Material Girl 3: Secrets & Betrayals (20 page)

Oh my god, that’s it. I’m pregnant,
Dylan thought to herself as she pee’d into the cup. If she was pregnant she’d gladly accept the pain she was in any day. When she returned to the waiting room Angel noticed the huge smile spread across her face.

“Baby,” she smiled, brightly through the pain.

“What?” He eyed her raising one eyebrow.

“I think I may be pregnant.”

“What would make you think that?”

“Cause the last time I was in this kind of pain was when I was pregnant with Mason and I fainted.” Dylan made him remember.

“You really think that’s what it is?”

“I mean it might be. That’s the only thing I can think of.” She massaged her left side. “Lord please let me pregnant,” Dylan said a prayer to god.

Thirty minutes passed by before the nurse called Dylan to the back to give her lab results. Dylan sat anxiously awaiting the results. She was the edge of her seat. Visions of being a mommy again made all the pain she’d endured worth while.

“Okay Mrs. Carter.” The nurse sat opposite of Dylan with the results in her hand.  “We have your lab results and you’re not pregnant nor do you have a urine infection.”

Dylan sat quietly and collected herself before speaking. All of her hopes and dreams had been shattered within a matter of seconds. For months she and Angel had been trying to get pregnant. She’d thought they’d finally reached their goal. She just knew that she was pregnant. She would’ve even betted money on it. For a second she’d begun to envision her next beautiful caramel baby that would look like either her or Angel.  Now she had to put those dreams on hold and figure out what the hell was wrong with her. 

 “What we want to do now is an X-Ray to see exactly where this pain is coming from. We had to make sure you weren’t pregnant first before we performed this procedure.” The nurse clarified.

Dylan was in so much distress that she had to be wheeled to the X-Ray room. She prayed to god that the pain would miraculously go away so she could return home to her baby. She hadn’t seen him in almost twenty-four hours. Inside the X-Ray room the nurse helped Dylan remove her top and bra. With the assistance of the nurse, Dylan stood up so they could get a clear X-Ray of her stomach and pelvis.

Standing up for Dylan felt like she was being repeatedly kicked in the pit of her stomach with a steel toe boot. She couldn’t wait to sit back down. When she sat the pain lessoned. Once the X-Ray was over, Dylan was wheeled back to the triage area, where she was given a robe to put on. Angel was there nervously awaiting her return.

“You okay?” He asked her helping her out of her clothes.

“No,” Dylan replied slipping her arms inside the ugly hospital gown. “Green is not my color.” She rolled her eyes at the raggedy gown.

“How this gown looks is the least of your worries, pretty girl.” Angel helped her up into the hospital bed.

Dylan lie in agony awaiting the X-Ray results when a doctor came in and said they now wanted to do a CT scan on her. Angel and Dylan locked eyes. It was apparent that something serious was wrong with her. The question still remained what was the problem? Dylan was now drowning in fear. She’d never had a CT scan done before so she didn’t know what to expect. Moments later she was lying on her back on a narrow bed with a needle being stuck into her vein.

She was warned that the iodine being placed into her system would make her entire body feel hot and could cause shortness of breath. Dylan swallowed hard and prepared herself for the worst. The nurse pressed a button and the doughnut shaped machine she lay before came on. Dylan was told to inhale and hold her breath when the red light above her head came on. As she held her breath, a warm sensation ran through her body. At first it was warm like a sip of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s day but then the feeling went from warm to scorching hot.

Dylan had never experienced anything like it before. She kind of liked how the iodine made her feel but still wanted the process to be over soon.
Lord, please don’t let anything bad be wrong with me,
she prayed. Once the CT scan was complete, Dylan was back with Angel inside her triage room. Angel being the loving husband he was held her hand. Angel was worried sick out of his mind.

He’d never seen Dylan so sickly. He’d given the world to make her feel better. They’d been in the emergency room for almost six hours. It was going on 8:00a.m and no answer had been given as to what was wrong with her. All of the nonstop drama in his family was driving Angel nuts. They needed peace and fast.

“Mrs. Carter.” The doctor entered her room.

“Yes,” Dylan answered, eagerly.

