Chapter 42: Spreading the News

January 9, 1987, McKinley, Ohio

"I take it the ultrasound was normal?" Clarissa asked when we met on Friday morning.

"Doctor Forsberg set Elizaveta's due date on August 20th," I replied. "But you know it could be anywhere from two weeks before to two weeks after the date."

"And most likely after that date, right?"

"Yes."

"I take it Elizaveta is perfectly healthy?"

"Physically? Yes. Mentally? She's Russian!"

"So are you!"

"Only half!" I grinned.

"Right, because you follow ANY of the practices of the Dutch side of your family! When are you breaking the news?"

"We discussed it, and rather than wait for a month as so many people do, we're going to do it right away. Elizaveta is telling her friends at lunch today, and she'll break the news to the gang tonight."

"And the parents?"

"I'll call my mom and grandfather at our break, and we'll tell Viktor and Yulia when I get home."

"Who knows so far?"

"You, Serafima, Doctor Forsberg, and Doctor Smith."

"Your mother-in-law will have a fit if she finds out other people knew before her."

"Let her," I replied. "She brought it on herself and has only herself to blame. If she treated us the way my mom and grandparents do, she'd have much better results."

"You think your pussy cat would give an inch?"

"Yes, because at that point, I'd support Yulia's position, albeit carefully."

"You're a braver man than I thought, Petrovich!"

We went into the building and got our coffee, then headed to class. On our first break, I called Mr. Winston's office to talk to my mom.

"You're going to be a grandmother in August," I said when she answered the phone.

"That's wonderful news!" Mom exclaimed. "I'm very happy for the two of you!"

"Thanks. It's OK to tell Liz, and I'll call your dad as soon as I hang up with you. But, other than Liz, please keep it to yourself until we have a chance to tell Yulia after school today."

"When did you know?"

"When Elizaveta missed her period a few weeks ago, but we went for an ultrasound yesterday afternoon to confirm the home pregnancy test. Everything looks good."

"Have you discussed names?"

"Rachel Michelle for a girl, John Michael for a boy."

"Oh my gosh! I don't know what to say!"

"I love you, Mom."

"Thanks, Mike. Tell Elizaveta congratulations, and come see us soon, please!"

"I'm sure Grandpa will insist."

"He's going to be ecstatic!"

"Yes, he is. I'll talk to you soon."

We said 'goodbye', and I hung up. I lifted the handset again, dropped in a quarter, and dialed my grandfather's house. My grandmother answered, and I asked her to have my grandfather get on the extension, which he did.

"I'm calling to let you know that your order will be delivered in less than eight months."

"Congratulations, Mike!" Grandpa exclaimed. "My first great-grandchild!"

"That's wonderful, Mike," Grandma chimed in. "How is Elizaveta?"

"Very happy. I spoke to Mom right before I called, and she's going to tell Liz. Please keep it to yourself until we tell Viktor and Yulia this afternoon."

"Of course," Grandpa agreed.

"When is she due?" Grandma asked.

"August 20th, but I'm sure you know babies are born when they decide to be born, so a couple of weeks on either side of that date wouldn't be atypical."

"Could you join us for Sunday dinner?" Grandpa asked.

"Let me check with Elizaveta, but I don't see why not. I'll call you tonight to let you know for sure."

That would necessitate canceling our usual Sunday dinner with our friends, but I was sure they would understand.

"OK," Grandpa said. "We'll let you go. I'm sure you need to be in class!"

We said 'goodbye', and I hung up.

"Not calling your dad?" Clarissa, who had been acting as lookout, asked.

"Tonight. I'm positive nobody on my mom's side is going to call him."

"And your other grandparents?"

"Either tonight or tomorrow. I doubt Elizaveta being pregnant will make the Chicago papers!"

Clarissa laughed, and we quickly got coffee and returned to the classroom just as the lecture was about to resume. The rest of the day was typical, and I arrived home around 5:20pm. I put down my bag, greeted Elizaveta, and we went to the main house. Yulia was preparing dinner, and Elizaveta asked her to come to Viktor's study, where I was waiting with him.

