Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Julia S's Story

Julia is the contributing editor for Early Pregnancy Loss. She writes daily at Life After Infertility and Loss where she covers all of her children--the ones who are here and the ones who are gone.

Who am I? Good question - I ask myself this every time I see myself in the mirror. I guess you could say I am "middle aged" - 40 in November. Though - I certainly don't think middle aged. Born the oldest of a Marine Corps helicopter pilot and his creative, slightly hippie, Liberal Arts major wife; oldest of 8. I sing, I sew - read like I can't get enough words.

I got married in 1992 and we both wanted a big and quick family. The big we got - the quick, not so much. A little annovulation and a low sperm count landed us in the doctor's office after a year of ttc with no joy. Some clomid, BBT charting and well timed intercourse later we achieved our first pregnancy. Delivered a live baby at 39 weeks. Got pregnant again on Clomid a year later and promptly miscarried. Then I miscarried again. And again. Live baby. Miscarried again. And again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Seven miscarriages all by 12 weeks. The reasons are varied and not certain, some just suspected - blighted ovum, late implantation, ectopic-non-tubal, heterotopic (uterine and tubal pg), low progesterone, placental blood clot. The answers - not so clear. Been through much of the acronym gamut - TTC, BBT, FSH, TSH, ANA, SA, Lap, HSG, ad nauseum . . .

Somehow I ended up with 6 amazing children - they came with their own set of acronyms as well - BHcg, Prog, BA, LTCS, NICU, SCU, PICU, PPD, etc. . . and some scary moments (abrupting placenta previa anyone?), but somehow we pulled it off.

After 13 pregnancies it isn't clear whether I really suck at this pregnancy thing or not. At any rate - it is good I am not superstitious as I am no longer on active ttc duty. My particular brand of reproduction and endometriosis landed me at the door of another acronym -TAH, total abdominal hysterectomy, and I go under the knife once more in September '08 to remove my somewhat flaky uterus. The BBT has been retired and I am just trying to get on with life . . . after.

1 comment:

luna said...

wishing you well with your upcoming surgery. thanks for sharing your story here.