ahead of you and you seemed to have had it for about a month but the baby shouldn't be harmed,although he will be in the NICU for quite some time since this is premature birth,you are also severely dehydrated,once again I am so so very sorry,he said. As he finished those last words all I could do was stare at him,I started shaking my head no. As soon as the doctor left,I broke down in tears,Joseph laid next to me,holding me,trying to comfort me, he was crying also. He hugged me. Why me,I thought over and over.We laid there bawling and hugging each other tightly. I am going to lose my hair and maybe my life,I might lose everything. There is cancer and a living child inside of me.What I didn't know is that those words, you have cancer,was going to haunt me for many many years to come. A few hours later we had stopped crying and the doctors,Kate,and Alexis took me to the OR where they were going to deliver my baby boy. They let Joseph come with me since I wouldn't let him leave my side. He sat by my side during the C-Section,everything was numb but I was still awake. I looked up to him every now and then and sometimes when I felt pain I would squeeze his hand. About 2 hours later I heard a baby cry. It was my sweet baby boy. They instantly connected him to a dozen machines with several wires and had him with a tube down his throat that was breathing for him. They put him in an incubator and away to the NICU. They stitched closed my incisions. This was my second C-Section.Back in my room,I was sore all over and all at once.I was really tired.Before I fell asleep,I told Joseph I knew the baby's name and told him and my nurse.

Bailey Alexander Stevens was born on Saturday,January 22 at 2:57 p.m.

When I was sleeping Joseph was with my little baby boy and when I wasn't he was with me. He hardly left my side though because I think that this was literally the hardest thing we have ever gone through together but we are fighting it together. The next morning,they made me eat some crackers and drink some water. Next they took me to another room to start my first session of chemo. I almost died of boredom they wouldn't let Joseph or anyone else in with me and I couldn't use my phone. I was thinking that if it wasn't for what I had to live for then I would not do this treatment I would give up and stop being a fighter. I also remembered that I forgot to call my parents and friends. The doctors told us that some young children go into remission within their first month of treatment with Stage 2 AML 7 so since I am older with a stronger immune system but not really so I am guessing that my doctor hasn't heard of what happens before that I should do fine even though those children didn't have Stage 2 Lung Cancer. I am glad that it is this and not a brain tumor or brain cancer I was lucky I guess and I am glad that it is now not when I was younger in my teen years with my immune system then I would've died. I might still if this doesn't work and my immune system isn't weak weak but it definitely isn't strong and it will only get weaker with the chemo.The doctors had told us that they were upping my doses so I would get the side effects sooner than other patients but it might cure me faster. I was lucky to get enrolled and they already put me down for a lung transplant for both of my lungs before the cancer spreads. After sitting for 4 hours in that room my chemo was done and a doctor came in and took me back to my room. Joseph was in there waiting for me.