He was there

AnnaRosa

Annarosa was 26 when she found out that she was pregnant. Her doctor—Dr. Wild—had called her on April 13th to tell her the good news. He said that there was a little confusion as to a certain spot in her lungs, but it probably wasn’t anything to worry about, so they let it fly.

After getting off the phone with Dr. Wild, Annarosa speed-dialed Steven, her husband of three years.

“Hey, honey-pie,” He answered lovingly.

“Steven,” She spoke quickly. “I just got the call from Dr. Wild, and he says….I’m PREGNANT!” the last part she screamed into the phone. “We’re going to have a baby!”

She heard Steve breathe. “Rosa, that’s fantastic! When’d you find out?”

“Just a minute ago, I got off the phone and called you right away!”

“Rosa,” Steven said. “I love you, Baby.”

Annarosa stopped jumping around and smiled sweetly. “I love you too.”

And that was the end of their conversation. 20 weeks later, Steve and Anna are striding into the St. Maria’s hospital for the ultrasound. Life has been hectic and they’ve been going around buying strollers and beds for the baby that could be girl or boy, but they wanted to buy clothes!

“Hello, how may I help you?” Asked the woman at the front desk. She was a heavier black woman with thick black hair and brown eyes. She was beautiful. According to the sign on her desk her name was Lucinda. What a beautiful name!

“We’re here for an Ultrasound with Dr. Wild.” Steve answered her.

She smiled brightly. “Ah! You are the lucky couple! Come this way, please.”

Lucinda led Anna and Steve down several hallways and into a small room with two chairs, a table/bed and a big machine.

“Dr. Wild will be with you in just a moment.” She said pleasantly.

She closed the door to leave them alone. Rosa glanced nervously at Steve. “What do you want it to be?”

Steve reached for her hand. “It doesn’t matter. This is our child and I’ll love it no matter what.”

Annarosa felt a quick lump in her throat rise, but she pushed it down when the doctor came in.

“Ah! Mr. and Mrs. Greenchild! So good to see you. Shall we get started?”

He moved  some of the equipment around, asked Anna to lay back and reveal her stomach. He put some blue gel on it, and began to move the thing around. An image popped up on the monitor and the parents sighed. Dr. Wild didn’t seem so enthuested though. He stopped moving it around after 5 minutes and folded his hands.

“Your baby is a boy.” He said, though gravely. “But i am most deeply sorry to say that,” He turned to Rosa  “You have lung cancer my dear.”

The broad smiles on the two’s faces disappeared in a New York second. Rosa was speechless, how could this have happened? Would it harm her baby? Would her baby boy get to live?

“I’m so deeply sorry.” The Doctor repeated. “But when we ran your pregnancy test, i thought it was an error, but now i see that, not only was it true, but the infection has grown almost twice the size.”

“What can we do?” Steve asked, voicing Annarosa’s thoughts.

“Normally we would be able to surgically remove it, but with the baby, we would be risking both your life and the fetus’. I’m afraid the only way to remove it is to first go through an abortion--”

“Absolutely not!” Anna spoke firmly. She had just seen her son in her womb, there was no freaking way she would kill it. “He is my son and i would rather die myself, then kill him.”

“Rosa,”

“No Steve, I will not have an abortion. You know i won’t.”

“I know, Honey, but just listen to me, think about this for two minutes. Your life is at stake and the only way to live is to take the baby...”

“Well, no. I’d rather die.”

Steve let out an exasperated sigh then looked at the doctor. “Where in her lung is it?”

“The lobe. The very bottom of it,” Dr. Wild replied, checking his watch.

“Well, can’t you just seal it off?”

The doctor explained that it could endanger both the Mother and the baby’s life. Steve and Anna agreed however to go on with the process.

Two and a half weeks later they arrived at the hospital for the second time. This time, to seal up the bottom of Anna’s lung.

It was a four hour surgery, but Steve paced the waiting room for six hours before they told him he could see his wife. And there she was, pale and tired as ever. But not Cancer free.