In the Beginning

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“Good morning, Jeannie! Can I talk to Dr. Welling please? This is Dr. Wodrich”

“Good morning, Dr. Wodrich! Dr. Welling is in with a client, right now, can I have him call you when he gets out?”

“Yes, please do, Jeannie, and let him know that it is very important!”

“Okay Dr. Welling. I expect he will get back to you within the hour.”
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“Hello? Oh hello Richard! Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! (in a whispered tone) Richard….I think I have found her! Yes, really! We have looked so long, and seen so many women, but I think this is the one! Her name is...well, unimportant, that’s what it is. What is important is that I have not seen anyone even close to what we have been looking for until today. She’s 5’9”, 130 pounds, perfectly proportioned, and she’s a lawyer. Honestly though, that’s not even close to her potential, she could be a doctor, a rocket scientist, or anything she wanted, quite honestly. Her I.Q. score was off the charts, but her responses to my common sense questions were impeccable, as well! I’m telling you Richard, she is the one! She has absolutely no family history of anything, but I told her that I would like to have her come in for a simple exam under anesthesia in two weeks. Can we have our ducks in a row by then?”
“Two weeks? It will be a tight squeeze, but I think we can have what we need by then. I will of course want to see her records, but after you turned down Ms. Baker last week, I know how particular you are about this. I will be there for the procedure, we will have to work quickly, she must not suspect anything.”
“Oh, of course! That could be…well, I’m not even going to think about it. We will have to keep the time of the procedure within the normal limits. And we need our staff on this one, we can’t have a leak at the hospital. I will make the arrangements; the case is on the 18th at 7:30. We will do a follow up procedure 6 weeks after the initial. See you in two weeks!
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“Good morning Elizabeth! How are you feeling this morning?” Dr. Welling asked in a soothing voice.
“Okay. I’m a little nervous, but I’m doing okay” Elizabeth Booker replied. She moved around a little, as if to adjust her gown under the blankets. “I hate not wearing underwear!”
Dr. Welling smiled at her. “We will have you asleep in a couple of minutes, and when you wake up, you will be allowed to put them back on. Now lie back, take a deep breath and relax. This really is a simple procedure and you have nothing to worry about.”
She smiled back and relaxed a little. She had only seen him once, but something about him conveyed a trust that made her feel more comfortable. As they wheeled her down the hallway towards the surgery suites, she almost wished that she had a husband or even a boyfriend to be waiting when she came out. “Oh well,” she thought to herself, “a sister will have to do!” The nurse smiled at her comfortingly and continued to push her bed.
Most of the rest of the trip was a blur to Elizabeth, perhaps due to the effects of the anesthesia, perhaps due to how fast pre-surgery is for anyone who has had the experience. She remembered moving herself over to the surgery table and trying to count backwards from 100…99….98…
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Dr. Welling and Dr. Wodrich scrubbed their hands in adjoining sinks outside the O.R. suites, each with a smile bigger than either had had in a long while. They looked at each other in near disbelief as they prepped their hands for the procedure. It was actually due to a very lucky set of consequences that they were in the position that they were in. The Project had just been finalized the day prior, although they had started it five years in advance, at the same time that they had silently started the hunt for a suitable subject. This was due in part to the time sensitivity of the Final Step of Phase I, and partly due to the complexity of The Project as a whole. Both doctors backed into the suite, with their hands still dripping and held out away from their bodies.
They entered the room to find that their patient had already been prepped as instructed, her legs in the stirrups exposing her perineum. Dr. Welling sat down and began the scheduled procedure, taking a sample of the lining of her uterus with a curette and then taking a PAP swab. These were both sent to the lab for testing. He then took a glance out the window assuring himself that he could continue unnoticed.
“Okay Beverly, let’s get started. The kit is in my suitcase there by the computer. We will have to do this quickly and hope for the best. Flexible scope with extraction needle, please. And do be gentle with the scope, it’s very fragile.”
With the scope in hand and attached to a 4” tv screen that was on a small stand next to his chair, he advanced it up through Elizabeth’s vagina, through her cervix, past her uterus and into one of her fallopian tubes. Seeing nothing, he shook his head and grumbled, visibly a little frustrated with the delicacy of the procedure. He backed the scope out of the fallopian tube and started passing through the other. After just passing the opening of the second tube, Dr. Welling saw what he was looking for, and smiled with the happiness of a child who just found a long lost toy. He was elated and also quite a bit relieved to realize that his timing had been perfect. “Extraction needle,” he said, barely audible.
Beverly inserted a flexible tube with a small needle at the tip through a channel on the small flexible scope gingerly. After a couple of seconds, the tip of the needle could be seen on the small screen Dr. Welling was watching. “Hold, right there…”
He maneuvered the scope until the tip of the needle was resting against a tiny circular object. With a steady hand, he held the scope there and asked for suction. “Gently…easy……Got it!” Deftly, he pulled both the scope and the needle that it still contained.
Swiftly and easily, Dr. Welling removed the needle from the scope. Taking a small dish filled with fluid from the nurse, he expelled the contents into the center of the dish. It was at this point that he realized another benefit of having his staff in the room. Although he had not given the request, his nurse had already thawed and prepared the specimen needed for the next step of the procedure. Mostly because he was there for the initial preparation, Dr. Welling had to refer to it as a “specimen” instead of sperm. Although it had been produced by a male subject who had gone through the same selection process as his current patient, Dr. Wodrich and he had still taken the liberty of modifying a couple of the genes to produce the outcome that they envisioned.

