Slow and Steady

Hannah

“Hannah Daniels.”

Nurse Kellie stood in the doorway that led back to the patient exam rooms, looking down at a clipboard in her hand.

I locked my phone and stood up, crossing the room as she looked up.

“Oh my God, Hannah. Look at you,” she whispered as she nodded to the hallway, and I followed her, the door to the waiting room closing behind me. “You look amazing.”

“Thanks.” I blushed as I awkwardly followed her down the hallway.

“You know the drill. I need to take your temperature and weight.” She grabbed the forehead thermometer as I kicked off my shoes and stepped onto the scale.

Usually, I would have looked away from the numbers, but I found myself smiling as it registered at just over 180 pounds.

“Damn, girl. You have been busy for the last three months.”

“I have.” I nodded as she motioned for me to follow her into an exam room.

“There’s a gown right there. We’ll have you put that on and tie it. I’ll take you down the hall to the body scanner,” she pointed toward the exam table.

“I see we need to do some labs, so I’ll put in the order for those, and we should be able to meet the nurse down here after your scan. I’ll give you a few minutes to get yourself changed.”

“All right.”

She left the room, and I pulled off my work clothes, carefully folding them in the chair. The gown on the table was the kind that was solid in the back but wrapped around the front.

It had two sets of ties on the side. The last time I’d been in here, I’d tied it on the larger set of ties and barely managed to keep covered. This time, I was able to use the second set of ties, and it wasn’t plastered to my body.

“Knock, knock. You ready?” she called out a few minutes later.

“Yeah,” I replied, and Kellie opened the door. I followed her to an exam room down the hallway and sat down in a chair to pull off my socks.

Having done this several times over the last few months, I quickly wiped my feet before stepping into the machine.

“All right, let’s see where we’re at.”

The machine ran a diagnostic, and then she had me grip the handles. It was similar to the one at the gym, but had a more industrial look.

When the results appeared on the screen, I shook my head and smiled.

“Wow, girl. That’s quite a jump,” she said, her voice light and excited as she recorded my new numbers into my chart on her iPad.

“Let’s head back to the room and see if the lab tech is ready. Then the doctor will come in and see you.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

I followed her down the hallway again and took a seat on the chair next to the desk in the room. The lab tech arrived within a minute, and after double-checking my birthdate, she quickly drew several vials of blood.

“Dr. Isaacs will be in to talk to you in a few minutes,” Kellie told me with a smile.

“Okay.”

“Normally, I don’t like to do this, but oh my God, Hannah.” She bounced on the stool a little bit as she looked over at me with eager eyes.

“Girl, I don’t know what you did, but you killed it. Did you go to that gym we recommended?”

“Yeah. I did. I still do.” I could feel my cheeks heat up as I thought about Jordan and how close I’d gotten to my personal trainer-boyfriend over the last six or so weeks, once he finally decided to stop fighting it.

“That’s great. And you met Jordan?”

“Yes…” I trailed off as I felt the heat travel down my neck. I really had the worst poker face.

“Girl, if I wasn’t married.” She fanned herself.

My teeth worried my bottom lip as I tried to keep my expression neutral, and she narrowed her eyes at me.

“Oh, come on, you’ve got to think he’s hot.”

“He is,” I agreed, trying not to give away all my secrets.

“That’s all you’re going to say? How was it working with him?” she asked in disbelief.

“It was... an experience.” I drew out the last part, and she smirked at me.

“Whoever finally lands that man is one lucky girl.” Kellie sighed with a bit of envy in her voice.

“Mm-hmm...” I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to tell your nurse that you’d been sleeping in said hot trainer’s bed for the past several weeks.

“I wonder if he’s seeing anyone,” she mused.

“He is.” I blurted out, and my eyes met hers.

“Oh my God, Hannah.” She laughed, looking a little embarrassed. “Why didn’t you say something? You just let me tell you how hot he was.”

“Well, he is,” I giggled, and she swatted at me with one of her glove-covered hands.

“Well, it’s no wonder you’ve had so much progress. I’m sure you’re getting in all kinds of workouts.”

We both laughed, and she asked me a few more questions about my health since my last appointment. “The doctor should be heading in soon; it was good to see you, Hannah. Congratulations.”

“Thank you. I can tell Jordan that you and your husband say hi.”

“That’d be great,” she nodded. “Just don’t tell him I think he’s a hottie.”

