Chapter 1 "You Aren't Going to be Able To Get Pregnant On Your Own"

“You aren’t going to be able to get pregnant on your own.”

These were the words Dr. Q, our fertility specialist and said to us after diagnosing my blocked fallopian tube, PCOS, and months of not being able to ovulate on my own and failed HCG trigger shots.

After a month off from taking fertility drugs, we went in for an ultrasound to see if the several large cysts on my ovaries had shrunk. And much to our surprise, my body created its first little tiny follicle on cycle day 26 on its own! It was small and needed help to grow, so we started up the fertility injections to go after it. And then, my basal body temperature spiked the next day. I thought this is it, I am ovulating! Dr. Q. checked on an ultrasound, and there was the little follicle still.  I questioned him why my temperature spiked then and he said, “It’s just from the fertility drugs, you haven’t ovulated.”  And so, I ignored my body and continued with the doctor’s recommendation.

Rob soon passed with flying colors how to give shots, and I endured the pain. I thought was I was preparing my body for childbirth, and would speak to myself repeatedly “this is for your baby, this is for your baby.”

Then suddenly, our one follicle which we had named “the golden child” had multiplied. And multiplied. We had a plethora of a mature follicles, giving Dr. Q the only controlled option of: in-vitro fertilization. Our hearts sank, but we continue to seek God’s plan for us have children.

May 14, the day of my best friend’s graduation, I went in for my egg retrieval. Unfortunately, just a couple short days later, my ovaries started to hyper stimulate. Medically, we could not transfer our precious little embryos back into a “hostile environment.”  We were crushed, defeated. We did not believe in freezing life, and yet, God’s sovereign hand was at work again.

The pain started. I began to look like a sweet malnourished child from a 3^rd world country, as my stomach began to swell. And swell. And yet I could barely drink, let alone eat, and I was rapidly gaining weight.  There was so much fluid in my ovaries, after 7 days, they had to put me out again to drain my ovaries.

I remember lying on the cold bathroom floor tile. Sweating while I braced myself to the pain of throwing up again. Swallowing was excruciating.  Coughing was intolerable. Throwing up was worse than any contraction I would ever had. I had no idea why my pain was getting worse, when it should be getting better.

“OHSS symptoms can be 4-12% in pregnant woman” a fact I skipped over as Rob and I searched symptoms of OHSS. After all, Dr. Q. had taken out all my eggs…

On May 24, I woke up to a shortness of breath and knew it was time to go to the hospital. We drove the long drive to Glendale so Dr. Q could tell us what to do know now.

I was immediately hooked up to an IV, with a cold rag over my face. I literally wanted to die I was so miserable. I didn’t flinch as Dr. Q started another internal ultrasound, after all I was used to these by now.

After a few moments he said the words…. “I see a heartbeat.”  Little did we know, we had a big miracle on our hands. Parker, our sweet pea’s tale had begun.

Shock. Excitement. Confusion. Instant Joy. We were finally pregnant!!!!!!!!!

We figured out that I must have released a follicle the early morning of my appointment with Dr. Q on cycle day 26, April 28. And our little sweet pea, wasn’t implanted yet during the egg retrieval process, and wasn’t big enough to see on the first ultrasound when they drained my ovaries.

 We shared the happy new of being miraculously pregnant, and not from in-vitro, to the grandparents in the not so ideal scene of the hospital.  I stayed hospitalized for 2 days to get nutrients and for myself and our little one who was already the size of a blueberry, with her Daddy never leaving our side. I underwent  another TAP procedure to drain 13 lbs of fluid from my ovaries!

It was a road to recovery for my poor body, but nothing like the road our daughter would take just seven months later.

We still try to wrap our minds around how we became pregnant, even Dr. Q and his office do. They had never seen anything like this in 25 years. And yet, we rest in the sovereign hand of our Lord.

 As my husband puts it best, “We have the Ultimate Fertility Specialist, His name is Jesus Christ.”