FED UP [LX]

(continued...)




When they got to the hospital, they went straight to Dr Obinna’s office. They met many people waiting to see him so they looked around for the lady doctor they met the other day they came. They soon saw her, went to her and they exchanged pleasantries.
  “You came to see Dr Obi?” she asked them.
  “Yes,” Mabel replied.
  “Officially or unofficially?”
Cynthia looked at Mabel, wondering what the lady meant.
  “Both,” Mabel said.
  “Call him on phone and tell him you are around,” the lady doctor said. “He will then tell me what to do or tell you how long to wait. If I take you into his office now, these people who have been waiting will chop off my head.”
  “I understand. Let me call him now.”
Mabel went a safe hearing distance from where the people were and called Dr Obinna. He told her to wait a little so he could attend to some more patients before he would call them in.
  “He said we should wait a little,” Mabel told the lady doctor when she was done with the call.
  “Ok,” she replied.
  “Where do we stay to wait?”
                She looked around inside the room. There was no sitting space so she took them to another waiting room in the hospital, not far from Dr Obinna’s office.
  “Don’t fail to call us when he is freer,” Cynthia said to her.
  “Ok,” she replied.
                They sat and waited. It wasn’t up to 20 minutes later, the lady doctor came to call them.
  “Dr. Obi is calling you,” she said.
                They followed her straight to Dr Obinna’s office. After exchanging pleasantries, he asked them to sit. They sat.
  “How are you feeling?” he asked Cynthia.
  “Better,” Cynthia replied. “Though whenever I try to lift something heavy, I feel pain.”
  “Stop lifting heavy things for now and you will be fine.”
  “Ok.”
  “Any side effect from the drugs?”
  “Nothing serious.”
  “Ok.”
  “What about the culture result?” Mabel asked him. “Is it out yet?”
  “Yes it is,” he replied. “When you called to say you were coming, I asked the lab people to send it over.”
  “Did it show anything?”
                He opened a drawer and brought out a lab paper.
  “This is it,” he said. “I will file it together with other results when we are done.”
  “Ok, so what does the result show?” Cynthia asked, a bit tensed.
  “Nothing much.”
  “Meaning there is something,” Mabel said.
He told them the culture showed moderate growth of a particular bacterium which attacks the urinary tract and if not promptly and properly treated, affects the kidney.
  “Ok,” Cynthia said. “So what do I do?”
  “It is sensitive to the antibiotics you are already taking. By the time you are done with the drugs, it should have cleared. So there is no cause for alarm.”
 “Wow. Thanks a lot. That’s a huge relief.”
  “Just continue with your drugs. Remember you have to keep up with the massage and observing correct posture, to deal with the back pain.”
  “Ok. Thanks.”
  “Alright. That should be all.”
                He wanted to ring his bell so the lady doctor would send in the next patient but Mabel stopped him.
  “Dr. Obi wait,” she said. “I have a complaint.”
  “Ok,” Dr Obinna said. “What is it?”
                Mabel told him how she felt the previous day and all she took. She didn’t tell him anything concerning the heartbreak and the incident that happened. Dr Obinna clerked her.
  “Let me check you out,” Dr Obinna said when she was done with the questions.
                He told her to lie on the couch, then he mildly felt her abdomen. When he was done, he asked her to sit up.
  “When was the last time you saw your period?” he asked.
                Mabel’s heart skipped.
  “I have not seen it this month,” she answered, a bit tensed.
  “Is it possible that she is…” Cynthia began to say.
  “Cynthia!” Mabel called her harshly.
  “She is what?” Dr. Obinna asked Cynthia.
                Cynthia kept quiet.
  “Say what you wanted to say,” He told Cynthia. “So I can know where to approach the issue from.”
                Cynthia looked at Mabel.
  “She wanted to ask whether I could be pregnant,” Mabel said.
  “Hmm, have you been having unprotected sex?” he asked.
  “Maybe once or twice,” Mabel said, lowering her head.
  “I wonder why you would take such a risk.”
  “It was a mistake.”
  “About being pregnant, we will have to investigate that, though I really doubt it.”
  “There should be signs to show whether I am or not.”
  “Pregnancy signs differ and presents differently in different women. It is when we do laboratory investigation that we will know for sure.”
  “I can’t be pregnant,” Mabel insisted and shook her head.
  “Even if you are, it is not the end of the world.”
                The lady doctor knocked and peeped in.
  “Any problem?” Dr Obinna asked her.
  “The patients are complaining that you are taking so much time sir,” she said.
  “Tell them I am with my younger sisters. I will attend to the next person in the next five minutes.”
  “Ok sir.”
                She withdrew her head and Dr Obinna continued with Mabel.
  “Do you have pregnancy kit?” he asked her.
  “No I don’t. What do I need it for?”
  “Ok. I will send you to the lab. In less than 30 minutes, the result will be out, depending on how busy they are.”
  “Ok.”
                Dr Obinna called the lab and told them he was sending his sister and told them what to do. Then he hung up. He wrote the test to be carried out on a paper and handed it over to Mabel.
  “I really doubt whether it will be positive,” he said. “But get this done first.”
  “Ok,” Mabel said. “Thank you.”
                Mabel and Cynthia left the office. The patients looked at them sternly so they just looked straight and walked past. When they got to the lab section, they met the lab attendant who Dr Obinna sent them to. She was a matured woman, about the age of Mabel’s mother.
  “How many weeks are you?” she asked, looking at Mabel.
  “Weeks what?” Mabel asked, puzzled.
  “Pregnant.”
  “How do you know I am pregnant?”

  “You look pregnant.”


(...to be continued)

Nedu Isaac

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