Free Personal Experiences by Tracy Lee

voice coming in the hospital room before I saw him. As per his profession, he headed straight to my chart to check out any updated notes that were added while he was out as he set his coffee down and went over them precisely.
    "Can I eat?"
    Daddy raised his head and looked at Keisha with one eyebrow raised, "and she's hungry? I'm flabbergasted!"
    This got a tiny giggle out of Keisha as she got set to leave the room, "It's yo' call doc."
    "Toast, tea…un-sweet and bland."
    "Daddy!"
    "Don't daddy me, I want to see if it will stay down before you start pigging out."
    I rolled my eyes and mentally agreed, I did not want to hurl anymore.
    Getting a little toast in my stomach had me feeling stronger, now the hard part was upon us; we had to see if it stayed down. Having had eaten two hours ago; so far, so good. Just as the nurse had come in my room to offer me some Jell-O, the doctor came in.
    "Good Afternoon, Ms. Harper, I'm Dr. Robbins, I see you ate some solid food several hours ago and have kept that down so far. How are you feeling?"
     
    I looked at Dr. Robbins and didn't know if I should answer him truthfully saying: Actually doc, I feel like a John Deere ran me over, came back around, tied me to the bumper and dragged me twenty miles down the road, then left me for the wild hogs to find and finish me off.
    Instead I just smiled and offered a "better than I did." The doctor walked to the side of my bed and pulled the chair up beside me with a manila folder in his hands and began to flip through the pile of papers that were there. "Well, we have run some tests Ms. Harper and everything on your blood work looks good. All your levels appear to be normal but ah…one. Ms. Harper, ummm, if you don't mind, I, ah…would like to ask you…ah one personal question though; ummmm…would you consider yourself an alcoholic?"
    Baffled, I asked "I'm sorry, could you repeat the question? I don't think I heard you correctly. For some strange reason, I thought you just asked me if I was an alcoholic."
    "Ummmm yes…yes I did Ms. Harper. I asked if you were an alcoholic, see, when your father brought you in on Sunday he had given us a forty-eight hour history on your behavior; what you did, where you were and who you were with and disclosed that you had been at a party and had consumed an excessive amount of alcohol. For this reasoning and for the safety of your baby, I need to know if we should really be contemplating getting you into a rehab program."
    After I heard the word "baby" I didn't hear anything else, other than the monitor next to me going triple the speed it normally should've been going.
    "ummmm, I'm sorry, are ya'll giving me something that would affect my comprehension, because I just thought I heard you say "my baby".
    "Ah, Ms. Harper, I did say your… ummmm… your baby. You're pregnant, a little over eight weeks."
    My whole life flashed before my eyes, no more parties, no more friends, who would want to hang around someone with a kid? I sure as fuck didn't want to and I was the one finding out I had the kid!
    Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered about my pills…my birth control pills. I began laughing hysterically, threw my head back in fact and then looked back at the doctor.
    "I am so sorry Dr. Robbins, there has been a terrible mix up. Me being pregnant…it's not possible."
    As he began flipping page after page to look at the results and the name on the chart he asked "Oh…and how's that? If you'd like I can order a sonogram and we can see the baby."
    "See Doctor, I am on birth control pills, have been since I was thirteen. I have had irregular periods all my life, so Dr. Harper refills my prescription every six months and I NEVER miss a pill. That's how it is not possible".
    "Hmmmmm that's odd. Well, was there a chance you were on antibiotics anytime during the month of May or June?"
    Thinking back through the times when I had been sick, which wasn't very many so it was pretty easy, I did remember back at