Decision Day
Have you ever loved someone so much, that you would lose an organ for that person? Cared for another human being that you would do anything to keep them safe? I was nineteen when I was required to make the greatest decision of my life. In such a short time I experience the hardships of labor, the shock of hemorrhaging, and the devastation of a hysterectomy.
It was August 8, 2007, when the first contractions begin. I was in the middle of getting ready for my eight-hour shift at Kroger's as a bagger. Imagine a nine-month pregnant lady belly so perfectly round bagging your groceries. The pain was so small like a muscle cramp that I ignored it to go about my day. As my day progressed the cramp began to intensify like a splinter festering. By the end of my eight-hour shift, I was pretty …show more content…
I asked the doctor and my mom to leave my baby and me alone. I sat there for hours holding this soft, warm, glowing pink-skinned baby thinking. In the blink of a nanosecond, I knew what had to be done. I called the nurse to get the doctor. A few minutes later the doctor walks into my room.
“I want you to take it out of me”
Confused she asks, ”What do you mean, Jacquline?”
“I want you to perform a hysterectomy. NOW.”
We sat there for a while discussing all of my options and exactly what each of them meant for me. I listen patiently until she was done. Having already made my mind up, we discussed further in depth the risk of the procedure. One week later Dr. Satan wheeled me into her operating room the remove my uterus.
This was the only way my nineteen-year-old brain could rationalize everything. I made a promise to Nathaniel the day I found out I was pregnant and making the decision to have a hysterectomy was my way of keeping it. If given the chance to change anything about that life-changing day full of labor, shock, and devastation I would not change a single
Have you ever loved someone so much, that you would lose an organ for that person? Cared for another human being that you would do anything to keep them safe? I was nineteen when I was required to make the greatest decision of my life. In such a short time I experience the hardships of labor, the shock of hemorrhaging, and the devastation of a hysterectomy.
It was August 8, 2007, when the first contractions begin. I was in the middle of getting ready for my eight-hour shift at Kroger's as a bagger. Imagine a nine-month pregnant lady belly so perfectly round bagging your groceries. The pain was so small like a muscle cramp that I ignored it to go about my day. As my day progressed the cramp began to intensify like a splinter festering. By the end of my eight-hour shift, I was pretty …show more content…
I asked the doctor and my mom to leave my baby and me alone. I sat there for hours holding this soft, warm, glowing pink-skinned baby thinking. In the blink of a nanosecond, I knew what had to be done. I called the nurse to get the doctor. A few minutes later the doctor walks into my room.
“I want you to take it out of me”
Confused she asks, ”What do you mean, Jacquline?”
“I want you to perform a hysterectomy. NOW.”
We sat there for a while discussing all of my options and exactly what each of them meant for me. I listen patiently until she was done. Having already made my mind up, we discussed further in depth the risk of the procedure. One week later Dr. Satan wheeled me into her operating room the remove my uterus.
This was the only way my nineteen-year-old brain could rationalize everything. I made a promise to Nathaniel the day I found out I was pregnant and making the decision to have a hysterectomy was my way of keeping it. If given the chance to change anything about that life-changing day full of labor, shock, and devastation I would not change a single