God is merciful. This is not a word. You can feel it in your life in a thousand ways. Sometimes it’s a man you meet, to give you wisdom or a piece of advice.
We talked a lot about how women suffer to become mothers. The power they must have, the struggle they go through and the pain they must endure. We have been pointing this out since the start of social media like face-book and a lot of other people do too the same on face-book. Sometimes we feel it’s getting close to becoming a cliché.
This is different …
Mrs. Sally is an example of many things. You can learn great lessons from her story. This young woman has been through a lot. Look closely in her story, you will find the answer of many questions in your life. This is not preaching or some repeated advice, you can find that in abundant over the social media I know. This is a message that I have to deliver. I feel obligated to do so.
In the prime of your life, you have the whole world in your hands. And one day, you get a bad news regarding your health. You stay strong. Most of us will do so. You live with it, and fight for your well-being as hard as u can. Mrs. Sally did the same. She lived with chronic pain for the better part of her life.
It all started with the diagnosis of Endometriosis. And over the years, it got worse. Chocolate cysts started to form. In spite of that, she had a laparotomy “an open conventional surgery” to remove those cysts. This is the message I am trying to deliver, this is why I am here today. (No open surgery in a case of endometrial cyst). This resulted in sever pelvic adhesions. Laparoscopy was attempted, it was no good.
Tubes got damaged, pain was intolerable, and her AMH level was 0.04. Yes you read that number right. Not 0.4 .. It was 0.04. We repeated that test many times in different labs, same result.
First time I saw Mrs. Sally I didn’t know what to tell her. Right in the middle of her career and personal life, she flied many miles across Arabian countries seeking a treatment. Being a mother is what kept her going. That’s what helped her to get over her pain.
Now any Gynecologist would see a case with this low AMH values would just give up, and let his patient down easily. He wouldn’t be wrong. I just keep thinking, what would her life would be, if I just gave up on her?
Millions of women suffer from infertility. Millions of men suffer from low sperm count too. You see a man, he looks happy, but you don’t really know how much does it hurt to suffer from such conditions.
He may go through a lot of marriages or divorces; he may even refuse to get marry. Same for women. Low fertility can be exhausting. They would try everything; Herbs medications, unproven stem cells treatments, and much other stuff that don’t really work.
Mrs. Sally was stronger than everyone else. She put her faith in me, and nothing can describe the amount of pressure and responsibility I felt back then.
After a 3 hours Laparoscopy, with God’s help, we managed to achieve a great success! Adhesiolysis “unraveling of the pelvic adhesions”, removal of cysts and removal the infected tube all done!
While finishing the laparoscopy, I kept asking myself. Could a pelvis with such adhesions bear a pregnancy! We took photos after the surgery, but deep down I knew how hard it was.
One of the best signs we had was the relieve she got. It was so encouraging. Mrs. Sally was so optimistic and that helped a lot.
She went home after the laparoscopy. After a while she came back to start the ICSI program. We started with some preparatory medications for couple of months.
During egg retrieval, she yielded only one egg, that egg was fertilized, giving one embryo. I told her, if that embryo didn’t look good, or had a poor quality, we are not going to transfer him back.
Surprisingly, it was a Grade 1 embryo! We transferred him back to Mrs. Sally womb, and she got pregnant. If life had taught me something, it’s not to get too excited. Sadly a lot of pregnancies don’t get to term.
She came to the clinic, looking at the ultrasound imaging of her baby. She couldn’t believe it. To be honest neither could I! We detected the heartbeat of the fetus, I was amazed! But again, I kept it to myself.
As the pregnancy proceeded, she had to go back home. She couldn’t stay with us for the entire pregnancy period, of course life doesn’t work that way, but you have to keep going. She gave birth at full term! A lovely child, God blesses him.
Mrs. Sally is a rule model to look up to. You can be as strong as you need. And however little your odds are, you can beat them. She organized her life, time, and travel to get to her goal. You can try many times and fail, but that shouldn’t bring you down.
The message I really want to deliver is this ..
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The first physician to deal with an endometrial cyst can make his patient’s life either heaven or hell!
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As a rule, the first surgeon dealing with any case, doing the first surgery the patient ever has is under a lot of responsibility.
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Cyst drilling, NO
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Cyst cauterization, NO
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Cyst wall removal, YES
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ICSI in a patient with endometriosis is not recommended. Chocolate cysts can really decrease the chances of getting pregnant.
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I have come to learn that you can never tell a patient she can’t have children. Even if the evidence suggests so. You can’t imagine how many patients have heard that sentence and went through a lot of failed ICSIs in USA and other countries, and then they got pregnant here in Egypt or any other place.
Many patients don’t trust Egyptian doctors and travel thousands of miles to have their laparoscopy elsewhere, and they would come back with so many complications and pelvic adhesions. Many people try to give birth in the States and they suffer from a lot of complications later.
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When you have a medical condition, this can be very frustrating. But you can never know how, when, or by whom you may get your treatment. It’s all a part of our God’s Plan. Just be patient and fight back as hard as you can.
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A woman can yield just one egg, and get pregnant. Another may have over 30, and doesn’t get so lucky. A woman once had a child with a congenital heart defect, then this child become one of most famous football players in Arsenal club in England. Another woman may have a perfectly normal child, and sadly she could lose him over an attack of pneumonia “ severe inflammation of lungs”. Another one can have a boy after 6 girls, unfortunately she could lose him before he even goes to college.
