Dad's Club

Diagnosis

No one ever wants to be stuck in a hospital room. Not even for an hour.

I had better things to do than be sitting pretty in a hospital bed.

I glanced down at my phone again, smiling when I saw the most recent message from my husband, wishing me luck with an attached picture of him and our two precious gems snuggled together on the couch.

Thank you, my love xxx
Make sure you lay the kids down for nap soon.

The door to my room swung open, and I locked my phone to give the doctor my full attention.

She was a petite middle aged woman with her auburn hair tied back in a loose bun. Her lab coat held two purple ink pens that matched her chiffon blouse.

"Ryan, you said you've been experiencing some difficulty breast feeding?" I sighed, tucking some of my silvery hair behind my ear with a nod. "The twins are only eight months old, but every time I go to breastfeed hardly anything comes out. I'm worried I'm drying up or that something is wrong."

She jotted a couple of things down in her notes.

"Have you felt any abnormal swelling or heaviness?" I shrugged. "I'm breastfeeding twins. My boobs always hurt."

We shared a short laugh before she stepped closer to begin the examination.

"I'm just going to feel for any lumps or abnormalities, then we can go from there."

She had me stand up and remove my top.

"If I didn't know you it would be hard for me to believe you recently gave birth to twins." I smirked. "Taking care of three kids works off almost anything." She laughed. "That husband of yours is quite the handful. Is he keeping track of the babies at the moment?"

I hummed, winced when she groped the front of my breasts.

"He has one more week off before filming starts."

Glancing down at my doctor, I realized that she was no longer paying attention to my small talk. Her attention was fully consumed by my boobs, and the look on her face was far from the one my husband has when he's transfixed by my chest.

"Ryan, I'm going to have someone escort you down to the lab for a mammogram."

She must have seen the color drain from my face, because she forced a smile.

"It could be completely benign, but I'd rather be safe. If the lab gives the go ahead, I'll conduct a small biopsy and we can get to the bottom of this."

I gulped, tossing my top back on with a worried frown as my trusted doctor scurried out of the room as if she just realized I had the plague.

Once again, I was stuck waiting in a hospital room.

I opened up my messages to pass the time, seeing I had a couple from family and friends.

Balz💋: They both passed out on me during the second pirates of the Caribbean movie 😢 Now I'm all alone.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help the smile that played at the corners of my lips.

Hopefully I'll be on my way soon. Doc wants to do a biopsy...

I scrolled down to the next message.

Jaime: Wondering if you wanted to go out for coffee soon? Ricky said he wouldn't mind watching the kids. This therapist needs a little therapy of her own...

I shook my head to myself.

I'm at an appointment momentarily, but I'll take you up for tomorrow afternoon?

Jaime: Wonderful! Will you be bringing the little ones?

Josh has a production meeting tomorrow, so I'll have to. Did you want to just meet at your house?

Jaime: I haven't been out in forever. I'll drop the older kids off with my parents and Maddie and I can meet you at Starbucks.

You can pretend to be a new mom with me, lol

Jaime: I know I'm old, hush!

I didn't get a chance to respond before a nurse knocked on the open door, a small hospital gown thrown over her arm.

"I'll leave you to change into this, then we can head down to get the lab work done."

She left the gown on the bed next to me and exited, closing the door behind her so I could change. Although, after giving birth, I probably wouldn't have cared less if she had left it wide open and invited a crowd of onlookers. Any shred of modesty I once had was long washed away.

I carried my clothes with me to the door, where the nurse handed me a plastic bag for me to place them in.

She lead me down to the lab rooms and set me up in a mammogram machine.

I closed my eyes and tried to pray to a god I didn't believe in that this didn't mean what I thought it meant.

The nurse guided me away from the machine and into a tall chair for the biopsy, where I met back up with my doctor.

"Be honest with me, what do you think is going on?"

She sighed. "Ryan, I think the reason you're not lactating properly is due to several small tumors in your breasts that are blocking the passage of milk. You're showing physical symptoms of breast cancer."

I tried not to start hyperventilating.

My mind was racing at a million miles a minute.

"What about my babies?" The doctor gave me a sad smile. "They're old enough to start eating, Ryan, just stop breastfeeding."

I winced. I didn't like to be reminded that I was babying them. Josh and I had talked extensively about how we parent out children. We both agreed not to force them into growing up. We wanted to let them mature naturally.

"Don't stress out over this, Ryan. The likelihood of this being life threatening is minimal, I believe we caught it in time."

I could only hope she was right.

A/N: Tell me what you guys think?