At First Sight - Nicholas Sparks [83]
Lexie seemed on the verge of tears. “Then why’s she getting the doctor?”
“She probably has to if she sees something.”
“What did she see?” she asked, almost pleading. “I didn’t see anything.”
He thought about it again. “I don’t know.”
“Then what is it?”
Not knowing what else to do or even what to say, he scooted his chair closer. “I’m not sure. But the baby’s heartbeat was fine, and she’s growing. She would have said something earlier if something was wrong with the baby.”
“Did you see her face? She seemed . . . scared.”
This time, Jeremy couldn’t respond. Instead, he stared at the far wall. Despite the fact that he and Lexie were together, Jeremy suddenly felt very much alone.
A moment later, the physician and the technician entered the room, forced smiles on their faces. The technician took her seat as the doctor stood behind her. Neither Jeremy nor Lexie could think of anything to say. In the silence, Jeremy could hear his own breathing.
“Let’s take a look,” Dr. Sommers said.
The technician added a bit more gel; when she placed the hand piece on Lexie’s stomach, the baby came into view once more. When the technician pointed to the screen, however, it wasn’t toward the baby.
“Can you see it?” she said.
The doctor leaned forward; so did Jeremy. Again, he saw the wavy white line. This time, he noticed that it seemed to be coming from the walls encircling the baby in the surrounding dark space.
“Right there.”
The doctor nodded. “Has it attached?”
The technician moved the hand piece, and various images of the baby came into view. She shook her head as she spoke. “When I was looking earlier, I didn’t see that it had attached anywhere. I think I checked everywhere.”
“Let’s make sure,” the doctor said. “Let me take over for a minute.” The technician rose, and the doctor took her place.
The doctor was silent as he moved the hand piece again; he seemed less adept at the machine, and the images appeared more slowly. Like the technician, he leaned toward the screen. For a long time, no one said anything.
“What is it?” Lexie’s voice trembled. “What are you looking for?”
The doctor glanced at the technician, who quietly left the room. When they were alone, the doctor brought the white line into view. “Do you see this?” he asked. “This is what is known as an amniotic band,” he said. “What I’ve been doing is checking to see if it’s attached to the baby anywhere. If it does attach, it’s usually on the extremities, like the arms and legs. So far, though, it seems that it hasn’t attached, and that’s good.”
“Why? I don’t understand,” Jeremy said. “What do you mean by band? What can it do?”
The doctor exhaled slowly. “Okay, this band is made up of the same fibrous material as the amnion—the sack that holds the baby. See it here?” He ran his finger in a roughly circular manner over the sack, then to the band. “As you can see, one end of the band is attached here to the sack, the other end is floating free. This free-floating end can attach to the fetus. If that happens, the baby will be born with amniotic band syndrome, or ABS.”
When the doctor spoke again, his tone was deliberately neutral. “I’ll be perfectly frank: If that happens, it greatly increases the odds of congenital abnormalities. I know how hard this is to hear, but that’s why we really took our time examining the images. We wanted to be sure that the band hasn’t attached.”
Jeremy could barely breathe. From the corner of his eye, Jeremy saw Lexie bite her lip.
“Will it attach?” Jeremy asked.
“There’s no way to know. Right now, the other end of the band is floating in the amniotic fluid. The fetus is still small right now. As it grows, the likelihood of attachment increases, but true amniotic band syndrome is rare.”
“What kinds of abnormalities?” Lexie whispered.
It wasn’t a question the doctor wanted to answer, and it showed. “Again, it depends on where it attaches, but if it’s true ABS, it could be serious.”
“How serious?” Jeremy said.
He sighed. “If it attaches to the extremities,