“Ma, what’s wrong? Is it the baby?” she asked as she rushed to her mother’s side.
All Michaela could do was nod. It was to this scene that Sully walked in. His smile quickly faded when he saw his wife on the floor and in a lot of pain. He immediately rushed to her side.
“Pa, go get Andrew now! He’s at the mercantile. Hurry!” Colleen knew that she needed Andrew there right away. Her ma had always told her that treating family was the hardest thing a doctor would ever have to do. Colleen was feeling that. She tried to clear her head and think of what to do, but she was so worried about her mother that she couldn’t. When she heard Sully slam the door as he ran across town for Andrew, Colleen snapped into action. She knew she had to help her ma.
“Come on ma, we’ve got to get you in the bed so that I can check you.” They had placed a bed next to Michaela’s desk when she was pregnant with the twins and often needed a soft place to sit. The three doctors found that sometimes it was more useful than the examination table, so they left it downstairs.
Michaela couldn’t hardly move, but her daughter somehow managed to get her to the bed. Andrew rushed through the door followed closely by Sully.
Michaela hysterically reached up and grabbed his arms, "Make it stop! Please! Can't we save my child?"
“Sully why don’t you wait outside?” Andrew advised. Sully hesitated, but knew that his wife was in good, loving hands. There was nothing he could do except get in the way.
“Is it a miscarriage?” the doctor whispered to his wife when Sully was gone.
Colleen responded “I thought so at first, but there is no bleeding. If it were a miscarriage she would be bleeding by now. Right?”
Andrew agreed “Are you sure she’s pregnant?”
“Yes. I examined her myself just a few hours age. Everything was fine. Could I have missed something?”
Andrew reassured his wife that she had done everything right and then turned his attention to Dr. Mike “Michaela, I need to find out what exactly is wrong, so I need to examine you ok.”
"Oh...make it stop hurting!" she wailed, “Please, make it stop!"
“We’ll do everything we can ma” Colleen said.
Andrew felt around her belly. “AAAAAGUUUUUUUHHHHH!" When he reached one post, Michaela screamed. That one spot was incredibly tender. Andrew though he had figured out part of the problem.
“Michaela, I believe something has ruptured. You symptoms are perfect for a ruptured appendix. I believe we need to operate.”
But Dr. Mike knew that wasn’t it. “No… I had.. my appendix out…when I was…ten.” Through the pain she managed to get out this important information.
With this Andrew didn’t know what to do. If it wasn’t a miscarriage and not her appendix, what was it. While Michaela continued to writhe in pain and Colleen dabbed her forehead with a washcloth, Andrew went to look through the medical journals Michaela kept at the clinic. But it was Colleen who came up with a different diagnosis.
“Couldn’t something else have ruptured?” she asked her husband. “I mean there is a lot more in there than her appendix.”
Andrew agreed and the two prepared for surgery. They didn’t know what they were going to do, but surgery was the only was they could find out exactly what was wrong.
Once he got inside, Andrew was shocked at how much blood there was. Something had obviously ruptured. But what? Until he found out, he couldn’t fix it. He began searching every organ, every vessel for something that had burst. Just as he thought that there was nothing else to look at, Andrew noticed the fallopian tube. Colleen noticed too.
“Andrew I’ve seen this before.” She told him. “This can happen when a baby starts to grow inside the tube. Once it gets so big, the tube bursts, killing the baby… and most often,…” she could barely speak the words “.. the mother too.”
Andrew had never heard of this “Can we fix it?” he asked.
“I learned the procedure, but…I don’t know if I can do it.” When faced with this Colleen was so scared she doubted herself. She had never had to do something like this.
Andrew knew that if his wife didn’t do this, his mother-in-law would die. “Colleen, you can do this. You are a wonderful doctor. You have to do this or she’ll die. I don’t know how. You’re her only hope.”
Colleen knew her husband was right, so she set to work to repair her mother’s shattered body.
Andrew sewed the incision while Colleen washed her hands and began to tidy up. Then a thought came to her “Andrew what about the baby?”
Andrew didn’t understand “Colleen, you said yourself that the baby is killed. There isn’t going to be a baby.”
“No Andrew there was another baby. Remember, I told you I examined her myself. She must have been carrying twins again.”
“Well, we better check to be sure everything’s alright. Why don’t you go talk to Sully. As soon as I’m done I’ll bring her upstairs and he can see her.”
Colleen leaned into her husband’s arms, grateful that he had been there with her “I love you Andrew.”
“I love you too, Colleen.” With that she headed out the door to tell her pa.
Sully didn’t understand all the medical stuff, but it didn’t matter. Michaela was carrying twins, but they lost one. She had lost a lot of blood. What mattered now was that she woke up. Sully sat with her, holding her hand for two days. He prayed and prayed that she would wake up. Occasionally, she would stir, but after two days she still hadn’t waken.
CONTINUED
Michaela’s strength slowly returned. She was able to work a little. She felt better and better everyday. She and Sully spent every spare moment together, daydreaming about their new child. They had suffered a great loss, but they found that life continues through the pain. They thanked God for the life that would soon enter the world.