equipment.
'Is this where she'll do it?' she asked the nurse.
'Yes. Please undress and put this on.' The tall woman handed Valerie a blue dressing gown. Valerie took it, thanked her, and waited for her to leave before disrobing. She hung her skirt and shirt on a hanger behind the door, put her panties in her purse, and slipped into the dressing gown. The rough fabric was cold to the touch.
She looked at the centerpiece of the room-a padded table with padded metal stirrups, padded metal armrests, handgrips, and headrest, all in dark green.
Is this right? she wondered. I can't back out now. I'd just be up on that thing again in seven months with a bigger problem.
She tried to envision being a mother to a crying, demanding baby. She didn't think she possessed the necessary calm pa-tience that child care required. I could never be like Mom. No one could be that loving and kind all the time anymore.
The door opened. In stepped Dr. Fletcher wearing a crisp white paper surgical gown, her hair tucked under an equally white cap. She wore light green paper slacks, and on her feet were light green paper shoes. The tall nurse followed, simi-larly dressed.
'Good evening, Valerie,' Dr. Fletcher said with a warm smile. 'How are you feeling?'
'Fine.'
'Nurse Dyer will assist me tonight. I think you've met.'
Valerie nodded. The nurse gazed back with cool efficiency.
'While we're getting ready here,' the doctor said, 'could you please climb onto the table?' Valerie sat up on the paper-covered cushion, leaned back, and lifted her legs up to the stirrups with Nurse Dyer's guid-ance. While Dr. Fletcher pulled on a pair of latex gloves, then slipped another pair over them, Nurse Dyer stepped over to the far side of the room to unlock a closet. There, on small rubber wheels, stood a white and gleaming object the size of a small refrigerator. On one side was a control panel with switches, dials, lights, and a small video screen. On the other side was a long, white, flexible plastic tube terminating in a stiff, clear segment with a small opaque ridge on one side. Nurse Dyer wheeled the device into position a few feet back from where Valerie's legs spread. She hooked a foot to slide a chair under Fletcher as the doctor slipped a mask over her mouth and nose. Dyer pulled a light down from the ceiling, switched its brilliant lamp on, and positioned the beam directly between Valerie's legs. The rays warmed Valerie like the sun. It brought to her an old memory of a camping trip with her first boyfriend in high school. They had biked up to Flagstaff from Grand Junction. Below them spread the town of Boulder and the endless plains of eastern Colorado. They both disrobed and lay in the sun, its heat tickling parts of them that seldom basked in its radiance.
Valerie let out a startled gasp. The cold touch of a thermom-eter entering her brought her back to the present.
'Okay,' the doctor said, sliding on a pair of goggles. 'Hold that in there for a moment.' Nurse Dyer donned two sets of gloves and her own goggles. Silent, well rehearsed, she performed her duties with a prac-ticed efficiency that wasted no motions of her shapely frame. She switched on the machine. It hummed and gurgled. The end of it made a sucking sound for a moment.
'Dulbeco's medium ready,' the nurse said. 'Pump on. Ham's F-10 warming.'
'Buminate?' asked Fletcher.
'Five percent.'
Dr. Fletcher turned her attention to Valerie. 'Since you're only about seven weeks, Valerie, we're going to use the suc-tion method. This is the latest equipment, and it's very gentle.'
'Will it hurt much?' She craned her neck to see what was going on. She saw Dr. Fletcher lubricating the tube with K-Y jelly.
Fletcher withdrew the thermometer. 'Thirty-seven point five.' The nurse took it from her hand. She grasped the suc-tion tube, bent the hysteroscope into position, and peered into an eyepiece on the end.
'Well,' she said, 'the uterus itself doesn't have too many nerve endings, but it'll feel a little uncomfortable when we dilate your cervix.' She grasped the syringe Dyer pressed into her hand. 'We're going to give you a pericervical block. It'll numb you up like Novocain at the dentist's so it won't hurt as much.' Using the fingers of a speculum to open the way, Fletcher guided the needle to its destination and pushed gently. The sharp sensation caused Valerie to twitch.
'Easy,' Fletcher said, emptying the syringe into Valerie's flesh. 'There. All done.' The hypo withdrew. She reached next for the suction tube.
'What makes this device better than the older models is that I can see what I'm doing through this
