The Chinese proverb goes “I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet”.
I have been looking for information lately on people who are doing PGD (Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis) through IVF and to gauge their experiences and success rates. I wanted something to compare us to as the only other couple we know who have done this, fell pregnant on their first implantation off their first stimulated cycle. When we compare this to our experience of 3 stimulated cycles with only 3 resulting ‘clear’ embryos, of which none have worked, we needed some encouragement that it’s not hopeless. While I was looking, I found a site I had looked at a little while ago, SMA Australia (http://www.smaaustralia.com/). I joined the forum and in doing so, had contact with Julie Cini who administers the site.
This is a link to a news article about Julie and some of what she has gone through.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22996247-24331,00.html
Briefly, Julie and her husband Ross (who has a daughter Billie from a previous relationship) had a little girl, Montana, in August of 2004 who had SMA type 1. They lost Montana in June 2005 when she was about 10 months old, but fell pregnant again fairly soon afterwards. When Julie was about 2 months pregnant, her husband Ross was killed in a car accident at the front gate of their farm. Zarlee was born 13th December, 2006 and was also diagnosed with SMA type 1. After just over a year, Julie lost Zarlee on Christmas day, 2007.
I can’t even write this without tears, so I have only admiration for Julie and her strength in carrying on with life. Reading about her experiences helps to put our situation in perspective and Julie’s amazing example certainly helps me see that I am more than capable of weathering the storm we find ourselves in at the moment.