"Mom, Dad," Elizaveta said, "I'm pregnant and due at the end of August!"

"Congratulations!" Viktor exclaimed.

"We have so much to talk about!" Yulia declared.

I willed Elizaveta not to respond in a way that would escalate, and thankfully, it worked.

"I'll listen, Mom, but Mike and I will decide what to do and how to do it."

I saw Viktor look at Yulia, and I surmised he was willing her to not escalate. She didn't reply, but I could see in her eyes she wasn't happy with Elizaveta's response. As Elizaveta and I had discussed, Anna had set the precedent, and we'd have to tread somewhat carefully to avoid any blowups. Because my mom had worked, it had been necessary for my grandmother to be directly involved in raising Liz and me, but there hadn't been any real conflicts because my mom and grandmother mostly saw eye-to-eye, at least on the topic of raising children.

"We have a picture from yesterday's ultrasound," I said. "But only one."

"Yesterday?" Yulia asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Yulia..." Viktor said firmly, putting his hand on his wife's arm.

"We're telling our friends at dinner tonight," I said, hoping to defuse what Yulia obviously considered an insult. "I called my mom and grandparents today to let them know."

"But I'm her mother!" Yulia protested.

"And we made sure we told you before we told our friends," I replied gently. "I felt that was important."

"We're very happy for you," Viktor said. "If there's anything you need, please let us know. I'm sure you have the medical side covered."

"We do. We'll bring the picture from the ultrasound tomorrow, but you can't see very much because the baby is only an inch or two long at this point. That'll change pretty rapidly."

"I need to get back to the kitchen," Yulia said. "We'll speak tomorrow, Elizaveta."

"OK, Mom."

We said 'goodbye' and took our leave.

"Very good," I said quietly once we were out of the house.

"I'm trying, Mike, but she's going to be impossible!"

"Kill her with kindness," I counseled. "It's worked so far."

"When are we telling Father Nicholas?"

"We should probably call him right now," I said. "I'd hate for him to find out because your mom complained to him about us not rushing over last night to tell her. I'll call my dad and his parents after we call Father Nicholas."

We went into the house and made the calls. I asked Father Nicholas to wait until Sunday to say anything to anyone other than his wife, and he agreed. I called my dad, and he was very happy, as were his parents when I called them. The calls completed, we left for our usual Friday meal with our friends.

"Before we order, I have something to tell you," Elizaveta said after everyone had gathered. "I'm pregnant!"

That immediately set off squeals from the girls, including, to my surprise, Jocelyn and Sophia, neither of whom had ever been 'girly girls'. Babies seemed to have that effect on all women, while guys took it more in stride. They all congratulated me while the girls all sprang up to hug Elizaveta, creating quite the scene in the Chinese restaurant.

"What is it with girls and babies?" Robby asked, echoing my thoughts.

"You got me," Jason said. "But it's like this every time! My advice is we keep our distance until the estrogen level decreases significantly!"

"I heard that, Jason Fredericks!" Fran said, but she winked at him.

"I take it you're waiting until after Fran finishes her first year of Residency?" Brandon asked.

"At least," Jason replied. "We pretty much have to because there really is no accommodation at all for missing any of her clinical work."

"You can fail or get an incomplete in one elective," I said, "but if you do that for a required Clerkship, you have to give up an elective to cure, or you can't graduate. There are accommodations for extreme situations, but pregnancy specifically doesn't qualify. If you end up in that situation, it almost guarantees med school is five years, not four."

"That just seems unfair to women," Robby said.

"The entire system is unfair to women," I replied. "It's changing slowly, but being a mom can stifle or ruin your career unless you're in private practice. Women doctors in hospitals are treated as second-class citizens."

"Fix that, Mike," Brandon said.

