so i guess i should start out my blog with a little history on how i became the momsy to a miracle. it all started 11 years ago when i joined a group called ywam(youth with a mission). it was in the tiny town of titusville pa. where i moved in with a bunch of girls and learned how to speak (asl) american sign language. i had always been interested in asl and knew the abc's and that was about it. so living with deaf was a wonderfull but challenging experience. We were to live with others using no voice, living with anyone deaf is def. a whole other culture. To understand and speak in sign. was hard but turned into a wonderful experience.


anyways,during that time i met a wonderful girl named michelle, we became inseperable. well after alot of up all night chats and escaping in my trusty old dodge spirit car. we became a twosome.i saw a picture of her bestfriend hanging up and thought he was cute.when he called to speak to michelle i stole the phone and we hit it off. everyone said we were jumping into things to quickly and looking back now, we were. we were young and in love. A year later on Oct.9,1999 we married near my home town in NH.


skip ahead five years, after working,living in NH for 3 years then moving to md. living there for 2yrs. to be closer to mike's family. We were begining to wonder why we had not had any "pregnancy scares".. We had not used any protection for 5 years and i became concerned.


i spoke with my dr. who had handled my medical care during my many times when i had ovarian cysts rupture and needed to be seen. He had diagnosed me with pcos (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and stated it would be harder for me to get pregnant but not impossible. We just needed to go on the medication called"clomid" and schedule our "times" according to the medication.


Oh my lord let me tell you what a rollercoaster ride that was. The hormones raging. i was happy one minute,sad the next,hot,cold, irratated and worst of all the dreaded weight gain, not like i wasn't overweight allready but who wants to get even bigger? not me! so after a year of this mike had decided to go back to college and our friends...michelle and jake were living in Pa, going to Valley Forge Christian College. with alittle perswation from shelly we moved to Pa.



i meet with new drs in Pa,at the philadelphia science institute (fertility specialists) there we both met with Dr Munabi who then ran a ton of blood,fluid and physical test on both of us. they even did genitic testing,hiv anything and evreything. then weeks later we were to meet in his office for a break down on our tests. As i sat there waiting to hear if my life long dream of being a mother was to be shattered or come true was just moments away...



my heart was beating so fast and my hand were sweaty, then my worst nightmare had come true. "jessica you don't ovulate and michael has low sperm count and mobility. Youput the two of you toghther and you have a 2% chance of concieving in a lifetime." Tears started to well up in my eyesand a huge ball stared to creep up my throat.dr munabi said wellthere'sno time to waste we should just bypass the oral drugs and inseminations and go straight to ivf (invetro fertilitation) the last step in medical science to concieve. so we started right away.



i was put on a birthcontrol pill to control my cycle for 2weeks then added an injection hormone into my stomach once a day. tthis needle wasn'tto bad, itwas the same size needle a diabetic uses for insulin. the trouble was i just couldnt seem to inject myself, so michael met with my nurse who showed us what to do and he began doing the shots for me. then after 2 weeks on that drug they introduc a drug called progestorin, seems simple enough right?! Wrong! the needle was a 16gage (thick needle) that was an inch and a half long that needed to be injected all the way into the muscle on my hip/butt. Oh yea, not to mention the progestorin was a thick oil that was very hard to get in.you hadto stick the needle into the skin then pull back the suringe to make sure you dont pull in any blood (hit a vein).then you can push the thick oil into the muscle. It hurt like hell! leaving me with HUGE bruises and sore muscles this was the hardest part for me, but i kept telling myself "this was for my baby" at least a chance to have a baby and i was willing to do what ever it took to have a biological child.



now some of you might be thinking,"wow thats kind of selfish of me to only want a biological child". the reasoning behind that thought of mine is, if you don;t know me i am adopted. i was adopted at age 6weeks. i had a loving adoptive family with a brother,cousins, aunts,uncles and grandparents but my blood came from no one. i looked like no one. well everyone always said i looked like the sampsons and to this day i would have to agree.i look alot likemy cousin ang,aunt sue and most def. acted alot like my gram sampson. but to me thyat wasn't enough. it didn't fill the void in my heart. i always wondered, where did i get my love of animals from? or who was into the medical field? if anybody. or why do i have blue/green eyes with a definate ring of brown. silly things like that were important to me.



now to continue on with my injection regimin ice was given a hint to ice my backside for 5-10 mins to help with the sting of the oil injection. so instead of 10 mins i did 20,30 sometimes 40mins so i wouldn't feel anything. Fat chance! it still stung like no tomorrow.

during this time of injections i was to be at the drs office for internial ultrasounds evry 2 days to make sure my folicicles did get too big and rupture. during this time my stomach got really bloated and i felt alot of presure do to all the folicles growing and there being many of them at the same time. normally only one maybe 2 follicles would grow and release an egg in a normal women. they want to get as many as they can to give us a higher chance of pregnancy. when i finally had enough folicles and they reached the right size they set meup with an exact date and time down to the minute when i needed to take what is called the "trigger" shot. then 12 hours after the shot i would have the eggs surgically removed from my uterus.

i showed up formy early appt. ready and nervous to have this done. they said "it should only feel like period cramps when u wake up". it was a quick proceedure that entailed my to be put under and along needle that was attached to the end of a internal ultrasound wand. then they suck out the eggs one by one from each little sac they were held in. during this time michael hadto supply his contribution, sperm. "why do they get the easy part"?

i woke up in the worst pain. thinking it would have been much less pain then it was. i was in the car ride home that seemed like forever to get home. a 30 minute drive seemed like an hour. then at home i was so sore. it feltlikesomeone reached up into my uterus and sucked out my insides....oh yea thats prettymuch what they did except it was my eggs, my future children being removed from my body

It's late more to come later....