Slowly squeezing the syringe, Dr. Welling applied the specimen to the previously extracted ova. Due to time constraints, he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to wait the usual 18 hours that in vitro fertilization is generally observed. Instead, he drew the entire contents of the dish back into the extraction needle. Hoping that the doubled ratio of 150,000 spermatazoa to the single egg would ensure that fertilization would occur, he ran the needle back through the scope and started looking for a spot in Elizabeth’s uterus where implantation could occur.
Looking up at the clock, Dr. Welling was pleased to note that the whole procedure had taken only about 45 minutes, which could easily be explained to anyone with questions. He checked that everything was packed back up in his briefcase as he stood up and took off his sterile gown and gloves. He wrote a few notes in her chart, then called in the dictation of his notes from the case. In these he of course only recorded the information regarding the scheduled procedure. The other notes would be recorded in his own records, stowed away for safe keeping away from prying eyes.

In the PACU, the anesthesiologist and the nurses worked on making sure that Elizabeth had no reactions to the anesthetic reversal drugs that would bring her back to consciousness. When both were satisfied that she had recovered with no complications, they notified Dr. Welling that she was ready to go home. Dr. Welling came into the room to find her dressed and ready to go home. He walked in all smiles, but with a serious, professional tone.

“How are you feeling, Elizabeth?” he asked with genuine concern on his face.

“Not bad, circumstances given, thank you. A little groggy, and a little sore, but not bad” she replied, with a weak smile.

“You have someone who can give you a ride home?” to which she nodded.

“Wonderful! Everything in the procedure went very well, and just as expected. We sent the specimens down to the lab, but unfortunately, they weren’t very conclusive. Nothing to worry about, but I would like you to come back for one more procedure. How do you feel about that?”
“Well, honestly Dr. Welling, I like surgery just about as much as I enjoy a good kick in the face” she joked, and even managed a small laugh. Dr. Welling chuckled a bit and reconfirmed himself about her as a perfect subject for his project. “But,” she went on “I guess you can’t say no when it’s your health, right? When should I look forward to seeing your ugly mug again?” she smiled sweetly.
“I think we should let you recoup a bit before we mess around any more. How does six weeks sound?”
“Sounds good to me, I guess” she replied.
“Okay, let’s make it a date. Now, don’t be surprised if you miss your period this month. With that particular procedure you may get some spotting to start out with, and it’s not uncommon to miss one. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to give me a call. Let my secretary know that it’s you and she will page me, any time.”
“Thank you Dr., hopefully I won’t need you that bad!” she smiled again.
He left her with a prescription for antiemetics to help with the nausea. He told her that it was a side effect of the anesthesia, but it was really for the morning sickness. The only thing worse than anyone finding out about the project would be Elizabeth finding out because of something so easy as morning sickness. Elizabeth left the hospital with a little nervousness, a little pain, and although she didn’t know it, a fetus that had already begun to develop.