“We have all your test results back and it looks like you have perforated your colon.”

“What does that mean?” Dylan asked confused.

“It means you have a small hole in your colon.” The doctor explained.

“What?!” Dylan and Angel both said at the same time.

“How do I have a hole in my colon?” Dylan’s heart rate increased.

“You have diverticulitis. Diverticulitis is a condition that happens when pouches form in the wall of your colon. If the pouches get inflamed or infected, they will burst, in which one of yours did.”

“So why do I feel the pain in my pelvis? Why does it feel like cramps?”

“The pain is actually coming from the left lower quadrant of your stomach. You feel most of the pain from there, don’t you?” The doctor touched her stomach.

“Yes,” Dylan nodded.

“Explain to me doc.” Angel jumped in. “How do you get diverticulitis?”

“The cause is actually unknown. Some studies show that a lack of dietary fiber is the cause but there are other studies that disagree with this theory.” The doctor clarified.

“So Dylan since you perforated your colon we’re going to have to perform emergency surgery on you to prevent the waste in your intestines from spilling into your stomach. You better thank god that you came in when you did. You could’ve died if you didn’t.”

Dylan looked at her husband and immediately started to cry. The mere thought of her possibly dying scared her to death.

“We’re going to have our resident physician, Dr. Eagan perform the surgery on you to repair the damage to your colon. You’ll be going in for surgery within the next hour.” The doctor said before leaving the room.

“I’m scared.” Dylan sobbed into her hands.

“I know you are baby.” Angel shed a single tear too.

Dylan was a natural born fighter. She was strong, yet fragile though. She was the type of woman that could only handle but so much. Angel couldn’t handle seeing his wife in such a vulnerable state. The sight shook him to the core.

“It’s gonna be okay, pretty girl.” He wrapped her up into his arms.

“What if something goes wrong?”

“Don’t even speak that shit into existence. You’re going to be fine. A week from now we’re going to be sitting back laughing at this shit.”

“I hope so,” Dylan whimpered.

“You gon’ be straight. I’m going to be right here with you, okay? I’ll be the first person you see when you wake up,” Angel promised.

Dylan was in and out of consciousness for a day before she was finally fully awake. Her surgery was a success and without any complications. Throughout the entire five and a half hour surgery Angel was on pins and needles. Outside of his nephew, he never had a loved one in the hospital under severe conditions. The whole time he did nothing but pace back and forth and pray. The reality that he could possibly lose his best friend, partner, lover, confidant and wife was simply unbearable.

Dylan was his world. Without her life wasn’t worth living. Without her, he was nothing. He hadn’t and would never love another woman the way he loved her. Despite her sometimes ditzy behavior she was the best decision he’d ever made. When they exchanged vows he’d promised to protect her from all harm but Angel couldn’t protect her from this.

He couldn’t buy his way out of this either. Only God could heal this situation and thankfully he had. It freaked Angel out to see Dylan lying in the hospital bed with her hair all over her head. There was an oxygen mask on her face, heart monitor patches on her chest and an IV needle in her arm. There were so many machines hooked up to Dylan that it frightened him. It was bad enough that after surgery she was placed in ICU. Angel thanked his lucky stars that Billie, Tee-Tee and Candy were there to help comfort and keep him sane. He’d broken down twice after witnessing Dylan in such a helpless state.

Dylan squirmed in her sleep and allowed her eyes to flutter open. Opening her eyes she swallowed the saliva in her throat and felt a tube hit her esophagus. The feeling and the sight of seeing Billie’s big face irritated the hell out of her. Dylan had bigger fish to fry though. She could feel that her stomach was bandaged up. The worst part was over. She’d survived surgery.
Thank you lord, I’m alive,
she thought.

“Angel, where is my baby?” She reached out her hand for him.

“The nanny has him. He’s okay. You have nothing to worry about, pretty girl.” Angel assured, placing a small kiss on the outside of her hand.

“Did the doctor fix my stomach?”

Angel glanced over his shoulder at Candy. Candy willed herself not to cry and placed her head down. Dylan caught the exchange and noticed the worried look on her mother’s face.

“Yeah, they fixed it,” Angel replied, cautiously.

