Potential - conclusion

chapter 2

As time went on and we grew closer to the due date, things got a bit more serious. Sylvia’s system was being pumped full of medicines to regulate her blood pressure and glucose as well as for pain management. Most days the best thing she could do would be to sleep and try to rest comfortably. She had tubes coming out of her nose pumping oxygen into her system, and all manner of wires were connected to her to monitor hers and the baby’s heart rates and other vital signs.

I’m not going to lie, it was a little scary to see my love hooked up to all those machines and all zonked out, but Dr Zane reassured me that everything was going to be just fine.

Dr Zane had a special feeding machine brought in, as Sylvia was sleeping nearly all day everyday now. “She’d got to keep up her strength,” said the doctor. “See that she still gets all the foods she likes best. Whatever it is, just drop right into this compartment and the machine will grind it up for her.” There was a long tube that was inserted into the back of her throat, pumping a liquified mix of calorie-ladened food directly into her stomach.

Feeding Sylvia this way became an unending task for me. Every hour on the hour I’d stuff that machine full of meats and cheeses, entire chickens and hams, sacks of potatoes and bushels of apples, cakes and pies and tubs of ice cream - all of it quickly whipped into a soft and frothy cream and guzzled down into Sylvia’s gut. She was being filled out like a balloon attached directly to a faucet. Her body expanding more and more by the minute. In time she would come to be a massive spherical blob of fat.

When the time came for her to deliver, Dr. Zane brought in a team of doctors, surgeons and nurses to assist with the arduous task of bringing this new life into the world. Since a conventional birth was out of the question, the doctors were going to have to give her a Caesarean section, remove several layers of fat via liposuction, and then deliver the baby all at once. It was a big job, and it took hours.

I couldn’t watch, I was a nervous wreck. I sat outside on the couch, nervously twiddling my thumbs. It felt like I could barely breathe, and my life was flashing before my eyes. I thought about the first time Sylvia and I met, our first date and that first day that she told me she wanted to get fat for me. We’d had a beautiful life together, and whatever happened now, whatever changes were to come, I was just grateful that we had the life that we did.

Hours later, Dr Zane came out and said, “Congratulations, dad! Mom and baby are both doing just fine.”

What a relief!