I was diagnosed with Polycystic
Ovarian Syndrome at age 27 even though
it first developed at age 22. My
husband and I had tried for several
years to have children and could not
figure out what was wrong. In 1997
when the link was discovered between
hyperinsulinemia and PCOS, I started
taking Rezulin to help my body
recognize and use insulin. It was at
this point that I started becoming
pregnant, only to miscarry in the
first trimester. Later it was
determined that I had a progesterone
deficiency that was causing the
miscarriages. This happened three
times before we knew what was wrong.
In 1998 we decided to seek infertility
treatments to become more agressive in
our attempts for a child. It was at
this time that we discovered that I
had cervical cancer and I had surgery
and treatments to remove part of my
cervix and lost a couple of years in
the quest for pregnancy.
In December of 2001, my husband and I
decided to try one last time to
agressively pursue pregnancy since we
were both about to turn 36 and I
started injectables. My pregancy test
was negative in January and we were in
the process of deciding if we would
try one more cycle when we discovered
that I was pregnant naturally. We
were ecstatic. I immediately started
progesterone supplements and agressive
monitoring of the pregnancy. We made
it to 12 weeks, then 13, then 14 and
started to relax. It seemed that we
had made it past all the danger
zones. We started picking names and
shopping just a bit. My water broke
at 15 weeks, 4 days after an
uneventful day. We went to the
emergency room and the ER doc told us
that it was over, to go home and wait
for the loss of the pregnancy. He
said that I would go into labor
spontaneously on my own. We left the
hospital in despair.
We started researching immediately,
looking for any and all information on
premature rupture of membranes. We
discovered a doctor in Tampa, Florida
that was attempting to graft the
amniotic membrane in an attempt to
save the pregnancy. We contacted him
and within a few days were on our way
to Florida. I had the amniograft on
16w4d. By 17w1d, we learned that the
surgery had not worked and we headed
back to Kentucky with heavy hearts.
It was at this point that I discovered
the Kanalen website and started
reading stories. Because of the hope
that the site gave us, we decided to
put me on complete bedrest and take
the very small chance that we could
save this pregancy and that our baby's
lungs would develop.
Days turned into weeks and we began to
gain hope that we were going to make
it. At 22w4d I went into preterm
labor and gave birth to our son,
William Houston, on Father's Day at
exactly 23 weeks. He was born alive
but his little lungs were just not
developed enough to sustain his life.
He did have leg and foot deformities
that the doctors had warned us about
because he did not have enough fluid
to move around in the pregancy, but we
loved him just the same. He was just
too soon and none of the doctors would
stop the labor for fear of infection,
even though I had absolutely no signs
or symptoms of uterine infection. We
don't know if he would have made it or
not if we could have held off labor.
The doctors refused to give us a
chance. It turns out that it was
cervical incompetence due to the
cancer surgery that caused the
rupture, not infection but the doctors
screamed infection the entire time and
told us to terminate. We became so
weary of hearing about our chance of
infection. We just wanted a chance
for this child.
Our arms are empty and our hearts are
broken. We wanted this little baby so
much and are devastated that he did
not make it. Given what I know now, I
still do not have any regrets. We
gave our baby a chance at life even
though all of the doctors told us that
there was no chance. We got to hold
an angel for an hour and a half and
that was enough to touch our lives
forever. We have documented the
journey at
www.caringbridge.org/ky/tamivo
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