I Believe in You

Three Words

"Bruce and Betty Arnold, both seventy six years old, married. Both experiencing abdominal pain, bloody urine, chills and tremors, severe dizziness, fevers of one hundred and three." Conrad read off as we walked towards the Arnold's hospital room.
"They have the exact same symptoms?" I asked.
"I told you it was weird." He sighed.
"It's definitely weird." I sighed.
"You okay?" He asked touching my shoulder.
I nodded.
"I'm tired. A little nauseous. Probably just something I ate." I smiled at him.
He nodded watching me carefully.
"I can handle thing on my own." He suggested.
"No, love. I'm good. We have to order some tests to even begin to figure out what's going on. I'll rest after." I assured him.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold. I'm Dr. Meghan Hawkins and this is Dr. Conrad Hawkins and we'll be taking care of you today. We read that you're both experiencing the same symptoms. Are they're any symptoms that either of you are experiencing that the other isn't?" I asked.
Both shook their heads.
"Meghan and I would like to order a full blood and urine work up to see what we can figure out from that before ordering any imaging." He explained.
"Why don't you go find Nic to take the blood and urine samples while I update vitals?" I suggested.
Conrad nodded and left the room.
I took down the heartrate for each patient along with the O2 saturation, and temperature before taking the blood pressure from Mr. Arnold which came out normal. Then taking Mrs. Arnold's blood pressure I got dizzy and had to sit down to wait for the read out.
"Are you alright, Dr. Hawkins?" She asked.
I nodded as the nausea kicked back in.
"I'm alright, ma'am." I answered finally smiling at her and inputting her also normal blood pressure.
"I think I just ate something funny."
"Nausea, fatigue, dizziness." She listed the symptoms she likely observed while I was in the room.
"I'd say you're pregnant, dear." She smiled at me.
"Pregnant?" I sighed trying to remember the last time I'd had my period.
"Do me a favor?" I asked.
"I won't mention anything to the other Dr. Hawkins." She smiled at me.
"Thank you." I smiled back.
Instead of going to the sleeping quarters during my break I took the elevator up to the ob/gyn on the fifth floor of the hospital.
"Meghan Hawkins!" Dr. Alexandra Jackson greeted me.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I think I might be pregnant. I need to be sure before I talk to Conrad about it." I answered.
"Okay. Let's get you a quick blood test. That'll tell us how far along you are if you are pregnant." She smiled at me.
I nodded and allowed her to take my blood.
"I'll page you when the results come back."
I met Conrad downstairs and continued to work the case of the Arnold's.
"Kidney infection, honestly?" I asked looking at him.
"That's what the blood and urine tests show. I ordered an ultrasound and a CT just to be sure." He answered.
I nodded kind of out of it.
"Did you rest?" He asked.
"Not really. I had something to take care of." I answered honestly.
When the test came back I'd talk to him about it but I didn't want to get his hopes up or alarm him until I was certain one way or the other.
"I need you to take care of you." He sighed kissing my forehead.
"I know." I smiled.
My pager went off just then.
"I have to run but I will rest. I promise." I assured him.
"Okay, baby. I love you."
"I love you too, babe."
I took the elevator back up to the fifth floor.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Dr. Hawkins." She teased.
"You're eight weeks pregnant. We can do a small ultrasound to give you a glimpse of Baby Hawkins?"
I nodded kind of in shock.
It didn't take five minutes to set up the ultrasound.

"This is your baby." She smiled at me.
I looked at the screen seeing a small little blob that almost looked like a bean.
"It looks so small." I mused.
"The baby is roughly the size of a kidney bean right now." She told me pulling out a different wand.
When she placed it to my stomach I heard what sounded like a small fast heartbeat.
"Is that?" I asked.
She nodded.
"The baby's heartbeat."
"I need to talk to Conrad." I sighed and called his phone.
"Meghan?" He answered on the first ring.
"Can you come up to ob?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm fine." I answered.
"Will you come?" I asked again.
"Of course I will. I'll be right there." He answered.
"Meghan?" Conrad called my name from the waiting room.
"I'll get him." Alex said.
Conrad rushed over to my side.
"What's going on?" He asked taking my face in his hands.
"Look." I instructed pointing to the screen as Alex pressed the ultrasound wand to my stomach again.
He looked up at the small bean growing in my womb.
"That's a... baby?" He looked at me again.
I nodded almost holding my breath awaiting his reaction.
"We're having a baby?" He asked.
"We're having a baby!" He exclaimed a moment later smiling at me before kissing me.
Alex let Conrad hear our baby's heartbeat.
"That's incredible." He smiled widely taking my hand.
"When can we tell everyone?" He asked beaming.
"Normally parents wait until the second trimester to announce the pregnancy because the risk of miscarriage is lower after the first trimester but it's your pregnancy. You can announce it whenever you want." Alex told us.
"It's probably best to wait." I looked at him.
"Whatever you want to do, my love. I'm following your lead." He smiled at me again.
"You'll enter the second trimester near the middle of August." Alex smiled at us.
I leaned into Conrad as we listened to the baby's heartbeat for a little while longer.
Then the pagers went off.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold both had severe kidney infections. We ordered intravenous fluids and antibiotics for the next week for the infection before we went home for the night.