June 10 marked my last day at Children's Miracle Network. It was bittersweet to leave, but Brad and I felt like that was the best thing for our family right now. We thought it would be wise for me take the summer to take care of myself, wrap up projects around the house, and to start getting things in order to embark on a new chapter. I will miss my co-workers tons and my precious miracle families. It was an incredible ride and I am thankful for my experiences there.
The long awaited High Risk appointment finally came! Our biggest prayer was that we would be set up with a doctor who understood our concern and didn't treat us like we were wasting his or her time. I don't have much luck with doctors. I think they forget sometimes that we are paying THEM. Anyway, that's another soap box. I just didn't want to wait 1.5 months to have someone say, "You are fine. Get over it. We'll just pump you up with drugs and you will be just fine." Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us and our visit. We had a wonderful experience at the R.O.C. (Regional Obstetric Consultants) at Baptist Downtown.
When we arrived the waiting room was packed and there was only one doc on duty. Brad was like a fish out of water...it was us and a room full of pregnant people. Well, women rather. He leaned over and asked, "Is everyone in Jacksonville high risk?" Haha. I told him, "If you are over 35, have gestational diabetes, had a previous child with complications, are pregnant with multiples or sneezed once while you were pregnant I guess the send you here." We were in the waiting room for 1.5 hours before a nurse called us back for a pre-consultation before speaking to the doc. I immediately thought, "Great, they are going to try and have the nurse answer our questions and we won't even see the doctor. Listen, lady, I waited far too long to have a nurse consult." I was wrong, Brandy was awesome! She more or less just wanted to make sure Brad and I didn't have anything too crazy in our family tree that would set us up for even more complications. We think we passed most of the questions. Our families are kind of crazy, but they said we should be fine, haha. Brandy and I had the brilliant idea of doing a sonogram while we were there so the doc could see exactly how big of a half uterus we are working with here. The doc thought it was a great idea too. Sooo...we were sent back to the waiting room.
After doing some more amazing people watching in the waiting room, we got called back to do the sonogram. They were very thorough and even tried to hunt down my other ovary. No luck there. However, we did discover that my one ovary is making some good looking "follicles" otherwise known as eggs. The sonographer was very complimentary of my eggs and I did a little fist pump and claimed very excitedly, "Yay, at least I have one thing going for me." Brad followed with, "They are probably organic." Haha, the comedic relief was well needed. The sonographer was not feeling our jokes. Guess she doesn't understand that we haven't had much luck with these sort of appointments and humor is our saving grace. Shortly after the doc shuffled in...as soon as he opened his mouth all the tension escaped my body and the room. Dr. Francisco Guierre is the man! He sat down next to me, mind you, I am still laid out on the table, and said, " So, you have half a uterus, I have a stint in my heart, and he, pointing to Brad, has something wrong with him too, but we will get to that later." Haha. We died laughing. He was so encouraging and went out of his way to make sure I knew that I wasn't a freak of nature.
He went through all the risks that I would be predisposed to during pregnancy and explained that even though they are risks, every woman's body and every single pregnancy is different. I basically will face things that people with multiples are predisposed to experience during pregnancy. The two biggest factors being, the potential to breach and the potential to have an incompetent cervix. Breach, because the baby doesn't have that much room to flip around and get head down. And the cervix can wear down and give out because it can't hand the weight or pressure. He said technically we can all have those complications, I am just at increased risk. The other being early term labor. He encouraged us by saying that they body is an incredible thing and we will be shocked by what it can handle. He said there wasn't a single thing in him that would encourage us not to try to get pregnant. He said that I am actually lucky that I know so that they can keep a close eye on me and track me the whole pregnancy. He said that often women have malformed uteruses and don't know until the baby is breached and they have to preform a c-section. When they get in there they often discover that they too have a unicornuate uterus. He made it clear that I wasn't alone and threw in a chipper, "Welcome to the club!" I told him how it feels extremely lonely and that all my friends get pregnant just by looking at their husbands. He laughed and said, "They have something wrong with them too, they just don't know it yet." Haha. He was so incredibly in tune with the emotional side of everything. He knew just where we needed to be encouraged. Almost as if God used him as a megaphone for the things we needed to hear. Brad and I had lots of questions and he was so patient with us and understood our concerns. He told us he would be honored to be our doctor and that he would love to take care of us. I have never had such a great experience at a doctor's office. I told Brad I wished he could be my doctor for everything in life. We weren't a nuisance to him and that was so refreshing.
When we left, Brad grabbed my shoulders and said, "Well, you aren't such a freak after all." HAHAHA! Thanks, Brad. I knew that meant, "I love you so much and praise God for good news, FINALLY!" We left on cloud nine.
Everyone asks, so what's next? Well, we decided that we are going to take the summer to just enjoy each other and have fun. I think we need this breather of just being and enjoying where the Lord has us. Then we will face the huge monster that is IVF and ICSI come Fall. It's sooo unbelievably intimidating. I will save that can of worms for the next entry.
Thank you to everyone who remembered our big day yesterday. We were encouraged by the texts, emails, and phone calls. We are especially thankful for all the prayers. We felt like we did indeed have a divine appointment and couldn't have asked for a better doctor to meet with yesterday. Even if we would have gotten all the same answers from a different doc, we are confident that we may not have left so encouraged and sure that the Lord was giving us two thumbs up!
