- K
- A
As many of you may already know, Angel and I have tried to have a baby over the last year and a half. Unfortunately, we have not been successful. I was recently hospitalized at 21 weeks and after what I believe was a long and painful experience, we lost our baby girl Alina Grace on November 11, 2015. After spending some beautiful time holding our daughter and thanking God for allowing us to be parents even for such a short time...we laid her to rest by cremation a few days later. Alina will always be part of our lives.
After speaking to doctors about my health condition and the possibility of carrying again, we were told that it was probably in my best interest to seek a fertility specialist and perhaps attempt surrogacy. So after much consideration Angel and I have decided to embark upon a long journey and pursue gestational surrogacy. Although I could not carry a child myself, we have faith that the right surrogate will be able to carry the baby of our dreams for us.
This is not something cheap, but I strongly believe that with the help of our loving family and friends...we can one day have a baby of our own. Thank you's will never be enough, and we will forever be grateful to everyone who supports us during this time to reach our goal.
For a little history on myself and my ongoing fight with Lupus...continue reading!
At the age of 13, I was diagnosed with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus). For those of you that don't know what SLE is, it's an inflammatory auto immune disease that affects the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. It's caused when the immune system attacks its own tissues.
I remember the day I was diagnosed like it was yesterday. My mom told me that the doctor called and the results were positive for Lupus. Having already been familiar with this disease because my Grandmother carried it as well, I cried and cried trying to understand why out of all people this would be happening to me.
I was quickly put on medication to start treatment. The very first medication was Prednisone, the drug from hell I call it. It's a steroid used to treat inflammation and auto immune diseases which sounds great until you realize that it causes you to gain weight. Especially in the face, moon face is what they call it. I remember being in middle school and my best friend asked me why my face was so "fat". I was embarrassed to tell her why. Embarrassed to tell her that I had an incurable disease and my fat face was a result of me trying to get better. But at the age of 13 a disease sounded gross and I didn't want people to look at me differently although they already were.
At age 15 I was hospitalized. My platelet count had dropped so low the only treatment considered was chemotherapy. For 6 months I was in and out of the hospital and over night stays due to a chemo drug called Cytoxin. I was quickly taken off the drug due to the high risks of becoming infertile if I was put through the entire treatment. I dropped down to about 80 pounds from 107 in less than 2 months and looked sicker than ever.
Over the years I have also been diagnosed with high blood pressure, osteopenia, thrombocytopenia and reynauds syndrome which is poor circulation to the hands and feet.
Fast forwarding to my adulthood, in 2014 I married my best friend Angel and became pregnant in July of 2014 at the age of 24. However, in September at only 10 weeks we lost our first baby. Everyone says these things happen, miscarriages are normal. There was no real reasoning behind why I had lost the baby although we already knew the risks of miscarriages with lupus were high... and so I went through my first d&c. My husband and I kept our heads up, kept our faith and said we will try again. In February 2015 we found out we were pregnant a second time. Excited yet hesitant, we started prenatal care but the doctors quickly noticed there was no fetus in my sac. Every week we went back and prayed to see a little baby in the ultrasound. At 9 weeks the doctor finally described it as a blighted ovum. We were pregnant, I had a sac, but no baby ever formed. The doctors gave us the "this happens by chance" explanation. There we were again! No real reasoning behind it and they reassured us it was nothing we did wrong. In March of 2015 we went through a second d&c. Anxious and full of faith we became pregnant again June 2015 a third time. Again, more hesitant but excited because we knew for sure this was it! We had our high risk team at Winnie Palmer and all of my lupus doctors on board. We had a gender reveal party with friends and family that revealed we were expecting a baby girl! We were beyond excited...another girl to add to the family.
At one of our ultrasounds the doctor discovered what was proving to be some type of chromosome disorder. A list of possibilities, the first one being Down's Syndrome then Turners. We had an amniocentesis test done just to be sure. At 5 months pregnant I was admitted to the hospital for really bad back pain where to my surprise my bloodwork had shown my platelet count was so low I should of been in ICU. Low platelets, high blood pressure and elevated liver enzymes automatically had the doctors thinking HELP Syndrome. But Lupus is a tricky disease. The Doctors couldn't tell for sure if that's what was going on but what they did know was that they wanted to take my baby girl out no matter what because according to them she was putting my life at risk. I put my foot down and told them they weren't touching her. After constant around the clock care to both myself and my daughter and about a week and a half in the hospital, they came to do a nightly fetal heart check but there was no heart beat. The nurse kept insisting that Alina was playing hide and seek but after everything I had been through maybe it was the mothers instinct in me.. I just knew that my babygirl was gone. I was taken for an ultrasound that night to make sure she was ok but we shortly found out that our little girls heart beat had indeed stopped.
This time it was far too long for a d&c and I had to give birth to our daughter. On November 11, 2015, Alina Grace Rodriguez was born into silence. That afternoon she was cleaned up and dressed up for us to hold and admire. Our daughter was born but we weren't taking her home.
