Tuesday, 7 May 2013

The missing pregnancy Week 18, 2013


I knew I was pregnant last year. It was not my first baby and having missed my period I went to have a laboratory test to confirm it. I did the test in a brother’s lab and it was positive so I rejoiced. Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward Ps 127:3(ESV). I had two lovely boys and wished for a girl. It was therefore strange to me when the doctors informed me that my womb was empty; that the ultrasound scan revealed no gestational sac.
I had been involved in an accident in the trimester whilst driving the Toyota Sienna and could not move my legs. Actually after the accident I came out of the car myself but after a while had no feelings from the waist down. The doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital asked me if there was any information I wanted to give them and I remembered and told them I was pregnant. They exclaimed, as I had already been to do x-ray investigations, and so the surgeon ordered an ultrasound scan to know the status of the baby. Two scans were done, and they were by senior residents (I still have the reports with me), each indicating I was not pregnant. I was confused since I never bled or expelled anything but my husband urged me to forget about that. My getting well he said was more important.
We had been praying and believing God for my condition, but the investigations were very expensive.  The neurosurgeon ordered an MRI scan and when my husband balked at the cost he rebuked him: “Don’t you love your wife?” Oh, because of the sighing of the needy, Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; I will set him in the safety he panteth for Ps 12:5 (ASV).  I had been warned not to stand on my feet but I was convinced in my heart God would intervene and so with some assistance I put my feet on the ground. I was shaky at first but with my feet on the ground the feelings slowly returned. I now insisted on being discharged. My neurosurgeon is a brother; he obliged.
At home the signs of pregnancy kept coming and my body was changing, how could I not be pregnant? Some suggested the earlier test was a mistake; that some labs are fraudulent. I called on that brother and he invited me over to the lab. Assuring me he was no fraud he offered to repeat the blood test without charge. When the result came out positive he called my husband over and told us God had plans for and would protect the baby and prayed with us for the girl child I desired. Worried I might have a “blighted Ovum” – a cancerous condition- the gynaecologist sent me off to a well trusted radiology centre in town. I was now in the 12th week. The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it Prov 10:22(ESV). Dr Mgbor himself did the test with a colour scanner after reading the note and taking my history. The attending nurse gasped at a point in the scan but Mgbor silenced her with a look. “Call your husband over to come here” he said, “I see the evidence of his work and want to congratulate him.” My baby was there! 
Esther works in the records department of UNTH

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