A Miracle Baby

Today Elijah Luke is 10 weeks old. He is the baby we never thought we'd have.

Because I had a large tumor growing through my pelvic bone, Dr. Milder at Swedish Cancer Institute recommended radiation following chemotherapy, "just to make sure" the tumor didn't decide to grow back there. PET/CT scans as well as blood tests for tumor growth factor had shown no trace of cancer, but apparently there still could be microscopic particles too small for detection.

I made an appointment to see a gynecologic surgeon, because my ovaries were in the radiation field and would likely be torched by the radiation process, failing and sending me into premature menopause. This would put me at risk for early heart disease and osteoporosis. I was completely stunned to learn that what Dr. Milder had casually referred to as "moving your ovaries" in fact involved surgically severing both my fallopian tubes, akin to a tubal ligation or "getting your tubes tied". We had always wanted more children, and when I began chemo both our oncologist and his nurse had assured us that other patients had gone on to have children post chemo.

When I asked Dr. Drescher and his nurse if the procedure could be performed without severing my fallopian tubes and rendering my infertile, the nurse actually laughed at me, and Dr. Drescher looked at me with pity. He said he could leave one ovary in place, but that would place me at higher risk for ovarian failure, which would jeopardize my overall health.

I went home in tears, having scheduled the procedure, feeling hopeless and out of options. We dearly wanted more children, but not at the possible cost of my life.

Thankfully, my mom jokingly refers to herself as "Dr. Google". She immediately went online and soon discovered a wonderful guy named Dr. Arnold Advincula, a talented surgeon at the University of Michigan. Dr. Advincula does robotic laparascopy using the Da Vinci system. He operates the controls like a video game, sitting across the room and controlling stainless steel, robotic arms inside the patient's body with precise hand movements. He had recently done an ovarian transposition, stretching out the fallopian tubes without severing them, on a woman who later became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby.

I shot off a desperate email plea to Dr. Advincula. His office staff would not allow me to speak with him because I was not a patient, and I had little hope of getting his attention. Incredibly, he wrote back, and soon followed up with a phone call. He asked to review my medical records, and quickly decided that I was a candidate for the procedure. He agreed to move my ovaries out of the radiation field, keeping one ovary connected but severing the other and hiking it up near my hip.

Thanks to our church and community, we had the $1,000 we needed to purchase two plane tickets to Michigan, one for me and one for a dear, faithful friend who agreed to chaperone and drive me around.