In February Vivian went through menopause. From the very beginning this event did not bring any special problems. There were no notorious hot flashes, headaches, sweating and heart palpitations. Just stopped menstruation and that’s all.
Vivian did not go to the doctor, because she already knew and read a lot about it. Moreover, her friends often told her and shared their feelings about how everything went. “You are very lucky, Vivian,” – they said. It’s very wonderful that you endure menopause so easily! As friends jinxed. Soon strange things began to happen to Vivian. She understood that these are hormonal changes in the body that do not pass without a trace. Hence, probably, the unreasonable change of mood, and dizziness, and weakness.
It became more and more difficult for Vivian to bend down to her granddaughter Lisa, her appetite disappeared, her back began to hurt in a new way. In the morning her face often swelled, and in the evenings – her legs. For some time Vivian did not pay much attention to her ailments. Her daughters-in-law were the first to sound the alarm: “Mom, you look so pale. Go to the doctor, make an ultrasound, do not delay, with such things do not joke! Vivian was silent. Doubts that something was wrong with her had long settled in her soul. And then her chest began to hurt a lot, well, just burning with fire, not to touch. The lower abdomen pulls, does not let her sleep.
Often sleepless nights, Vivian lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, under the peaceful snores of her husband, and cried quietly, thinking about the future and remembering the past. How she did not want to die! After all, she was only fifty-two, she had not even reached retirement. She and her husband started looking for a summer cottage, decided to spend more time in nature. My sons are so wonderful, they have good jobs. My daughters-in-law are respectful, not rude, they help me to dye my gray hair, advise me what clothes to buy to hide the fullness.
The only granddaughter, Lisa, is just a golden girl, you can’t get enough of her. She is engaged in figure skating, will go to the first grade in autumn. She draws well, already knows how to knit – her grandmother taught her. How quickly life flew by! It seems to Vivian that she has not lived at all. She had just married her youngest son, had not yet waited for children from him, and then the disease, damn it! Vivian wiped hot tears with the edge of the duvet cover, and they poured and poured down her cheeks. In the morning, blue circles formed under her eyes, her face darkened and drooped.
Vivian somehow survived the spring and summer, and by the autumn she felt bad. Shortness of breath, terrible back pain, almost does not let go, stomach aches unbearably. Finally, Vivian decided to make an appointment with a doctor and tell her husband about her suffering. Almost the whole family accompanied Vivian to the antenatal clinic. Her husband and elder son stayed in the car, and both daughters-in-law were waiting for her in the corridor. With difficulty getting up on the examination chair and blushing with embarrassment, Vivian answered the doctor’s questions: when her periods stopped, when she felt unwell, when she was last examined.
Vivian answered for a long time, even managed to freeze on the chair, while the doctor filled in the card, washed her hands, put on rubber gloves. The doctor examined Vivian thoroughly, frowning and nervous more and more. Then she threw a short “get dressed” and sat down to the phone. Vivian pulled on her unruly skirt with trembling hands and listened to the doctor’s conversation with horror.
– Oncology clinic? – she shouted into the phone.
– It’s from five. I have a serious patient, I need an urgent consultation. Urgent! Yes, yes… It must be the last stage. I can’t find the uterus. Fifty-two… Initial call. Yeah, don’t tell me… Like living in the woods. You teach them, teach them, information is on every pillar, and they have no time to go to the doctor again. Yes, yes, okay, I’m sending.
Having finished the conversation, the doctor went to the table and began to draw up some papers.
– Did you come here alone?
– No, with my husband, with the children, we are in the car, – Vivian answered quietly with numb lips. Only now she felt a strong pain throughout her body. This pain took her breath away, her legs were taken away, she wanted to scream. Vivian leaned against the doorjamb and cried.
The midwife jumped out into the corridor and shouted:
– Who is the attendant with the patient? Come in! The daughters-in-law jumped up and hurried to the office. Seeing the mother-in-law, they understood everything at once. Vivian was crying and writhing in pain, as if from afar she was hearing fragments of the doctor’s instructions: immediately, urgently, the first hospital, oncology, second floor, the doctor on duty is waiting… Here is the direction, here is the card… Very late, sorry… Why did they delay, because they are educated people… They were driving in silence in the car. The man did not hesitate to blow his nose, from time to time wiping tears with the back of his hand.
