In lieu of pregnancy/infant loss awareness month I share my story to hopefully encourage you in yours. Your not alone in this journey of heartbreak and grief.
January 24th we found out we were expecting our first baby.
My ttc journey has been a six year journey, first four years trying to convince my husband to start a family and the last two and half years of actually trying. After not being able to conceive naturally we opted for fertility (IUI) help.
The countless injections and 6am bloodwork/ultrasound appointments were totally worth it when we read “pregnant”. God had finally answered our prayers and we were truly blessed to start our journey as a family of three.
Things were moving well into the end of my first trimester and we finally found out that we were going to be blessed with a little princess.
But, life took a hard turn soon after. Working as a Physical Therapist I ended up contracting Covid.
April 3rd I had every possible symptom the worse ones being high fevers that lasted for weeks. At this point, in person doctor visits were not accessible to me due to my fevers. So my over the phone conversations with my OB were to continue Tylenol around the clock and keep monitoring my symptoms.
Easter Sunday I ended up in the ED as my symptoms worsened with my resting HR being in the 140s. Ultrasound showed the baby was doing “ok” so, I was thankful for that. I kept thinking that we were trying to survive for each
other.
Unfortunately they weren’t able to do anything more for me in the ED so I was sent home. Last week of April my respiratory symptoms began to worsen.
Thankfully my husband who is a Respiratory Therapist pulled me through this one. If it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would have survived. Most nights I was home alone as he was out battling the covid storm at work.
He is one of the bravest humans I know. The stress of working and taking care of his pregnant wife sick with COVID couldn’t have been easy.
Just weeks later on May 5th I heard the words that no soon to be mom would ever want to hear. “There are some things that are of concern” said my maternal fetal doctor. She diagnosed me with IUGR due to placental insufficiency. I walked out of that visit in tears and in complete shock. Why us?
The plan going forward was basically wait and watch game to see if things would change within the next two weeks. These two weeks felt like an eternity and I felt so helpless. I did a lot of research and read countless peer reviewed articles on IUGR and placenta insufficiency in hopes to reverse it. The reality was that there wasn’t a real cure in my case.
I also ended up getting a second opinion and reached out to university hospitals like UPenn and John Hopkins to see if they would take my case, but between COVID travel restrictions I wasn’t able to do so.
We are dedicated to supporting individuals of all faiths, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.