Presley
A machine she was hooked to went insane with loud alert noises and craziness. What in the world was happening? The nurse went completely nuts stabbing buttons and slapping Michelle’s face as the entire room went from silent and somber to a riotous uproar of madness. The doctor looked at the machine where the baby appeared to be sleeping nicely in the womb but there was something else going on.
Michelle had slipped from consciousness while staring at the picture of her unborn baby and then the machine she was hooked up to by wires to monitor her vital signs, began to prove her heart had stopped. Presley jumped out of the seat and ran closer. The nurses were in the bustle and he stared at the doctor who was like him, as clueless as a deer in headlights. Then suddenly they all heard a loud gasp and Michelle’s eyes shot open and she screamed for help. Right before him, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her entire body started to spasm in an inhuman-like manner.
“She’s having a seizure!” Said the doctor and they all burst into action. Before Presley could protest or at least get an answer when he yelled what was wrong, he was forcibly pushed by the male nurse and a large blue curtain was shoved across his face.
It took nearly an hour for the nurse to find him in the waiting room and tell him what was going on. The nurse went back into the room as he followed and he saw that Michelle was on the bed appearing perfectly fine. He wanted answers. When he tried to get them from her, he remembered what the nurse told him in the waiting room.
“Don’t panic yet, we had some blood tests sent out and it is to our knowledge that whatever happened to the patient, she has no recollection of what it is or why she is suffering from these spells.”
“Spells!?” he yelled. “What spells? This happened before? And she didn’t tell me?” Dear God Michelle don’t you care about yourself! “I don’t understand!” He yelled and the nurse tried to calm him.
“Sir, we really need you to calm down, you are the emergency contact and she is claiming not to have any family. She is fine right now, her body is back to normal but she is in need of a friend who is calm and able to convince her to stay for tests. She wants to leave.” That was all Presley had to hear.
Michelle was staying for tests and he personally didn’t give a hoot who didn’t like it. He would keep her in that bed till kingdom come if need be, and as far as he was concerned they said the same phrase twenty-four generations before his mother and it would be used twenty-four generations after.
Michelle was shaking, her body jumping from the cold and it didn’t really matter how many blankets she had on her body. Presley watched in pure agony. His heart was in his throat and he wished he could take all of her pain away. Her mouth trembled as he offered her some water. She refused it. He sat beside her bed and took her hand, he would never let go of it no matter what.
“My baby, I think I hurt my baby.” She whimpered and all Presley could do was hold her hand tighter and promise her the baby was fine. Michelle kept shaking her head back and forth as tears rolled down her face. “No Presley. It’s my fault…I shouldn’t have left you; I shouldn’t have followed a lie. I don’t love Jake! I just wanted to prove that I had my own mind.” She cried.
“Prove? Prove what to whom? I was always convinced you thought for yourself Michelle.” Presley tried to console her.
“I know Presley, it was me. I felt that if you and I stayed together I would have never been myself. I could not tell if I was an apple tree or an orange tree because everyone was influencing me to be someone else! I just couldn’t take it anymore and I…I am so sorry it fell on you.” She cried into her hands, her head still shaking and her body still shivering. “I can never forgive myself. All I can do now is go to Jake and raise our child together and leave you to your good life without a backstabbing no-good like me.”
What can I say? What can I do? How can I convince you that I love you? What can I say…?
Presley kept repeating the questions in his mind trying to hold back the anger in his body. Why had life betrayed him this way? The doctor entered the room and called Presley outside to speak with him alone. The doctor took her clipboard and crushed it to the side of her body and looked at him with a very sad face. Presley prepared for the worst, and was not prepared enough.
“I don’t’ know how to say this to you Presley.” The doctor said. “I know you have been a good friend to me over the time you have been working upstairs, and I truly do love all the time you spend with my sons during the summer. But unfortunately, I have terrible news for you.” He looked at her in the eyes and prayed there was something behind him in case he stumbled. Had she lost the baby? Was it stillborn? Were the attacks the result of something bigger that could not be fixed? What was it!
The doctor lifted her head. “Presley, the woman you brought to us today has a very terrible disease and I-“ She shook her head a bit disgusted and a bit ashamed. “She has something we call the “Silent Disease”, it is actually more common than you can imagine with one million to two million infections a year.” When the doctor realized Presley was still confused with his eyebrows raised and his eyes vast and approaching exploding, she reworded.
“She has late signs, very late signs of Chlamydia.” Presley instantly recognized the name of the STD. “Presley, because it has gone untreated, matter of fact unnoticed for so long it has begun scarring her womb. We would operate, but she is far too late in her pregnancy for that. The reason she had such a horrible spell in the hospital room is because her body is fighting both the antibiotics she has been recently taking, and also the prenatal vitamins we supplied her with. Her body is basically under an attack and the only one losing here is the baby.” Presley sighed deeply and he grabbed his throat trying to free himself. He grew dizzy.
“Well she wasn’t on antibiotics.” He said and the doctor shook her head.
“She is on them now. Maybe you should have a talk with her, the antibiotics are not working because the person she has been sexually active with has not been taking them either. I am a doctor and even if you lie on the paper work, and lie to my face the tests can only tell the truth whether you want to admit it or not.” The doctor spoke to him intently.
“Michelle would have experienced immense burning sensations, abnormal discharge and extensive pelvic pain in a serious case. Or perhaps she had no symptoms at all, but she definitely contracted this disease a while ago and whomever she is dating at the moment has been making her situation worse.” The doctor said and shuffled her feet a bit shifting her weight. Presley was glad Michelle was not dying, he took in a deep breathe happy that she was ok but the doctor’s facial expression did not change.
“Presley…this is serious.” She said and Presley looked at her again. Then the realization set in, it was not dangerous for Michelle, it was dangerous for the baby! “The baby inside of her has less than a thirty percent chance of coming out alive, and even less of a chance of surviving once it’s here. She will need a lot of medication and a lot of attention if she is born alive.” Presley could feel his breakfast, lunch and dinner from the day before preparing to make a grand re-entrance into his life.
“I am keeping her here for observation, if she makes some improvement I will send her to the nearest hospital for further testing. We don’t have all the resources here but her blood needs to be tested immediately after she is deemed to travel.” The doctor shook his hand and that was the end of it. Presley stumbled back into the room and the distraught look on his face said more than he could have guessed. Michelle took one look at him and burst into tears, and at that moment Presley truly believed the worst that could have happened was as far off as his happiness.
After two grueling days between hospital and clinic, test after test and good news with bad news, Presley and Michelle were able to take some time and weigh their options. If the baby was able to make it all the way to full term then she had a bigger chance of surviving but only with heavy medication and treatments for mother and child.
Presley had spoken to Michelle about the disease she had and how she contracted it once she was strong enough to respond without crying.
He didn’t ask to judge her, he wanted to know what she had been through and not as a father but as a friend he wanted to be there for her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and escape this world by flying straight up to heaven and leave her by God’s right hand. That seemed to be the only place safe enough for her and the baby, and anything else was just not good enough.
Presley and Michelle talked about her escape to Memphis and her flood of freedom was the worst gift she had ever received. She had gone from guy to guy and not realizing the toll it took on her body, she played around like the young and vibrant girl she always was. When she became aware of her problem she borrowed a few meds from her friends and it got rid of the pain but she didn’t know it was only getting worse over time.
Jake could only make the situation worse. Michelle finally opened up to Presley and confessed to him about her life with her baby’s father (now her husband) and how miserable she had been. She complained about him while they were together and told him that she had made a few changes in her life when she found out her daughter would suffer for
Passion Over Presley: Based on a True Story Page 9