I laughed as I winked at her. “Your secret is safe with me. We don’t need to inflate his ego anymore.”

My wrist had been beeping with alerts as we went through the scans and the labs, so I checked my phone real quick, seeing several texts of memes from Parker.

“Oh my God,” I giggled as I looked at one of them.

It had a box of donuts with angry eyes and fake teeth attached to them.

Hannah

there is something wrong with you

Parker

I’d still eat the fuck out of those delicious donuts. A little teeth don’t scare me.

Hannah

you’re supposed to be eating them you perv

Parker

they need a little cream filling

Hannah

omg 🤣 I can’t with you

I tucked my phone back in between my pants when I heard a knock at the door and straightened up.

“Hannah,” Dr. Isaacs smiled as she walked in. “I see we’ve made some major lifestyle changes since you were in here last.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I nodded.

“Oh, you don’t need to bother with that,” she waved her hand at me dismissively.

“I’m quite impressed with these numbers. With another six months or so of solid progress, I can see you dropping completely into the low-risk zone.”

“May I ask what you’ve been doing?” she asked as she looked at me curiously.

I took a deep breath and tried to recall all the adjustments I’d made over the last few months.

“I started going to the gym that you referred me to. I go five days a week. Three evenings where I do the high-intensity interval training and then two mornings. I don’t usually push myself as hard with the morning workouts.”

“Good. It sounds like that’s where a majority of your progress has come from. Creating new habits and sticking with a routine will definitely help you maintain this long term.”

“I also cut down on my carb intake, and I stopped drinking soda pop,” I told her.

“That’s good. Refined sugar is something I’d recommend avoiding as much as possible.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “I won’t know the results until probably the morning, but your metabolic rate took a big jump, so I’d expect to see some positive results in your thyroid testing.”

“Okay.”

“Now, we didn’t really talk about this in your previous appointment, but you’re due for your yearly exam.”

Oh God. I hated this part. It was always awkward.

“Are you currently sexually active?”

“Yes.” I blushed.

“With one partner or more?”

“Just one.” He was more than enough.

“Is this a monogamous relationship?” she asked, glancing up from the tablet in her hand.

“Yes,” I answered honestly. Jordan was the only one I wanted.

“Good, good. Now I know you’ve got an IUD, but it’s reaching its expiration.” She tapped on her screen. “Would you like me to remove it entirely, or are we swapping for a new one?”

Uh... usually, I would have just told her to put in the new one, but I wasn't sure what to do now.

Jordan and I had talked about children a little bit. He wasn't committed to the idea, but he wasn't against it either. I wanted maybe one, but again, this wasn't a decision I could make on my own anymore.

“Okay, I can see you're undecided. Why don't we just go ahead and remove it today and then we'll talk about alternate birth control methods.

“You can always make an appointment to get a new one put in if you and your partner decide to go with that route.”

I nodded, and she went into telling me the differences between a few types of oral contraceptives and the shot.

“Can we do the shot?” I asked. It seemed to be the easiest short-term option.

“We can.” She nodded. “You'll need to use alternate birth control for about a week. But this will be coverage for three months. You can come back in and get another shot in three months, or we can put in another IUD.”

“Okay, let's do that,” I agreed.

We went through the usual routine of the exam, along with the IUD removal, and then she had Kellie come in and give me the shot.

She may have wiggled her eyebrows at me while I tried not to laugh, but she totally knew I was involved sexually with the hot trainer.

“Y’all would make cute babies,” she not-so-subtly hinted.

“Stop.” I giggled as she packed up the packaging onto her tray.

“Just sayin’.” She shrugged with a wink. “We’ll see you back in a few months… or not…” She left with another wink.

I wasn’t sure where to go from here. I obviously needed to have a serious conversation with Jordan, but it didn’t feel like the right time.

Hannah

appointment went well. I’ll see you tonight. Love you.

I didn’t get a response back, and I was relieved he might have actually been taking some time for himself.

There was a pharmacy a few blocks from my apartment building, so I stopped and picked up a large package of condoms.

The older cashier gave me a knowing look when I threw in some toilet paper, vitamin water, and a protein bar. She knew I was planning to get laid. Buying condoms at any age was awkward as hell.

I had several hours before I needed to meet Parker, so I changed into my gym clothes and pulled up Netflix.

Serious conversations could wait for another time. Right now, I was going to bask in the fact that I had surpassed 10 percent body fat loss.

It was the first time in a long time that I had left the doctor feeling good about myself.