"It's high on my agenda," I replied. "But to change the club, we have to get into the club. All of us are on board with doing what we can to fix the problems we're seeing, both with how women and minorities are treated as doctors and as patients, and how medical students are trained."

"Patients?" Mark asked.

"White doctors have a tendency to minimize complaints by African-American patients with regard to the effects of sickle cell anemia. I learned that from Clark and my other black friends at Taft. Male obstetricians have a long history of minimizing pain complaints from women in labor and delivery, and worse, at least in my opinion, campaigning to eliminate midwifery. Yes, hospital birth with emergency facilities available has reduced mortality, but the same thing could be achieved by having midwives deliver in an attached birthing center. Think about this — most OB/GYN practitioners are men."

"That does seem wrong," Elias said. "We learned in history that the vast majority of babies were delivered at home, with help from female relatives or midwives. Men took over once giving birth moved to hospitals."

"And, for a long time, everyone was excluded from the delivery room except medical staff," I said. "That's changing, fortunately, but there are some in the medical profession fighting that."

"And gays and lesbians are often discriminated against, especially in suburban and rural areas," Peter added. "Mike saw that first-hand in the ER."

The girls finally calmed down, and we all took our seats. We had our meal, though we were a bit more rushed than usual, as Code Blue was performing at Taft at 8:00pm, and all of our friends would be attending. Elizaveta, Robby, Sophia, and I left as soon as we finished eating so that we could meet the other band members to warm up. The concert went off without a hitch, and the students loved our 'Blues Brothers' schtick. When we finished, we mingled a bit, then Elizaveta and I headed home.

January 10, 1987, McKinley, Ohio

"Good afternoon, Vladyka," I said when he came to the phone on Saturday afternoon. "Master, Bless!"

"The blessings of the Lord be upon you, Father Deacon Michael! How may I help you?"

"I wanted to let you know that Elizaveta is pregnant and due at the end of August."

"Praise God! That is wonderful news!"

"We intend to go follow the usual churching practice, though Elizaveta won't stay away from services for forty days."

"I strongly discourage following that practice," Vladyka JOHN said. "It sends the wrong message. Childbirth is a wonderful thing and not a cause for being 'impure' or 'unclean' in any way! I know some of the faithful follow that practice, as some of the women refrain from receiving the Eucharist during their time of the month, but I do not believe those practices are grounded theologically and are, more than anything, superstitious ethnic practices. But that last comment is for your ears only, Deacon."

"I understand, and I'm sure you know I agree with you on those topics."

"If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know, but I'm sure the ladies of the church will have everything well in hand."

"I'll call if we need anything."

"Good. Come see me when you have a chance, please."

"Will do," I replied.

We said 'goodbye', and I hung up.

"He'd like us to come to see him," I said.

"Maybe in a few weeks?" Elizaveta suggested.

"Sure. He said when we have a chance, so it wasn't urgent. We'll have to coördinate, because after the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, Vladyka will begin making his Lenten visits to each parish. I'll figure out a date and confirm with him."

"OK. I'm going to go to Oksana's house while you have study group. A few of the girls from church will be there, too. I'll be home in time to make dinner."

"OK."

She left right after Peter, Maryam, and Fran arrived, with Nadine and Clarissa arriving a few minutes later.

"I scored some sample questions from past exams from a friend at Ohio State," Fran said.

"Doesn't that violate the rules?" Maryam asked.

"Only for the person who first revealed them," Fran said, "not for us."

"Are you OK with that, Deacon?"

"When we signed the applications on Monday, we only promised not to reveal the contents of the test and not to attempt to obtain the actual questions in advance. There are study guides that have 'similar' questions, and those are for sale, so obviously, that's OK. Now, if someone offered us copies of the actual test, then we'd have to turn them in. At least that's my take."

"I agree," Peter said. "There's a difference between sample questions or last year's questions and the current test. I don't see any ethical problems with this. It's not cheating."

