Almost a Miracle - Val's Story, Chapter 2

When our son, Nick, turned three in January of 1989, I talked to his father about having another baby. I didn’t want Nick to be raised alone; I wanted him to have a younger brother or sister, so he’d always have someone to play with and fight with.

          I went off the pill in April or May, so we could work on Baby #2.

          At the end of July, we went camping but got rained out. We scrapped the tent and found a small cabin for rent a few miles away. It only had one bed, so I tucked Nick into bed on the couch before my husband and I went into the bedroom.

          A week or two later, my husband’s back went out – I can’t remember how, but his back had bothered him before. Usually, a few visits to the chiropractor healed him. Not this time.

          On a Saturday night, I took him to the ER because the pain had gotten so bad that he couldn’t urinate. After some tests, they called in a back specialist, who determined that he had a ruptured disc, which was pushing on the nerves that controlled the part of his body that allowed him to go pee and get an erection.

          Or that’s the way I remember it. Since then, I have worked in the medical field for close to thirty years, including time with a urologist, and I have never heard of that happening to anyone else. But anyway.

          The specialist claimed my husband needed an emergency surgery on that disc, or he might need a catheter and be impotent for the rest of his life. So into surgery he went on Sunday afternoon.

          During that time, I thought I might already be pregnant. I was having heartburn, but I also hadn’t missed a period yet. Too soon to tell. But I thought, if this surgery didn’t work and my husband couldn’t have sex again, it would be like this baby was a miracle. Their conception timed just right.

          Of course, I never thought of the horrible consequences such a failed surgery would bring on my husband and our relationship. I must have already had baby brain.

          As it turned out, the surgery was a success, and he had an uneventful and full recovery. A few weeks later, one of the lab techs at the clinic where I worked privately showed me the slip of paper with the word “positive” circled in red.