Seeing that she had come to greet them, Ellie realized this could be a good opportunity. She turned to Nolan, "Is it alright if you leave us for a bit, dear brother? I have some things to speak to Janna about."Nolan narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he arms tightened around his wife-to-be. "Whatever for? She"s done nothing inappropriate to me."
Ellie"s face relaxed to an easy smile as she saw Janna be content in her brother"s arms. "I"m not angry. I just have some quick medical questions for the doctor in our family. It"s got nothing to do with you, for now. She was my surgeon, you know."
Janna changed quickly from her light casual self to her more investigative professional demeanor. She seemed to a.s.sess Ellie carefully as she bade her into an empty patient room. Ellie boosted herself onto the paper covered chair and turned to see Janna with a strange expression. Now that they were in closed quarters she let loose her questions. "I was shocked to hear that your surgery has had some complications. I heard that you were out and about today and that your physical therapy has been going well with the person I recommended. You know its all the same hospital system so I have been keeping up through the grape vine. Is there something that has slipped though the cracks? I would love to be the first to know if there is something that we need to change."
"It"s not what your thinking. This problem that I"ve come to you with has nothing to do with my surgery or recovery or any kind of major injury that has happened as a result of any medical issue." Ellie could see Dr Wu starting to get confused and wondered if she was going about explaining this in the correct way. "This is on the side of my separation from Henry. I don"t know how much Nolan has told you, but we"ve decided to declare our union fraudulent and file for annulment in the state of New York. This state is really conservative in its rulings so just filing that I can"t have children won"t be enough."
Janna shook her head quickly. "The uterus has nothing to do with spinal cord injuries. I don"t think you should be thinking about children right now. You"re young. I know there"s all that hubbub about a biological clock, but you have several healthy years ahead of you. You"re not even I"m sure considered to be cleared for trying for children. But, that doesn"t mean at some point you could be. In a few years it"s very good to think that you will have a chance. A lot of people suffer from these type of troubles and you"ll have plenty of options when the time comes to have children with whomever you choose. I"m sure that a lot of the stress that the surgery has caused is why you"re not ovulating properly. Your body needs time to heal."
Ellie nodded slowly. "You"re absolutely correct. I am overthinking this a lot so I know that there is agreement among my doctors right now that I cannot have children. For my annulment I think it would be the best thing to obtain my letters from doctors now so I can move forwards with the process."
"So you have decided--" Wu seemed to be on the fence. "I could give you such a letter or maybe it would be better if I didn"t. I can"t give it to you without a.s.suming I could be called into court to defend it. I need a stronger reason as to why, Eliie."
Ellie folded her hands and tried to look at the medical instruments lining the wall to try to clear her head. It made her uncomfortable to say these things out loud as she hadn"t even really told her brother to the extent she was uncomfortable with these legal proceedings. Although they were linked, Ellie did trust that Wu"s experience as a doctor would prevent her from telling Nolan. Ellie was happy that he was getting along with Henry, but knew with time the relationship would probably sour. "I always thought my marriage to Henry was too good to be true. Now I"m starting to hit the fall back of my impulsive decision. I didn"t count on getting better to be so complicated." Ellie looked far away as she met Janna"s eyes. "This type of a relationship . . . wasn"t supposed to be long term. He"s not mine, he never was."
She felt uncomfortable as Janna wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. The doctor looked touched. "I know. I think I"ve always known that you weren"t really happy at all in that huge house. I get it. But back onto the medical side, when it comes to the type of back injury you had with protrusions into the spine it"s not really something that science can say for sure this should happen and this should not. I really can"t say that your chances of conceiving completely are or are not totally obsolete. That being said, I can with a clear conscience write a letter for you that says it is extremely unlikely that you will have children in the foreseeable future which I truthfully don"t think you should. It"s something I could defend easily if needed. I can confer with your legal representative if you have them contact me. It should be a very straightforward letter once I get an idea of the legal terms I need to include."
"That"s fantastic news." Ellie got up and quickly went up to hug Janna who seemed surprised but not unwelcoming of affection. She sniffed and wiped her nose. Ellie felt really relieved. "I"m happy someone else understands what I"m going through. I"ve felt really alone for a long time. Doing this hasn"t been as easy as I thought it was going to be. But, if something does come up and you can"t do this then please don"t feel you have to do this because of my brother as your partner."