"A quick look at them says they aren't all that different from the MCAT," Fran observed. "It's all multiple guess, which makes it easier. You can nearly always eliminate two of the answers if you don't know, which makes an educated guess easier. Anyone object to me just reading out the questions and possible answers?"

We all shook our heads, and Fran began. The questions were, as I'd expected, focused on biochemistry, along with other 'hard science' questions. Ultimately, it was more about what we'd learned during our undergrad work and the first year of medical school than anything to do with being a doctor. That meant good test-takers had a tremendous advantage, which I didn't mind, as the scores were important to getting interviews for Residency.

Unfortunately, from everything I'd seen, there was no 'holistic' evaluation at any point before Residency. That bothered me because it was entirely possible to be a very good doctor without being an expert in biochemistry. I wasn't just thinking about 'bedside manner', but about the entire philosophy of patient care, which touched on many of the subjects our group had discussed where sub-optimal care was provided.

"I'd say we're all in good shape for May 9th," Clarissa observed when we finished the review questions. "We just need to continue our review sessions."

"Everyone here did well on their MCAT, and we're all near the top of our class academically," Fran said. "Those are two key indicators of doing well on the MLE."

"I'm comfortable," I said.

"That's such a change from when I first met you!" Fran declared.

"I said the same thing!" Clarissa added. "Petrovich has really chilled."

"If we're done," Nadine said, "I'll see all of you tomorrow evening. I have a date."

"We are," Fran said. "Have fun!"

The members of my study group left, and I went to the kitchen, where Elizaveta was preparing dinner.

"You finished a bit early," she observed.

"We're mostly reviewing for the exam in May. We're only reviewing material for our current classes if we have a quiz or exam. This is probably the calmest time during medical school, though it's the calm before the storm. Once we pass the first part of the MLE, things will get serious because we'll be able to treat patients under direct supervision."

"And you'll do surgery in June?" Elizaveta asked with a smirk.

I chuckled, "No, but if Doctor Roth is telling the truth, which I have no reason to doubt, I'll probably get to hold a retractor, do suction, and some similar elementary things."

"Suction, huh?" Elizaveta asked with a silly smile.

"Not THAT kind! And I'd be on the receiving end!"

"Over your dead body!" Elizaveta said fiercely.

"Trust me, I'm well aware!"

January 13, 1987, McKinley, Ohio

"Hi, Mike," Doctor Warren said, greeting me as Clarissa and I walked into the medical school building on Tuesday morning. "Got a moment?"

I was pretty sure what it was about, so I asked Clarissa to get me coffee and followed Doctor Warren upstairs to his office.

"Volstead and Braun, Melissa Bush's attorneys, served us late yesterday. You aren't party to the suit, but we'll get copies to your attorney today via facsimile."

"Am I named at all?"

"No, but you might be called as a witness by either or both sides."

"What is she claiming?"

"In layman's terms? That we unfairly blackballed her."

Which they basically had, though it was based on their assessment of her as a potential doctor, which was, in the end, part of their job. It was only really a question of whether or not it was a 'fair' assessment of her behavior and performance.

"So how does the court go about determining if it was 'unfair'?"

"According to our legal counsel, she'd basically have to prove that it was because she's female, which would be difficult given her documented failings. Nothing else could possibly carry the day, and even that won't help her because, in the end, nobody is entitled to a Residency. Up to ten percent or so of graduates won't find a Residency, something we disclose in our application materials."

"Did she sue anyone other than the medical school?"

"No, though there are hints in her claims that she'll sue several hospitals, including Moore Memorial Hospital, for 'conspiracy'. But every suit like hers fails with regard to the student forcing their way into a Residency."

"OK. I'll just wait to hear from my attorney. When will you know if I have to testify?"

"It'll be months before the case is heard because, technically, she hasn't been denied a position until after the Scramble. We're considering moving to dismiss the case as prematurely filed, but all they would do is refile the exact same case in two months. At this point, you shouldn't let it distract you. I'm sure your attorney will say the same thing."