6 Years Too Late

Thirty-One

Andi's POV

They put me back in a room and left me. "Doctor Dow will be in as soon as he can." And they left... that was it.

That was ten minutes ago.

I'm about ready to go crazy, or burst into tears, or both.

Ya. Probably both.

Just as I feel like I can't take it anymore the door opens, Dr. Dow coming through it. "Good morning, Andi, so good to have you back in here."

"What's going on. They didn't have me wait even a minute. Is everything okay? Am I going to lose the other baby too? What-" "Calm down, I'll explain everything." He pats my knee softly, sitting on his stool and opening the folder in his hand.

"Okay. First things first. This is a still photo from the ultrasound we took a couple weeks ago. This is the baby we saw was fine and growing." He sets the black and white photo beside me.

"Ya, I've looked over these a thousand times or more." I nod.

"Well, so have our radiologists, who read scans like these in impressive detail."

"Is there something wrong?" I look back to him.

"Quite the opposite actually. This is another still from the scan looking at the baby we thought had passed." He sets another photo over the first, this one with hand drawn things on it; Mostly red and blue lines and yellow marks.

"Wait, thought?" I glance back at him.

"Once in a million pregnancies there is a complication we don't even have a name for, because it is so rare. Honestly the radiologists found it a few days ago after studying your ultrasound for a week and a half, and they had to contact doctors all over the world before finding something similar that happened about five years ago in Germany. They have been completely enthralled with the find."

"What find? Is the second baby alive still?"

"Well, let's see shall we." He smiles, moving the photos and motioning for me to lay back. He grabs a bottle of jelly and the doppler machine, coming over and putting some gel on my lower stomach. Turning the machine on he sets the wand low on my stomach almost immediately we hear a strong heartbeat. "So that's the healthy baby's heartbeat." He smiles, sliding the wand across to the other side of my stomach, suddenly the whooshing sound isn't quite the same and my heart leaps just a little bit. "Did you hear that?" He smiles even larger.

"It's... it's different."

"It's the second baby. She is just fine." He smiles, pulling the small ultrasound machine over as he sets the doppler away.

"Don't get my hopes up. If you're wrong I'm going to lose it."

"Trust me. And the radiologists. They are the really smart doctors." He smiles, setting the new wand on my stomach the girls showing up on the screen again.

"So what happened? Why did both you and the tech think she had passed?" I ask as my eyes stay glued to the screen.

"They don't know why it happens and there aren't enough of them to study yet. But for some reason in your ultrasound and the one in Germany, the second twin appears to not be thriving, their heartbeat is nearly impossible to detect, and the umbilical cord doesn't show properly the veins, meaning it is easy to falsely assume the twin has not made it. Due to the visual evidence we assumed as such and didn't think to need a audible check on the heart, seeing as none of us had ever heard of this. Those factors plus the fact that the second twin does seem to be measuring about a week smaller than the first, we thought we had enough to assume she had passed. We are extremely sorry for the emotional strain this has put on you and your family, I'm sure it was a rough few weeks. But as I have been telling you all this, I have been taking measurements of the girls, and I can assure you they are both still growing. Baby A is usually bigger anyway, and Baby B isn't too much smaller. I am in no way concerned about their sizes.  I am going to keep you in the high risk category, not because I think you are going to have too many issues, but because this issue is an issue and we need to make sure the staff treat it that way. I am so sorry for our mix up, and I am excited to learn more about this condition if you are willing to let me continue being your caregiver through the end of the pregnancy. I also understand if you wanted to change clinics to one who did not tell you your child has passed away when they are very much alive."