Help us get another chance to bring a baby home! God bless you and may any amount you give may you be blessed 100 fold.
With love,
Christina & Angel
After speaking to doctors about my health condition and the possibility of carrying again, we were told that it was probably in my best interest to seek a fertility specialist and perhaps attempt surrogacy. So after much consideration Angel and I have decided to embark upon a long journey and pursue gestational surrogacy. Although I could not carry a child myself, we have faith that the right surrogate will be able to carry the baby of our dreams for us.
This is not something cheap, but I strongly believe that with the help of our loving family and friends...we can one day have a baby of our own. Thank you's will never be enough, and we will forever be grateful to everyone who supports us during this time to reach our goal.
For a little history on myself and my ongoing fight with Lupus...continue reading!
At the age of 13, I was diagnosed with SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus). For those of you that don't know what SLE is, it's an inflammatory auto immune disease that affects the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. It's caused when the immune system attacks its own tissues.
I remember the day I was diagnosed like it was yesterday. My mom told me that the doctor called and the results were positive for Lupus. Having already been familiar with this disease because my Grandmother carried it as well, I cried and cried trying to understand why out of all people this would be happening to me.
I was quickly put on medication to start treatment. The very first medication was Prednisone, the drug from hell I call it. It's a steroid used to treat inflammation and auto immune diseases which sounds great until you realize that it causes you to gain weight. Especially in the face, moon face is what they call it. I remember being in middle school and my best friend asked me why my face was so "fat". I was embarrassed to tell her why. Embarrassed to tell her that I had an incurable disease and my fat face was a result of me trying to get better. But at the age of 13 a disease sounded gross and I didn't want people to look at me differently although they already were.
At age 15 I was hospitalized. My platelet count had dropped so low the only treatment considered was chemotherapy. For 6 months I was in and out of the hospital and over night stays due to a chemo drug called Cytoxin. I was quickly taken off the drug due to the high risks of becoming infertile if I was put through the entire treatment. I dropped down to about 80 pounds from 107 in less than 2 months and looked sicker than ever.
Over the years I have also been diagnosed with high blood pressure, osteopenia, thrombocytopenia and reynauds syndrome which is poor circulation to the hands and feet.
Fast forwarding to my adulthood, in 2014 I married my best friend Angel and became pregnant in July of 2014 at the age of 24. However, in September at only 10 weeks we lost our first baby. Everyone says these things happen, miscarriages are normal. There was no real reasoning behind why I had lost the baby although we already knew the risks of miscarriages with lupus were high... and so I went through my first d&c. My husband and I kept our heads up, kept our faith and said we will try again. In February 2015 we found out we were pregnant a second time. Excited yet hesitant, we started prenatal care but the doctors quickly noticed there was no fetus in my sac. Every week we went back and prayed to see a little baby in the ultrasound. At 9 weeks the doctor finally described it as a blighted ovum. We were pregnant, I had a sac, but no baby ever formed. The doctors gave us the "this happens by chance" explanation. There we were again! No real reasoning behind it and they reassured us it was nothing we did wrong. In March of 2015 we went through a second d&c. Anxious and full of faith we became pregnant again June 2015 a third time. Again, more hesitant but excited because we knew for sure this was it! We had our high risk team at Winnie Palmer and all of my lupus doctors on board. We had a gender reveal party with friends and family that revealed we were expecting a baby girl! We were beyond excited...another girl to add to the family.
At one of our ultrasounds the doctor discovered what was proving to be some type of chromosome disorder. A list of possibilities, the first one being Down's Syndrome then Turners. We had an amniocentesis test done just to be sure. At 5 months pregnant I was admitted to the hospital for really bad back pain where to my surprise my bloodwork had shown my platelet count was so low I should of been in ICU. Low platelets, high blood pressure and elevated liver enzymes automatically had the doctors thinking HELP Syndrome. But Lupus is a tricky disease. The Doctors couldn't tell for sure if that's what was going on but what they did know was that they wanted to take my baby girl out no matter what because according to them she was putting my life at risk. I put my foot down and told them they weren't touching her. After constant around the clock care to both myself and my daughter and about a week and a half in the hospital, they came to do a nightly fetal heart check but there was no heart beat. The nurse kept insisting that Alina was playing hide and seek but after everything I had been through maybe it was the mothers instinct in me.. I just knew that my babygirl was gone. I was taken for an ultrasound that night to make sure she was ok but we shortly found out that our little girls heart beat had indeed stopped.
This time it was far too long for a d&c and I had to give birth to our daughter. On November 11, 2015, Alina Grace Rodriguez was born into silence. That afternoon she was cleaned up and dressed up for us to hold and admire. Our daughter was born but we weren't taking her home.
Help us get another chance to bring a baby home! God bless you and may any amount you give may you be blessed 100 fold.
With love,
Christina & Angel