My Sister Journey! Her survival! Beating the odds! Defying the doctors!

I remember when I was a little girl around 8 years old my best friend Lara my sister and I used to play mummies and daddies we would have a whole bunch of kids. We could play for hours, pushing our buggies around the place, putting the babies to bed, feeding them dinner from the mud kitchen we made outside.

As we headed into our teenage years my sister used to get a lot of pain in her knees and back. My parents took her to see different specialists to find out what was going on. She needed an operation on her back. It turned out she needed several.

After the first op, the doctor had a meeting with my sister Charlotte and our parents. They told them “the injury to her spine and the operation needed it would be highly unlikely that she would be able to get pregnant let alone carry a child to full term.”  Also at this point, it was all about being able to walk run jump, and live with little or no pain. Charlotte needed this special implant in her back.   

Being told by the doctors she wasn’t able to have kids was devastating for her and all of us. We all knew one of the most important things was being able to walk and have no pain.

In my sister's true style, she got herself together and made different plans for her life lots of travel, going to college just living life to the max. She loved riding horses and still does this was one of her main aims to get back horse riding and she did.

She met her husband when she was 23. She rang me up so so excited and told me she has met the man that she is going to marry. I was beyond happy for her. They got engaged but planned to get married a few years later. On one of our long chats, I asked her if she told Jamie about not being able to have kids. They had had his conversation and it turned out that Jamie had had an accident when he was younger, he fell out of a tree. He was also told that it would be highly unlikely that he would have any kids. It was almost like a relief to them that neither of them could have kids. They made different plans for their life and marriage. 

As you can imagine they weren’t too careful when it came to contraception. 

SHE GOT PREGNANT!!!

Can you believe it!!! After all the trauma of being told you couldn’t have kids and this thought was in your brain forever. It was such a shock to both of them they were like “how did that happen?” We were all so excited after my parents got over the shock.

They got married and Josh was born 9 months later he’s now 23.

Not long after he was born my sister got diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer. She had a battle on her hands a 2 year battle with cancer. 

Before she started treatment, the doctors asked her if she wanted to freeze her eggs because the chances of her getting pregnant after the cancer treatment were very low.

She rang me for advice we talked about how she felt. Her decision was no, she had a healthy little boy and was so grateful for him.  She just wanted to get better. 

During the treatment, she lost all her hair her periods stopped she looked awful. I remember getting a call one night from my father saying my sister wouldn’t survive the night. I cried buckets. She did survive a true fighter.

2 years later she stopped her cancer drugs and her periods returned around 6 months later. I got a phone call to say she was pregnant she was so happy. This pregnancy ended in miscarriage.  I can’t even tell you or explain how devastated she was. It was a hole in her heart and mine.

Her husband is a gorgeous kind man but he can be quite blunt. He told her to pull herself together she has survived the biggest fight of her life and had him and Josh. His words helped pull her out of her devastation of a miscarriage and that it wasn’t her fault.

A few months later I got a phone call to tell me she was pregnant again. We were so excited but also a bit nervous in case of miscarriage I treated her with acupuncture to help support her pregnancy. 

12 week scan time Charlotte and Jamie rang me while they were still at the hospital. When I saw the call coming up on my phone my heart sank to my knees I thought there was something wrong. She said, “You are never going to believe this there is not one baby in there, there is two.” Harriet and Freddie were born at 38 weeks. They are now 15 at home studying for their GCSE during lockdown.

My sister is the most inspiring person she has a heart of gold and is a true warrior. I truly hope her story has inspired you not to give up on your dreams.

If you feel you are drowning with anxiety and fear of will this ever happen for me? Will, I ever get pregnant?

Contact me Lucy for a free fertility discovery call let me help you ease any anxieties and fear you have.

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