Sex sent me to the OR !
It’s 5 am. My phone rings. It’s a childhood friend — *Randy.
‘Doc, my wife is bleeding.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked half awake.
‘We were trying to diversify our bedroom rodeo and well…things didn’t go as planned. She is in a lot of pain and there is blood everywhere.’
‘Get her to the hospital. Call me when you get there.’
Doctors. We have no autonomy. The world owns us. People own us. See, a doctor may leave the office, but the assignment remains. They may clock out at the end of a shift but the work continues. At home, in church, at the gym, in a bar, name it. For every four people you meet, the fifth guy will have the oddest clinical question or comment.
‘ Doc why don’t we get goosebumps on the face?’
‘ The colour of my stool has changed.’’
And the winner is…
‘Doc can I take alcohol while on these antibiotics?’
Unable to go back to sleep, I got up and prepared for the day. I briefly forgot about the phone call until he got in touch hours later. ‘So what exactly happened Randy?’ I asked him.
They were newly weds who got married green as a meadow, armed only with theoretical knowledge of the act of marriage. Ten days after the nuptials, they decided to spice things up and experiment. In the process of belly bumping, *Anne, his wife shrieked. He was confused by the sound. Was it pain or pleasure?
‘Paaaaiiiin,’ she screamed, ‘I am in pain’.
He stopped in his tracks, confused and disappointed. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t notice her limp to the bathroom and take what felt like an eternity to come back.
‘I seem to be bleeding.’ She said
‘It’s ok. Weren’t we told it is to be expected for the first few days?’
‘Yes but it’s slightly more than usual.’
‘You will be ok. Let’s sleep.’ He sounded almost agitated but frankly he was just tired. It didn’t take long, he was out cold.
Throughout the night she barely slept. She kept tossing and turning and had a distinct feeling of wetness. She kept shuffling back and forth between the bed and the washroom. Everytime she got up, she felt blood trickling down her thighs. And the pain, the pain was unrelenting. It felt like hot coal was being mined in between her legs.
Eventually at 5am when she couldn’t take it anymore, she woke him up.
‘Something is wrong.’
He got up, switched on the lights and gasped. Their sheets were crimson. She hadn’t noticed because she had been shuttling in the dark. He panicked. That’s when he called me. He sprung to action. Asked her to get dressed as he figured out how he would get her to hospital. He called his cab guy while pacing up and down. She in turn,was standing still staring at the pool of blood, collecting on their bedroom floor.
‘Use a leso. Tie it. Let’s go,’ he said in apprehension.
He couldn’t hear past his heartbeat. Just ten days ago, her parents had entrusted him with their daughter. Now she was going to bleed out before his eyes and it might be his fault. Anne was usually quite chatty, but she was deathly silent and somewhat pale. Just before they got out the door, she grabbed a box of mixed berry juice.
‘This might come in handy,’ she managed weakly.
‘Ok.’ Adrenaline filled, he half carried her down the stairs and bundled her into the cab. No time for romantic opening of doors and what not.
‘Nairobi Women’s Hospital please.’ he barked. Halfway there, they got into traffic. The long winding kind.
‘Overlap.’ He ordered.
The taxi driver was malleable. He didn’t argue. He must have sensed the urgency of the matter. Yet that was not enough to get them out of trouble, when a policeman flagged them down. Without warning, the driver turned off the engine and took off into the sunrise. They found themselves in the middle of the road, abandoned in a cab with a terse looking cop. When it rains, it pours.
‘Kijana, where is the driver?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Where are the car keys?’
‘I don’t know sir. But my wife, she is in critical condition. I was rushing her to hospital.’
The cop peeped into the car and found her transferring the contents of the mixed berry into her mouth. Obviously she didn’t look sick to him -just thirsty.
‘I will let you go once you produce the driver.’
This is why grown men cry. He pleaded like a man whose head was on the guillotine. He was using his heart rate to count the seconds. Time was not on their side. In a last ditch effort, he told him his wife had been bleeding for hours. He displayed the leso. It was soaked.
‘Si ungesema. There is a hospital right there.’ The cop pointed to a red brick building on the other side of the road. It was a stone throw away but when they tried to walk, she was too weak to move. He got hold of a boda guy and asked him to take her there while he followed on foot. Maybe it was the blood, or her white face, or his impatience, or the cop but the boda guy took off real fast and then just disappeared.
Anne who was now in between different levels of consciousness wondered why this uncomfortable ride was everlasting only to realise they were heading back the same way they had come.
‘Where are you taking me?’ she shrieked.
‘Mama Lucy.’
‘Whaaat! Nooo. Turn back.’ Her strength was back albeit temporarily.
Apparently the rider was mistaken about the directive he was given. He hastily turned around.
Back at the hospital, her husband was frantically calling her wondering where they had gone. No response. Could this day possibly get any worse? He met a nurse at the entrance.
‘Help. My wife is in a really bad state. She has been bleeding almost the whole night.’
‘Where is she?’
‘Erm…I don’t know.’
‘Is she pregnant?’
‘I don’t know.’
At that point, the rider got back. Anne was in a poor state. He supported her as they walked in.
‘I feel thirsty,’ she kept saying on a loop.
‘That’s not a good sign,’ the nurse mentioned.
Her eyes suddenly rolled back as she made a groaning sound and fell backward- her husband broke her fall. To say he was terrified was an understatement. He felt sick to his stomach, he told me.
They rushed her to an examining room with several people attending to her. ‘It felt uncomfortable to watch her in that situation.’ The pricking, prodding, drawing blood from her for investigations. The doctor was methodical but fast. He was rubbing her lower abdomen in a counterclockwise manner and with each rub, a legion of blood clots spluttered out. Randy wasn’t prepared for the internal exam that followed.
‘I need to take a look inside,’ the doctor said. ‘This is what I will use- it will feel slightly uncomfortable and cold.’ He held up a metallic instrument that looked like a duck’s bill. There was no preamble. No background music. No curtain raiser. He just inserted it into her and a waterfall of blood poured out.
‘Wow. Your wife has a cervical tear.’
He was appalled. What did he mean wow? Was it a tourist attraction? A thing of art? He sounded almost ecstatic.
‘Dude,’ he turned to Randy, ‘What exactly were you two upto?’ Was that a rhetorical question or did he actually want an answer?
‘ We have to take her to the operating room to repair it.’
He knew that was the point he had to call someone. But who? Their parents were not an option. What would he tell them? He pictured the awkward conversation in his mind and instead dialled her older sister. After an uncomfortable conversation, he asked her to come over.
Anne was swiftly taken to the OR looking as pale as winter. It felt like time stood still, yet she was back out in no time. She was still weak but managed a smile. The worst was behind them. The doctor came to update them that he found an extensive cervical tear but he repaired it and she would be ok. They were asked to stay for a few hours for observation and then they could go home.
‘How did it feel like- the thought that your wife could have died?’ I asked him.
‘Well…I wondered what I would write in her eulogy as cause of death.’
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The cervix is a small canal that sits at the top of the vagina. Tears often occur during childbirth. However, the cervix-made up of sensitive tissue- can easily be bruised or injured during vigorous sexual activity or deep penetration. This is however a rare occurrence. A tear can cause excruciating pain and bleed torrentially. Once repaired it heals very well.
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