“Mrs. Carter?” Dr. Eagan walked inside her room.

Dr. Eagan was a short, stout, old, white man with gray hair in the form of a comb-over and wore glasses.

“Yes,” Dylan coughed.

“Your surgery went well. As you know we placed you under general anesthesia. I made an incision in your abdomen, removed the diseased section of your large intestine and then I took the two healthy ends and sewed them together.”

“Okay.”

“Can everyone expect for Mr. Carter step out of the room? I want to take a look at Mrs. Carter’s stomach.”

“Sure.” Everyone nodded and left out.

“Let’s see here,” Dr. Eagan pulled up the right side of Dylan’s gown. “Good, you’re not bleeding out.” He checked the bandage going down the center of her stomach.

Dylan immediately realized that she would have a huge scar going down the center of her stomach for the rest of her life. There would be no more bikini’s or crop tops for her.

“What is this hanging from the right side of my stomach?” She asked alarmed.

There was a medium size clear ball attached to a tube hanging from an opening in her stomach.

“That is a drain. We have that there to drain any excess fluids from out of your abdominal cavity. In order to close your incision we stitched your stomach closed from the inside and placed staples and sutures on the outside. Now let’s take a look over here.” Dr. Eagan pulled up the left side of her gown.

Dylan instantly spotted a clear bag with what looked like a chunk of chicken fat hanging out of her stomach inside of it.

“What the hell is that?” She asked, about to pass out.

“Baby, calm down.” Angel tried to soothe her.

“No! What the fuck is this hanging out of my stomach?” Dylan shrieked.

“You all haven’t told her?” Dr. Eagan questioned Angel.

“No. We didn’t know how to.”

“Didn’t know how to tell me what?” Dylan quipped, panicking.

“Well Dylan, we had to also perform a colostomy on you,” Dr. Eagan, explained.

“What is that?” Dylan furrowed her brows.

“A colostomy is performed when the bowel has to be relieved of its normal digestive work as it heals. A colostomy implies creating a temporary opening of the colon on the skin surface and the end of the colon is passed through the abdominal wall and a removable bag is attached to it. The waste is collected in the bag. That is what you have. What you’re looking at is called a colostomy bag which you’ll have to have for the next three to six months.”

Should we just pretend that love ain’t closing in?

-Raheem Devaughn, “Where I Stand”

Chapter 20

            Never in Dylan’s life did she envision her first Thanksgiving as a newly married woman in the hospital. She’d been at Saint Mary’s in the ICU for five days. She hadn’t eaten a thing yet. To make matters worse she’d gotten her period and was dealt another shocking blow. Not only would she have to have a colostomy bag for probably six months but while performing her surgery Dr. Eagan noticed that her ovaries were enlarged.
            He’d shown Dylan and Angel pictures of her ovaries and they were the size of tennis balls. Dylan was mortified. Once she was well enough she was told that she must see her OB/GYN to find out why her ovaries were that size. After learning the horrific news, Dylan was emotionally done. She couldn’t handle anything else negative. In her eyes her life was over.

            There was no way she could have a colostomy bag for six days let alone almost six months. How was she going to function with having to shit through her stomach? It was gross. She didn’t know how to apply a unit to her stomach and didn’t want to take the time to learn how to either. All Dylan could do was cry. None of Angel’s inspirational speeches or prayers made her feel any better. She was sick of being confined to the twin sized bed.

            She was sick of having a million tubes stuck to her body. The electronic compression stockings strapped to her legs that helped prevent blood clots was working her nerves. She was over peeing through a catheter. She’d only seen her baby once since being in the hospital and was having major motherly withdrawal symptoms. Dylan had never been away from her son so long but it was for the best. She didn’t want to risk him getting sick coming to the hospital.

            On top of missing her son her career hung in the balance. She had a show to film and by the looks of the things Dylan wasn’t heading home anytime soon.
Lord, how did I go from thinking I was having menstrual cramps to thinking I was pregnant, to this?
For that brief moment when she thought she was pregnant Dylan was the happiest she’d been in a long while. All of her hopes and dreams seemed to be aligning. But she wasn’t pregnant and it would be a lifetime before she could even think about trying to conceive another child.