|
September 2000
Journey of A Surrogate This story really begins long before these journal entries. I remember being a young teenager and watching the news with my mother in our kitchen while she cooked dinner. There was a news story about a surrogate mother. I asked my mother what that meant and she explained that a surrogate mother was a woman who had a child for a woman who couldn't carry her own children. I remember thinking then and there, "what a remarkable thing to do for someone!" And then I decided that was something I wanted to do in my lifetime. I thought about surrogacy often while I was a teenager, but I decided that first I'd need to get married and have a family. When I was 18 years old, though, those dreams were nearly taken away. Two weeks after my high school graduation, I was hospitalized for severe pain in my lower abdomen. After a week of testing and poking and prodding in places I won't mention, I was sent for a surgical laproscopy. During the surgery, I was diagnosed with endometriosis. Endo is a condition where the endometrial tissue that lines the uterus is found outside of the uterus. Inside the uterus, endometrial tissue is essential. It's the tissue that nourishes a child and gives an embryo a place to implant during pregnancy. Outside of the uterus, though, endometrial tissue can cause severe problems. The body treats the tissue as a foreign substance since it is so out of place and attacks it with natural defenses. It can be quite painful and cause large spots on the abdomenal cavity, uterine walls, anywhere the tissue is found. These "spots" can grow and get infected and interfere with implantation of eggs after fertilization. Many women who have endo are infertile I remember sitting in the doctor's office with my mom and dad. He showed photos he had taken of the spots that had been inside of me. And then I heard him say that I would probably not have children. I was 18 years old. Suddenly my thoughts went from which sorrority I wanted to rush to when could I start trying to conceive. I went through lupron injections and then birth control pills to make sure that all the endo spots had been zapped by the laser surgery and would not grow back.
|