The son stared intensely at the road, clutching the steering wheel until his fingers hurt. In the back seat, the daughters-in-law supported their mother-in-law, who was running out of strength. Vivian moaned, and when the pain became completely unbearable, she screamed at the top of her lungs, causing her husband to burst into new bouts of sobbing. Sometimes the pain subsided for a few moments, and then Vivian managed to see the yellowed crowns of trees outside the car windows. Saying goodbye to them, Vivian mentally said goodbye to her children, her husband, and her granddaughter Lisa. She will not be able to pamper her with delicious pies anymore. And who will take her to the first grade now, who will meet her family after school? Who will hug her tightly, who will kiss her, who will admire her first successes?
We did not have to wait long in the dispensary. Vivian was admitted immediately. The family, frightened, not daring to sit down, stood in a bunch by the window. The husband was no longer crying, but somehow confused and helplessly looking at one point. The daughters-in-law were clutching handkerchiefs, the son was silently swaying his body from side to side. In the office where Vivian was taken, something terrible must have happened. First, a nurse with a red face jumped out of there and rushed to the end of the corridor. Then an elderly doctor in a surgical gown and shoe covers entered the room with a quick step. Then several other doctors came in almost running.
When there was a rumbling sound at the end of the corridor, the family automatically, as if on cue, turned their heads to the source of the noise: a bright red nurse with two orderlies were quickly wheeling a rattling gurney to transport the bedridden patients. As soon as the gurney disappeared behind the wide doors of the office, the family realized that it was the end. The husband wrapped his arms around his head and groaned, his daughters-in-law rushed to look for heart drops in their handbags, the son’s cheek treacherously twitched. Suddenly the door of the office opened again. A gurney with Vivian, covered with a white sheet, was pushed simultaneously by six or seven people. All scared, red, with drops of sweat on their foreheads. Vivian’s pale face was exposed. Horror and pain froze in her swollen eyes. Pushing his daughters-in-law away, the husband rushed to his wife. The elderly doctor blocked his way.
– I am her husband, her husband, – he shouted in the wake of the gurney.
– Let me at least say goodbye. Vivian, my darling, how can it be, we wanted to die on the same day! …
– We’ve reached it, – the nurse was closing the wide door of the office.
– Do not interfere and do not shout. She is giving birth. The head has already appeared …
There were two women in labor in the delivery room: Vivian and another, very young, probably a student. Both screamed at the same time and calmed down between contractions as if by order. Midwives and doctors were fussing around each of them. The elderly professor calmly walked from one table to another and gave instructions.
– And what are we suffering for? – the professor asked the women in labor during another lull.
– For the damned vodka, it’s all her fault, damned, – the student groaned.
– Well, what about you, mother? – the professor turned to Vivian and patted her on the bare thick thighs.
Vivian was silent for a while, thought, and then whispered quietly, because she had no strength at all:
– Yes, for love, I suppose. For what else? That’s how my husband and I celebrated my birthday. Fifty-second birthday. We pampered ourselves a little…
– Not weakly, I must say, pampered, – the professor smiled.
– So, really, did not notice anything?
– Yes, doctor! If only I had known, if only I could have thought! What a shame! After all, I’ve been a grandmother for a long time. I was sure that I had menopause and oncology in addition. So in the consultation they did not find the uterus, they said that it had dissolved, cancer, the last stage …
– You have an ass, not cancer, – the professor waved his hand irritably.
– We are all living people, and, unfortunately, medical errors still sometimes occur. But, enough talking, push, mother, come on. Your mistake wants to see the world!
The midwife left the delivery room satisfied. She will have something to tell her girlfriends – not every day nowadays grandmothers give birth.
– Smith Vivian. Do you have relatives?
– Yes, – the whole family answered in chorus, stepping forward.
– Congratulations, – the midwife said, looking at the male part of the family with undisguised interest. – And who will be the father?
– I will, – Vivian’s husband said hoarsely, not believing what was happening.
– He, – the daughters-in-law simultaneously answered, pointing to the father-in-law.
– To die – the midwife could not resist emotions and added with obvious respect – you have a boy. Three five hundred. Fifty-one centimeters tall. Congratulations, Daddy. Another hour and no one knows what would have happened… We made it to the birth.
It’s a miracle. Why did they take her to the oncology department, I don’t understand?
Do you know of similar cases?