Page 1 of Pulled By the Tail
Chapter 1
Georgia
Sunshine,
I regret to inform you I have a scheduling conflict and cannot attend your meeting this afternoon.
-Kevin
“Benign,” the doctor said.
Georgia sighed with relief; she had never heard such a sweet, perfect word before in her life. Benign. Thank God. For the last week, she’d been living on tenterhooks, unable to sleep due to worry and unable to concentrate on anything beyond “what if.”
What if the polyps were cancerous?
What if she had cervical cancer like her mom?
What if they didn’t catch it in time?
“So, what’s next?”
The doctor leaned back in her chair. “I’d like to start you on a course of progesterone. That should get your hormone levels balanced. The regime will be two weeks on, two weeks off. The hormone won’t affect your ability to have children,” the doctor said in a warm, reassuring tone.
“Okay,” Georgia said, unsure of her ability to remember to take a pill every day for two weeks, then skip the pills for another two weeks. She’d have to get a pillbox.
That’s how the whole mess started. Georgia’s cycle had never been predictable but at least it was light and pain-free. Until it wasn’t. Slowly, so slowly she hadn’t noticed, her cycles grew more troublesome and erratic until she reached the point where she couldn’t leave the house due to heavy bleeding for weeks. Not days. Weeks. Clearly, something had been wrong and silly Georgia didn’t realize until she was in the thick of it.
Fortunately, her best friend, Freema, a med school student, found her a good doctor who listened to her symptoms. With her family history of cervical cancer in mind, they promptly eliminated possibilities. After blood tests, thyroid tests, and an ultrasound, what remained was cancer and the suspicious little polyps inside her uterus.
“…but you might want to consider any children sooner rather than later.”
The doctor’s words snapped her back from her daydreaming. “But I’m only twenty-eight.”
Only twenty-eight and already her body had betrayed her. This time the polyps were benign. What if next time it was cervical cancer? She could lose her uterus and even her life. Georgia had vague memories of her mother going in for a partial hysterectomy when Georgia was young. Mainly she remembered sitting in the hospital cafeteria with her elderly neighbor, eating ice cream and crying because she was so scared. The neighbor’s solution to everything unpleasant was ice cream, a bad habit she picked up and explained the extra pounds she carried on her hips.
“So, you’re saying I should have a baby now while I’m still able?”
“I’m saying with your family history of cancer, you should consider your options.”
While she still had options.
“I see no reason, medically, why you cannot conceive now, but if you decide to wait, you could consider freezing your eggs and other treatment options.”
Expensive options, the doctor meant.
“And don’t overlook adoption. That love is just as real as a child that grows in your belly.”
“Yeah, I mean, of course.” She liked the idea of adopting or fostering. Having gone into the foster system after her mother’s death, she knew the pain of being an unwanted, unadoptable child. If she could give a kid a home, she would, gladly. “It’s just a bit sudden. I don’t have to make any decisions today?”
She just found out she didn’t have cancer—thank God—and she was unprepared to figure out how to afford a baby or foster a kid. She needed to be married first. That was the plan.
“Of course not. Let’s see how you respond to hormone therapy.”
With a prescription in hand, Georgia made her way to the pharmacy and then to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Kevin.
Things with Kevin were fine. Not amazing, but not bad, just fine. That was good, right? A stable relationship with no surprises. Sure, it was boring, but boring was good. After an unstable childhood—not to speak ill of her mom, who did the best she could—paying the rent on time, holding down a nine-to-five job, and never having to worry about the utilities being shut off was wonderful.
Boring was just another word for stable and stability was fantastic. No one embodied stability more than her Kevin.
