I love sharing stories from the amazing people in my life. Sharing other people's journey's helps others cope better, hold on to hope and to let them know that they are not alone. This is Aubrie's story. I met Aubrie from doing her daughter's newborn session. I am so glad we met! This is why I love my job.
"My name is Aubrie Paquette and this is my journey to becoming a mommy to two beautiful girls. I started suffering from pain in my early teenage years, but being a young healthy and active dancer, not much was found to be causing the problem other than possibly my cycle was about to start. When I finally started my menstrual cycle the pain was even worse, so I was put on birth control instantly and told to continue taking the pill so I wouldn’t be in pain. I continued dancing competitively and the pain didn’t seem to bother me as much, or at least I didn’t think about it.
That all changed when I ended up in the emergency room when I was in grade 12. I had stepped back from the amount of dancing I was doing and noticed that since I wasn’t exercising as much that the pain came back with a vengeance. The next year I spent more time in and out of the emergency room and doctors trying to investigate what was going on. I tried many different types of birth controls, medication for my stomach and was told it was basically IBS since they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I was put on strong pain killers to try and ease the pain to which that barely worked at times. As we know, women and pain don’t get looked at very well when we end up in the ER and I was told by many doctors that I was faking being in so much pain, and med seeking.
I was put on the list to see a gastroenterologist which took over a year and a half to see and was told to hang tight until then. I had many hospitals stays, trips to the ER, trips to specialists and doctors. I was asked by a female doctor/surgeon if my pain was worse during my cycles. I was also having breakthrough bleeding even being on birth control. I was then referred to an gynecologist who tried one more medication but the pain still was there.
So I then had my first laparoscopic surgery which would then diagnose me with endometriosis; a chronic disease that sheds endometrium on the outside of the uterus causing sores, lesions, and adhesions. The surgery helped my pain for a good year or so. Then the pain came back. I had one more surgery with the same gynecologist who cleaned out more endometriosis and then told me he thinks it’s best I try and see a specialist. I went to a specialist in Calgary who prescribed me a medication that decreases bone density and ruined my teeth. She performed another surgery and removed more endometriosis and found out I had bladder problems as well. Then all of a sudden she didn’t want to see me anymore. So I’ve travelled to a couple provinces to see specialists.
Now throughout this whole process of diagnosing, and treating my endometriosis I was told many times that endometriosis is one of the major causes of infertility. I didn’t think much of it because we weren’t thinking of kids for a while. But I knew I always wanted to be a mama. However that dream almost became shattered. I had 2 early miscarriages while fighting this disease and it broke me and still does. They were almost missed as well due to lack of medical professionals investigating. However, thankfully my family doctor reassured me that everything was okay and that I should still be okay in the future, since we knew we can get pregnant.
The time came when we decided we wanted to start trying for children. I knew it would be difficult and I was right. It took over a year before I went to see someone to help us. I had many tests done and was officially diagnosed with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome). Because of the continuous birth controls and hormone therapies my body didn’t ovulate for years. And when it came time to try to conceive (ttc) my body didn’t understand what had to happen.
After trying medications and different procedures I got pregnant with my first daughter Everleigh! I was about to call the doctor that Monday to tell him that what we had done didn’t work. But I took a test on the Saturday since I was trying to be hopeful and sure enough 2 lines appeared! Now I will say after a loss, you don’t get too excited because you always know what can happen so I didn’t get too too excited. In fact my whole pregnancy I said I wouldn’t believe it or be “happy” until she was in my arms and when she was born my whole world became complete!
However the problem now was deciding on a form of birth control after having Everleigh. I was told not to take birth control again because it affected me so much, but of course the pain returned. I was also told that with our second that we most likely would need to take further steps like full on IVF because normally the second can be harder to conceive and especially since I had to go back on some hormone therapy to help with my pain. I’m so thankful this wasn’t the case! We conceived our second daughter a month before Everleigh’s first birthday! She was such a shock! She was meant to be here with us today! I was on birth control (granted I wasn’t taking it properly) and we were told how it would be much harder than second time around. Miracles happen and I’m so thankful for the beautiful family I have!"
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