Page 3 of The Game Changer

Jill

I walk into my office, drop my bag, keys, and phone on my office chair before I turn to head into the little break room. I pop a pod into the Keurig and place a clean mug under it. Thank God for quick brew settings, as I need the caffeine boost this afternoon. I spent the morning running ragged between a late patient, a last-minute add on, and a baby that didn’t want to cooperate with how I needed it to move so we could get the images and measurements that we needed for an ultrasound.

“How was lunch?” my receptionist, Cassie, asks as she joins me in the break room. She sits down at the little two-person table that is pushed against the wall and pulls out her to-go container. The aromas from her food start to fill the small room, and I swear my stomach growls even after stuffing myself not even thirty minutes ago with my lunch.

“Eh, not as good as that!” I tell her, looking over at the Chinese food she’s just opened up.

“Ethan dropped it off to me on his way into work,” she says, taking a bite of her food. “Oh, before I forget, we got another add-on for this afternoon at two.”

“Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to go catch up on some paperwork before our next patient arrives,” I tell her as I grab my cup of coffee from the Keurig.

I settle in at my desk, waking up my computer as I sip on my hot coffee while I wait for it to load up completely. I’ve got reports to run, notes to document, and then send to the ordering doctors’ offices, followed by a stack of bills to approve to be paid, supplies to order, schedules to finalize. The laundry list of things on my plate is never-ending, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love owning my own little practice, even if it does come with an endless supply of stress and more hours than I’d like to admit to having to work each week.

I look over the schedule quickly and realize that I’ve got about forty-five minutes until my next patient is scheduled. I verify all the bills my accountant sent me, and I give her the go-ahead to pay all of them. I start in on the notes and documentation required for the patients I saw this morning. There isn’t usually much I have to change on the final report after the ultrasound is finished, and our machines automatically fill out the required data that is collected for both the ordering physician and any information that the insurance company might need.

Just as I’m finishing my now cold coffee, Cassie pokes her head into my office to let me know our first patient of the afternoon has arrived. I close out of my computer and grab the intake paperwork along with the doctors' orders. I look over everything on my way to the exam room. This is a pretty routine twenty-week pregnancy ultrasound where we check all sorts of the baby’s measurements, and many parents find out what sex the baby is. These are some of the funniest appointments I get to do in my line of work.

“Good afternoon, I’m Jill,” I greet the patient, and I’m assuming her husband, sitting next to her.

“Hi! I’m Hillary, and this is my husband, Zach,” Hillary introduces the two of them. I take a seat on my stool, tapping a few buttons on the machine to wake it up.

“Nice to meet the two of you. If you’re ready to get started, go ahead and lay back and lift your shirt for me. Did you want to find out the baby’s gender today?” I always ask before I start with the scan so I can avoid spoiling the surprise if they don’t want to know.

“Can you possibly put the information in an envelope for us? My sister is going to take the envelope to the baker, who’s going to use either pink or blue frosting in the middle of the cake so that we’re all surprised and find out at the same time.”

“Absolutely! How long will you have to wait to find out?” I ask as I squirt some warmed gel on her stomach.

“Tomorrow, and I’m going to go nuts in the meantime. I don’t know what I was thinking, keeping it a secret a day longer.”

“I’m sure you’ll do just great,” I reassure Hillary. “I’m going to start with some of the measurements that your OB needs. Your baby is nice and awake. He or she is actively sucking its thumb right now,” I tell Hillary and Zach as I point it out on the screen. Our rooms are set up with a large TV screen mounted to the wall so that the patient and their family members can watch what we’re looking at. I quickly take the measurements, printing out pictures of the baby as I go on explaining each step of the process.

I get to what I like to call the money shot and quickly realize that they’re having a boy. “All right, close your eyes for a few seconds. I’ve got to move, and it will be quite obvious what sex the baby is,” I warn the two of them and wait for a second as I watch them look away from the screen. I move the probe and get the shot I need, adding, “I’m a boy!” to the image. “All right, you can look again,” I tell them once I’ve moved on to measuring the baby’s kidneys.

“Thank you so much!” Hillary thanks me once we’ve finished, and she’s cleaned her belly off.

“Here are your pictures, video, and the all-important envelope with the gender,” I tell the two of them as I hand everything over. I put the images that give away the gender in a separate envelope and put it inside the DVD case.”

“Thanks, Jill,” Zach states as he snags the case from his wife’s hands. “I’ll hold on to that envelope until after tomorrow. Don’t want you cheating after we hand over the other envelope,” he tells his wife as he kisses her. I smile at their excitement and easiness. I long for the day I have that kind of connection with someone.

“Have a great day.” I wave as they leave the exam room. I start my cleaning procedures, making sure the room is ready for the next patient who hopefully is waiting on me to come to get them from the waiting room.

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