Chapter 3

"You diagnosed me with a potential miscarriage based on my looks alone. What? Do you have X-ray vision or something?"

Dr. Stevens straightened her white coat. "I've seen plenty of cases like yours. I can tell from experience."

I laughed out loud. "So the doctors at this hospital diagnose patients without doing any examinations? Just experience?"

I turned to the people behind me. "You all hear that? This hospital's unprofessional. Do you really want her treating you? Watch her turn a minor illness into cancer."

Now that their own interests were involved, the people behind me started getting uneasy.

"Yeah, what's going on with this doctor? Why is she making diagnoses without even doing an exam?"

"I'm going to another hospital. I'd feel safer getting tested."

"This doctor looks so young. How much experience could she even have? She's playing with people's lives."

Seeing some people outside already getting up to leave, Dr. Stevens finally started to panic.

"You said it yourself. You have stomach pain and you're bleeding down there. If I send you for tests and wait for results, you could be in life-threatening danger. You're ungrateful, and now you're twisting the truth."

She pointed at the chair I had been sitting on. "Look at your pants. You should get admitted now, or you might lose both mother and child."

I followed her gesture and looked over. My hemorrhoids would not stop bleeding. The pad Tyler gave me was completely soaked and leaking.

I should have just gotten surgery to remove these hemorrhoids when I had the chance.

"What mother and child? I'm a guy. There is no child!"

Frustration boiled inside me with nowhere to go. The problem was that Dr. Stevens was a woman. If I pulled down my pants to prove it, she might just twist things around on me.

"Oh my god, what is that? It's covered in blood!"

A scream came from behind me. I looked down. The pad had slipped down my pants and fallen to the floor.

I was a grown man. I had never used one before and did not know how to put it on properly. I felt like it wasn’t secure while I was in the car, but I never thought it would actually fall off.

Now there was no way I could clear my name.

Sure enough, Dr. Stevens looked smug. "I've never seen a man use a pad. That's quite a lot of bleeding. Looks like you're dead set on not keeping this baby."

"Oh dear, young lady, you need to lie down. Heavy bleeding is no joke."

"This is terrible. With that much blood, the baby's definitely gone."

"Don't be scared. When I was pregnant with my first, I bled too. You'll be okay."

A few kind women rushed over to help me sit down. I was touched by their concern, but I still wanted to tell them this was really just my hemorrhoids.

"I'm looking out for your health. Instead of wasting time complaining, you should get admitted. The baby in your belly is a life too."

There was life in my belly, all right. The chicken wings and fries I ate earlier.

Just then, Tyler finally came back with a supervisor.

"Dr. Lloyd, this patient is potentially going to miscarry but refuses to admit it. I apologize for the trouble." Seeing the supervisor, Dr. Stevens lost her earlier sense of arrogance and quickly explained.

"He isn't even pregnant! Stop spouting nonsense!" Tyler was furious.

Dr. Lloyd glanced at me, then listened as Dr. Stevens described the entire situation.

"Miss, Dr. Stevens is an upright person with a compassionate heart. Your symptoms really do resemble a potential miscarriage.”

"If we send you for tests before admitting you, you could be in life-threatening danger. So you should get admitted to preserve the child first. If you really aren't pregnant, the tests will show that anyway."