And at eight o’clock in the morning I made pancakes, because it was a Saturday and it was three days before our son’s first birthday and his cousins were coming.

Part Seven: What I Did Instead

On the first of March I submitted a written request to the health system’s Health Information Management department for the complete medical records of three patients: myself, and both of my sons.

I did it from my phone in a parking lot at the school where I teach, at 7:10 in the morning, before first period.

I want to explain why this is the correct move and why nobody does it, because I have since talked to two other women in situations that were not this one but rhymed with it, and neither of them knew.