Chapter 19 Victoria
Victoria burst from the North Tower elevator onto the third floor. She frantically scanned the signs on the wall outside the elevator bank that indicated where Labor she was clutching it like it was a lifeline. With her free hand, Victoria took out her phone. “My doctor delivers at Cedars too. I’m going to ask her to come in and give us a second opinion.”
“You don’t—okay.”
“I’m sure your doctor is great, but it’s always good to get another opinion.”
“Thank you,” Liz whispered.
“No need,” Victoria said, lifting her phone to her ear and issuing the request to have her doctor paged to the hospital. When Victoria hung up, Liz’s doctor was walking in, flanked by several young but cocky doctors who screamed “resident.”
“What do we have here, a two-for-one special?” one of them joked.
He was immediately silenced by a reproving look from Liz’s doctor, which Victoria appreciated.
Then Dr. Rosenblatt introduced himself and shook Victoria’s hand.
He didn’t ask Victoria how far along she was or even mention her pregnancy, which Victoria also approved of.
Dr. Rosenblatt laid out the situation in a levelheaded, comprehensive manner, explaining that they would need to decide whether to proceed with an emergency C-section or to induce labor.
He mentioned that while they were monitoring Liz’s vitals and the fetal heartbeat, and both were currently stable, time was still of the essence.
Liz’s blood pressure was elevated, and with preeclampsia, delivery was the only remedy.
“Do you have a preference—induction or C-section?” Victoria asked Liz.
She watched her friend’s eyes dance wildly around the room—a caged animal with no escape in sight.
The residents standing in a line behind Dr. Rosenblatt, like a troupe of backup dancers supporting the main act, waited on Liz’s answer, staring at her unabashedly.
Victoria saw Liz shrink into herself, or try to anyway, then shoot an uncomfortable look at the unfamiliar faces in the room.
The presence of strangers was not helping this situation.
Liz’s eyes bounced to Victoria and seemed to shout, Help!
Victoria turned briskly to the viewing audience. “Could we have another moment alone? I understand this is time sensitive. We won’t take long.”
Dr. Rosenblatt nodded. “Of course.”
Two of the residents looked disappointed, like they’d be missing out on the action. When they didn’t heed Dr. Rosenblatt’s exit soon enough, he snapped his fingers, and they all heeled like spaniels, trotting out behind their boss.
Victoria turned to Liz again. “You were planning on natural labor, right?”
“Not natural natural—drugs and an epidural, but not a C-section.”
“Drugs seem natural to me,” Victoria said, eliciting a faint smirk. “But I meant vaginal birth. So, if you choose to induce, it’s not that different from your birth plan.”
“But what about that woman from Dawn’s class who told us the horror story about her friend who had to be induced and she was in labor for three days and the epidural didn’t work, and she wasn’t dilating, and then she had to have a C-section anyway?
She said it was the worst of both worlds, and beyond brutal. ”
“Didn’t she also say that about the traffic on the 405 getting to class one day?” Victoria pointed out.
Liz nodded.
“If you don’t want to induce, though, plenty of women have C-sections.”
Liz’s face went slack. “It’s just—the idea of being cut open? I’ve never even had surgery. They take out your organs and put them on the operating table and put them back in? That really freaks me out. I want my organs inside. What if they don’t replace them correctly?”
Victoria smiled affectionately. “You know I’m having a scheduled C,” Victoria said, “And that shouldn’t sway you, but I did do a lot of research and it’s a controlled, safe procedure.
They don’t actually remove your organs and put them anywhere.
You’re awake and conscious throughout the whole thing; you just can’t feel anything from the waist down. ”
Victoria watched Liz consider this with shaky, panicked breaths.
She needed to calm Liz down, and they also had to come to a decision.
There was one window in the room with a surprisingly prime view of West Hollywood; a cloud passed over the sun, momentarily obscuring the light filtering in and casting a gloomy filter over the room.
The monitors kept beeping, like a metronome keeping time.
“This is entirely your choice. Either way, whichever you prefer, you’re going to have your baby today, and you will be okay, no matter what you decide.”
“But I’m not ready!” Liz said, her face twisting up with angst. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know,” Victoria said soothingly. “Do you want to try calling Preston again?”
“No,” Liz said miserably. “He’s at an off-site and not picking up.” She looked at Victoria beseechingly. “Tell me what to do. I don’t know what to choose.”
Victoria froze, simultaneously honored by the tremendous import in her opinion that Liz was placing on her and also felled by its pressure. How could she make this decision? What if something went wrong? Victoria would never forgive herself. She pulled out her phone again and texted while talking.
“I’m going to see where my doctor is. If she isn’t here in five minutes, I’ll make the call.”
It wasn’t a definitive answer, but it was a plan, which seemed to mollify Liz. Her breathing abated to an almost normal pace. Victoria’s doctor texted her back, saying that she would be there in two minutes. “She’s almost here.” Liz whimpered in relief that Victoria felt too.
Dr. Waldman entered the room minutes later, looked through Liz’s chart to assess the situation, and conferred with Dr. Rosenblatt, who didn’t seem thrilled to have to contend with an interloper, as if his professional acumen were being called into question, but Victoria assured him that there was no doubt as to his competency.
Victoria assumed he had also never dealt with two pregnant ladies in a room, one on the verge of a hysterical collapse, and the other with a demeanor that said, Try to question me and I will have my water break on command, and then where will we be?
In the end, though, no one made the decision.
A monitor flared with alarm, beeping with the urgency of a smoke detector going off, and both doctors whipped into action.
Victoria watched them exchange a fleeting but undeniable look as Dr. Rosenblatt checked the baby’s heart rate on the fetal monitor and Dr. Waldman measured Liz’s blood pressure.
“Liz, your baby is in distress,” Dr. Rosenblatt said. “At this point, inducing is no longer an option. We’re going to prep the OR for an emergency cesarean.”
“Oh God!” Liz said, her chin wobbling.