Two Pink Lines

Between the two of us, the doctor and I tried to piece things together. How had this happened? We threw dates around but at the end of it all, this pregnancy really wasn't on anybody's radar.

I wandered in a daze to the fertility nurses next door. Little did I know, the doc had called ahead. I imagine it went something like..."Hi, Lauren came in for a pre-FET scan today but she's unexpectedly pregnant...can we do a blood test?" The receptionist smiled and I think looked at me like I was crazy, because unlike her, I wasn't smiling. It was all too surreal.

Soon after I sat down, the receptionist whispered to one of the familiar nurses. One who's been along on this journey with me. She looked at me, stood up straight, her hands out wide, a gigantic open smile on her face. She asked me to follow her and tears filled my eyes. Once in the room, she closed the door and hugged me tight. It was reminiscent of when Eilish, my cancer nurse, hugged me two years prior. This was yet another medical professional who was honestly and genuinely happy for me.

She took a blood test and, while she did so, shook her head repeatedly at how this had possibly happened. After all, a blood test had been done at the end of February that showed my body wasn't doing what it was supposed to. That we couldn't do an embryo transfer that month because things weren't normal. Yet, two weeks later, it seemed I had gotten pregnant. And so the wait began for blood results to confirm what the doctor had seen on the ultrasound. I couldn't help but assume it'd be bad news. This was all too good to be true.

The nurse gave me a urine pregnancy test to do so I could send a picture to Chris. Her idea. I thought about another friend who told me about the joy you get from seeing those two little pink lines. And I never thought I would get to experience that. My test tube baby would always be discovered using a blood test. But today...I would get those pink lines.

I rushed into the closest bathroom, peed in a cup and dropped a few drops of urine into the window. I watched as, within seconds, two pink lines appeared. No waiting 5 minutes for these medical-grade tests! Still, even with those lines in front of me, I couldn't quite believe it. I felt no different.

The hours between my blood test and the nurse's phone call went on forever. I rang Chris. This certainly wasn't what he was expecting from an appointment meant to determine when my embryo transfer would be. "Holy shit" came down the phone line. I tentatively told Mum and Pete the news, then went to a pre-scheduled acupuncture appointment. I went to have a few snacks and, for the first time, stopped to consider if what I was eating was pregnancy safe. Geez...what had I eaten over these last few weeks?

Finally the phone rang and almost immediately the nurse happily declared "congratulations" down the phone. My blood levels were perfect. Chris was right..."Holy shit."