Chapter 4: Mental Overload

I woke up the next morning to my alarm. I was in bed. George had taken my shoes off and carried me to bed. I had slept through the rest of the night without so much as a stir. George's side of the bed was empty, and he had made it up around me before going for his morning run and heading into work. He, too, had scheduled his workdays to coincide with mine one week before the wedding. He would take two weeks off before beginning the intense run up the ladder his father had in store for him.

I smiled sleepily before stretching and making my side of the bed. I went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee that George had put on before leaving. Then I went to work. I worked at a high-end fashion boutique where I was given the opportunity to sit in with the buyer and do a little bit of shadowing when business permitted it. Today was not one of those days. The fall season had been in full swing with a rush of customers sending assistants to pick up new wardrobe changes before the seasons start. I barely had time to take a sip of my coffee, let alone think about shadowing.

I finally got a break for a late lunch and saw that I had several missed calls with attached voicemails. My soon-to-be mother-in-law left a message asking about a flower arrangement for the entrance and guest sign-in. I sent her a quick text, basically telling her I trusted her judgment. I had a message from my mom talking about her neighbor and something else I didn't quite understand, but it was in some way related to my wedding. I made a mental note to call her back later, and just in case I forgot, I sent her a text telling her to call me back after five. There was a message from the bakery, one from the exotic animal rentals confirming the peacock order and date; another call told me the wedding rental company was missing two of my ivory chairs and wanted to know if it was okay to replace them with off-white.

I had two calls that overshadowed the rest. One from George telling me he loved me and couldn't wait to see me tonight for a quiet dinner at home, which he promised he would pick up some things for it on the way home. We were going to make chicken alfredo and his spinach caprese salad that I loved. Mostly I just loved anything with an Italian theme.

The second call that truly overshadowed the rest was from my doctor saying she had the results back from the test, and could I please call her office to go over them. I was freaking out internally. I had no idea what that meant. Usually, it meant something bad, right? They don't want to leave you a voice mail telling you that you have cancer or something. Did I have cancer? I used the microwave far too often, I think. None of my makeup was chemical-free or safer use or whatever they called it. I didn't even know what it was called!

I looked at my watch and saw that I had fifteen minutes left to my break. I scarfed down the rest of my salad I picked up from the Neighborhood Bakery on my way into work and called the doctor's office. A girl named Shailynn answered and told me the doctor would call me back shortly; she was with a patient.

I looked at my phone, thinking about whether I should ask WebMD what was wrong with me. I hated waiting for things like this. I don't even like watching movies unless I know what the ending is going to be. George watches them first, usually then tells me. Unless it's a Rom-Com where you already know what's going to happen, happily ever after, right? My thoughts were racing, and the clock on my Fitbit would not move. I was sitting in the garden outside the boutique, so it wouldn't take me but three minutes to walk back. Finally, after five horribly long minutes, my phone rang with the doctor's office number listed in the caller ID.

"Hello," I answered a little shakily, worried that I might have polio.

"Hello, Ms. Hart, this is Dr. Wansen. I have the results of your tests and wanted to go over them with you if you have the time."

"Okay," I responded tentatively even though I wasn't sure how much time she would need as my lunch was nearly over.

"Your test results came back very promising. Your overall Lipid panel and CBC are very healthy, and your CMP shows a slight Vitamin D deficiency. So that might be something to keep in mind, but it should be covered in prenatal. We are doing a urine culture for you to be on the safe side, but I don't suspect there to be any abnormalities. And as suspected, your stress hormones are higher than normal, but we expected as much. I will write you a script for the same samples I sent you home with and just up the dosage slightly. It's mild enough that you shouldn't have to worry about any interference, and it should help regulate your stress levels."

"Ummm. Did you say prenatal?"

"Yes. If you aren't already taking them, you should check the box for Vitamin D levels. You may want to add another Vitamin D to your diet if they list anything lower than 400 IU. For your nausea, you can find some really good OTC online. Pink Stork and Munchkin make some good supplements specifically for morning sickness, and you can take them throughout the day. If it persists or gets worse, let me know, and I can prescribe you something a little bit stronger that will still be safe to take."

"Pink Stork? I'm sorry, I think I am missing something here. Why would I take prenatal and morning sickness medication for anxiety?" I was absolutely confused.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Ms. Hart. I thought the nurse had already explained that to you. You are pregnant. You are about 7 weeks along. Other than your heightened levels of stress, you are doing really well."

"I'm not supposed to have a baby yet." I nearly whispered.

"Well, these things don't always come with our schedule but regardless of what you decide to do you should be taking those prenatal as you're going to be losing a lot of nutrients to help the baby grow. And the nausea medicine will be very helpful, particularly since your stress levels are so high."

"Oh...okay" I was stunned and at a loss for even a thought on what was going on with me.

"You should schedule an appointment with an OB-GYN. I can have my office put some referrals in your file for you to pull up if you don't have one, and you can call me anytime you need. I will make sure to return your call as soon as I can."

"Okay, thank you. Can you also include the names of those vitamins you mentioned?" I knew I would forget, and my mind being on overdrive had nearly shut down.

"Yes. I can put that in your file as well." I could hear her typing it in as we spoke. "Feel free to call for anything else. Congratulations on your wedding and your pregnancy Ms. Hart."

"Thank you. Goodbye." I went back to work. I was one minute late. They didn't take notice, and I allowed myself to zone out into the busy afternoon of work. I wasn't able to think about it. It was as though my mind could not compute. I was like a zombie on the inside but somehow running through the motions of everything I needed to do. I would talk to George later, but for now, I wasn't going to think about it.