There is hope....
(Stories of Inspiration)
My
name is Vicki, I am 36 years old and the mother of 4. God has
blessed me with three wonderful boys and my little girl was just born in
April of this year. I never had any problems getting pregnant, nor had I
ever had any complications with pregnancies with my boys. When my
youngest boy was 3 we decided to complete our family with one more child.
Like I said before I had never had any problems, I was naive and took
those pregnancies for granted.
Shortly after trying to conceive I was pregnant! We were so happy, a little surprised that it happened so soon, but happy! We decided to wait until I was 11 weeks along to tell family and friends. At 10 1/2 weeks, on a Sunday I started bleeding. I called the doctor's immediately and they said to rest. I had an appointment that next Thursday for an ultrasound.
By my appointment Thursday I had lost my baby. I was devastated. My doctor was so wonderful, reassuring me that I did nothing wrong to cause this loss. I never thought it could happen again, much less that it would be worse the next time!
Three months after my loss, I must have become pregnant again but didn't realize it. I was at work when I felt an unusual pain on my left side, I knew it wasn't cramps, but didn't really know what it was. What I thought was a period that lasted for two weeks was really a pregnancy in my left fallopian tube.
When I called my Doctor's office to report my symptoms they immediately told me to do a pregnancy test. I couldn't believe it was positive, and knew right away that something was terribly wrong. When we did an ultrasound we found the baby in my left fallopian tube, at 6-7 weeks pregnant it had already ruptured my tube. I had to go straight to the hospital and have surgery to remove my baby and my left tube.
I can't really describe my state of mind at the time. Part of me was in denial that it was really happening to me, part of me thought it was a sign that I was not supposed to have any more children. I took inventory of my life and through the despair found much more appreciation for the family that I already had. I also found the ectopic pregnancy support group. Through this wonderful group of women I found the strength to try to conceive another baby. I cannot describe the level of support that I received from these ladies. It was tremendous!! Trying to conceive again was a joy at times and scary at others.
When I finally had the positive pregnancy test I knew just what tests to ask for at the doctors office. I was reassured constantly by the ectopic group and by my doctor. I had an ultrasound at 8 weeks to determine that the baby was in the uterus. I would like to say that I breathed a sigh of relief at that point, but the truth is the worrying never ended.
At my 20 week ultrasound we found out not only that the baby looked healthy, that it was a girl!!!! We felt so blessed! In April of this year after an uneventful pregnancy we gave birth to an 8 pound little girl! She has been the joy of our lives, our boys adore her! It is only proof to all of us that miracles do happen and dreams do come true. I thank God every day for the family that he gave me and for the peace that I now feel. With God I do think that all things are possible.
My
name is Courtney, I am 28 years old. Two and a half years ago I
started having really weird cramps. They lasted for about 2 weeks,
coming and going and I honestly thought nothing of it. One beautiful
July day while out on a sail boat I felt the most excruciating pain in my
abdomen. I was on a field trip for work and could not leave so I
grinned and bared it.
When I got home I crawled into bed where I remained for the rest of the
evening. In the morning I asked my husband to take me to the ER.
Once there, they determined that I was pregnant. I had no idea but
we had been trying for close to a year so I was excited. I had 18
years of our baby’s life mapped out in mere minutes. Then we
learned it was an ectopic. I fought not to have surgery until my
husband and my mother forced me to sign the papers. I lost my right
fallopian tube. I was devastated and my recovery - emotionally - was
long. My husband and I fought all the time about the ectopic, trying
to get pregnant and pretty much everything else under the sun. I had
one more surgery to clear my right tube and we started trying to conceive
again. Just over a year later, we gave up on our marriage and the
thought of children.
At perhaps the hardest, saddest time in my life I met Joe. Joe had a
smile that went on forever .. you couldn’t help but smile when you
looked at him. We fell head over heels in love - that was in the
fall of 2000. A few months into our relationship we decided to go to
Disney World for Valentine’s Day. The flight down was
uneventful until I got extremely sick during the landing .. sweating,
nausea, pale as a ghost. Once we hit the runway I was fine and we
laughed it off. I remember drinking a bottled water in the airport
shuttle and we were laughing so hard I spit my water all over our fellow
passengers. But hey, we were on vacation and we were ready to have
fun!
For the next few days I had pangs of nausea and we thought I may be
pregnant. (Either that or I was getting too old for the rides.)
We decided to wait until we returned home to take a test. We met
friends of ours for dinner and I was drinking sprite and they kept joking
that I must be pregnant. Joe and I smiled knowingly at each other
but kept the secret to ourselves. We walked around a bit after
dinner and I felt great. Then, the second we got back to our hotel I
was hit with an intense pain in my abdomen. I knew right away and
Joe could tell by the look in my eyes. I rode out the pain though
until the morning when Joe finally forced me to go to the hospital.
Our guesses were confirmed there and I had surgery to remove another
ectopic pregnancy and my remaining tube.
We flew home on Valentine’s Day 2001 and on February 16th Joe proposed
with an amazing ring. The recovery was very different this time.
Joe and I talked and listened and cried together. It was very
healing ... I managed to heal from both losses with his help.
On July 25, 2001 on the beaches of Jamaica Joe and I got married. On
Christmas Eve 2001 we began our first IVF cycle. We started our
lupron injections On Joe’s birthday, January 12, 2002 and started our
stim drugs on our 6 month wedding anniversary. My retrieval and
transfer are scheduled for next week. Fingers crossed!
(to
be continued....)
