The Sandpiper by Susan Brace Lovell

Author:Susan Brace Lovell [Lovell, Susan Brace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780989287425
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Sandpiper

KATE

It was a sunny July Saturday and Kate should have felt lucky. Dr. Bauer himself was seeing patients. His office was staffed seven days a week for the blood studies and ultrasounds since hormone cycles didn't stop Fridays at five. And whenever the pivotal hours of ovulation hit, tests had to be run. But Dr. Bauer came in one weekend a month. The other weekends, Alice read the tests. No question, Alice knew what she was doing—but she wasn't Dr. Bauer.

For the third morning in a row, Kate hung her khaki skirt and white bikini underpants on a hook in the tiny changing cubicle of the ultrasound room. The patient who would follow her into this curtained space was probably sitting in the waiting room about to begin the ritual of pretend magazine reading. Kate couldn't remember if it was Time or Newsweek she'd just been thumbing through. The women lined up for Dr. Bauer's Saturday appearance had only one thing on their minds—and it wasn't national news.

The familiar crackle of paper rumpled under Kate as she sat on the side of the examining table, her eyes avoiding the steel stirrups at her left. For almost three years, she'd been riding a teeter-totter, her hopes soaring as she counted days and prayed. But then the spotting would begin, and she'd feel as if someone—some cross between God and Dr. Bauer—had jumped off the opposite seat and slammed her to the ground.

Dr. Bauer was writing notes on the lucite clipboard chart Alice handed him. "How about your bloating, Kate?" he asked, pressing the skin around her ankles, leaving small white indentations.

"I don't wear my rings anymore. They're too hard to get off by bed time. I haven't felt like eating lately, but you can see my weight's up to 131. Is that good?"

Dr. Bauer paused in his note-taking. "It's perfectly okay, Kate—both to lose your appetite and to retain fluids, which accounts for the five pounds. Those are common side effects of Clomid and nothing to worry about. It means your body is still responding to the drug which is what we want. What about the PMS? Still a little crabby, are you?" She felt unexpected tears scald her eyes as he helped her into the stirrups, and Alice smoothly inserted the lubricated probe. She held her breath and nodded what she couldn't say.

"That's what we like to hear," said Alice with a whoop in her voice. "The bitchier, the better, right Dr. B.?" Alice began moving the probe until the right ovary was visible on the screen.

"Well," Dr. Bauer chuckled almost to himself as he watched the monitor, "I'm not sure Pete would agree. But Alice has a point. Your hormones are in high gear, Kate, which is what we're looking for. Today," he read from her chart, "is the 13th day of your cycle—we're close to the hCG shot—but you know all about that."

"I think, Dr. B," Alice said removing the sound probe, "that Kate could teach the fertility course to your residents in Grand Rapids.

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