A “Positive” Story

gather round while i tell the tale of tests! pregnancy tests, that is!

last november, i purchased a package of 50 pregnancy test strips. i can’t remember the timing exactly, but i think i started my period right around the time the tests came. maybe a few days later? so anyway, about november 30 or so, i started taking a test every morning. i would pee, dip, then throw away.

i started doing it more than once a day the past week, since i hadn’t started my period, and my cycle had been like clock-work for four months in a row (a feat never before experienced by this PCOS gal!!). so every time, same thing – pee, dip, throw away. but on Christmas eve, as the stick hit the can, it registered that there was a faint line beside the dark line! of course i had to tell jerry, who thought i imagined it, so of course i had to DIG THROUGH the trash, of guess what, FORTY-TWO tests.

much to my surprise, i didn’t find just ONE double lined test. i found AT LEAST 7. but there were MANY more with only one dark line and nothing else. i had heard about the evil evaporation line, but wouldn’t ALL of them have a faint extra line, if that was the case here? so, i did what any obsessed person would do.

i went out on Christmas eve to buy a digital test.

i returned home, followed the instructions, and in my three minutes’ time, saw “PREGNANT” staring back at me. i tried not to scream for joy (the boys were sleeping already) and quietly ran up the stairs to show jerry. i was prepared for his not-too-excited look. i hugged him, told him i loved him, and then called mom. i also called my brother and my sister-in-law.

fast forward a little bit. i was packaging up the extra test to send to someone who’d bought them, and was going to write on the instructions for the test strips “MAKE SURE TO WAIT AT LEAST FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THROWING TEST AWAY,” when i noticed, right on the directions “A positive may appear instantly, but please wait the full five minutes to confirm a negative.” yeah. slapped myself in the head after that one. *rolls eyes* (and carmen, i DID underline that, just in case you miss it. LOL!!!!)

that ends the tale of the tests. i hope you enjoyed it. 😉