Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sonograms make my eyes hurt.

On the 10th week and 3rd day of my wife's pregnancy we went to the OB GYN for her periodic checkup. She (my wife) was starting to feel a little queasy at the sight and scent of various food groups. The food aversions have officially announced their arrival and I had to personally welcome them to avert their attention on her. I've gained a little over 5 pounds since. I wonder why. I have to admit that my ONLY food aversion is to lychee. All other food types and groups are my friends. Lychees are a different food group altogether. To my mind they are not carbohydrates, not vegetables or fruits, not proteins...they are just lychees and they can leave me alone for all I care. Anyway, the doctor did her routine checkup and prescribed the necessary supplements for the duration of her first trimester. "Let's do an ultrasound today." she said. We excitedly agreed and proceeded to the sonogram room. The sonogram room is about 6 square meters and a bit dark. The only lighting it had came from the large TV monitor that displayed figures. I'm guessing from the sonogram apparatus. My wife lay down on the bed and doktora scanned her belly using the sonogram watchamacallit thing that probed the external of her belly. I sat at the corner of the room observing doktora do her sonogram probing on my wife. I took several pictures while she prepped the machine. Then lo and behold the fetus was displayed on the monitor. I was dumbfounded. It was surreal. Doktora explained several things which made me hear her as if she was speaking gibberish. I was hypnotized. I looked at my wife. She was wearing a genuinely happy smile and looked incredibly beautiful. I saw she was simultaneously smiling and crying. I directed my attention back at the monitor. The light and images from it were overwhelming. Then all of a sudden, the fetus moved as if attempting to jump and gave what i thought was a wave as if saying hello. "Uy sumipa! Nagpapakitang gilas siya! (Hey it kicked! It's showing off!) doktora amusedly said. After seeing it, I felt as if my astral cord jumped off my physical body and my head felt as if it swelled with my nape hairs raising uncontrollably. My eyes hurt from staring at the monitor. Several tears fell involuntarily. I'm pretty sure it was eye strain from the monitor staring. Ummm yeah...it's eye strain...pretty sure it was eye strain. Eye strain it was. Believe me, it's just eye strain...right.