Balance (Off Balance 1)

“Sit up.” He listened to my heart, my back, and down my sides. As he pushed around near my spine, I grimaced in discomfort. When the doctor pushed on my side near my kidney, I went ramrod straight and sucked in an audible breath, wincing.

“Adrianna, I’m going to need a urine sample to rule out pregnancy and infection.”

My stomach dropped. I froze. A pregnancy test? I’d only had sex with Kova twice. There was no way I could be pregnant…I hoped. Fear seized my heart and my breathing became labored as I realized I needed to get my hands on another morning after pill soon.

“I don’t have to go, I went before I left,” I lied.

He tilted his head to the side. “Luckily I only need a little.” He handed me a small cup and said, “Three doors down on your left. Write your name on it and slip it through the window. Then come back.”

I grimaced, knowing what was ahead of me.

Walking down the bland, gray hallway to the bathroom, I closed the door behind me and took in the small space. Just thinking about having to pee was causing me fear as the urge struck me. Spreading my legs and squatting over the toilet, making sure not to touch the rim, I positioned the cup under me.

Expelling a heavy breath, I looked down at the cup perplexed. My urine was a murky brown. Definitely not what it should’ve been. Maybe I was dehydrated and needed to drink more water. Lately, I’d been cutting back so I didn’t have to use the bathroom as much. Guess that wasn’t such a great idea.

After I put the plastic cup in the cabinet, I washed my hands and walked back to the room. The pressure in my belly had dwelled to a low glow. Despite not wanting to deal with it at all, I’d take this pain over anything else I’d been dealing with recently.

A few minutes later, the doctor came back. I was feeling better and realized I probably could’ve skipped coming to the doctor’s if I had just gone to the bathroom and dealt with the pain instead of acting like a baby.

“Good news, the pregnancy test is negative, but your sample does show bacteria. I’m going to send it to the lab to be cultured. For now, I’d like to perform an abdominal ultrasound and draw some blood.”

My brows pushed together. “Why do we need blood work?”

“Just a precautionary. Even though the urine pregnancy is negative, we still like to follow it up with a serum pregnancy test to rule out a false negative. The morning after pill is not always effective,” he responded, head down and writing in his folder. My stomach churned at the thought. I knew no form of birth control was one hundred percent, but it never dawned on me until this moment just how big that tiny window could be.

Nearly thirty minutes later, I was stuck with a needle—four times might I add—since the nurse couldn’t get it right, and then lathered with warm gel. I had to squeeze the sides of the table as the ultrasound technician pressed on my abdomen and bladder. I was thin, weighing in around one hundred pounds soaking wet, if that. She should’ve been able to see everything and not need to push as hard as she did. When I asked what she was doing, she said looking for cysts because they can cause major abdominal pain. When she asked me to turn over, she scanned my kidneys.

The doctor walked back in and shut the door. Looking at me, he took a pen out of the pocket of his lab coat and grabbed a prescription pad. “It appears you have a kidney infection. It’s a pretty bad one, I might add. You could’ve had a reaction to the morning after pill that didn’t help stop the infection, and the severe cramping in your abdomen is most likely caused by the pill. I suggest refraining from taking the pill in the future and be on a more consistent form of birth control.” He paused and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “Does it hurt to urinate?”

“It burns like you can’t imagine.”

“So you hold it in, then,” he confirmed.

I nodded.

“That’s the worst thing you could do—stop doing it. I’m going to prescribe you some antibiotics and a pain reliever. Take the antibiotics until they’re gone and the pain pill as needed.” He scribbled on his pad. “I’m also suggesting you take the rest of today and tomorrow off. A heating pad will help too.”

“Doctor, there’s no way I can take another day off. I just can’t.”

He ignored me. “If you’re not feeling better by the end of the second day, call me.”

“But I can’t miss another day. I have to go back tomorrow.” My heart thumped against my chest, anxiety taking over at the thought of missing another day.

He peered down his nose over his glasses at me. “I’ll write you a doctor’s note. If your coach has any problem with it, he can call me. Your body needs rest.”

I nodded to pacify him, ready to go home.

“Like hell I’m going to take another day off. Coach would have my head on a stick if I did that,” I said to Hayden once we were back in his car.

He chuckled. “Maybe it would be a good thing you did. That way you can rest up and not get set back even more. It will give you time off your foot too.”

“My Achilles isn’t going to heal in two days. It’s going to take quitting gymnastics completely for that to happen.”

“If that’s the case, then why did your coach water down your routines?”

I sighed. “To help heal the strain as much as possible and work back up to that level, I guess. They don’t want me making it worse where I have to actually take time off.”

He looked over at me. “You must hate that.”