This was not supposed to happen. About six months after I was married, I began to have some minor medical issues that quickly became major. I was diagnosed with Lymphatic Cancer (Hodgkin's Disease). I was so young, my life was supposed to be just starting and now cancer was going to possibly end my life. My oncologist informed me that the chemotherapy could make me unable to bear children.

When I was to start the chemotherapy I was informed that all of North America was out of this chemo and it was on back order. Fortunately, it came in time for my second round of chemotherapy. My immune system crashed and I was rushed to the hospital with a high fever and was semi-conscious. I almost died, but I told my husband that God whispered to me that he would not take my life. Radiation therapy was next.

Five long years later and in complete remission we were concerned that I could not get pregnant. I started to feel ill again and I thought the cancer was coming back. Fortunately, it was not cancer but hypothyroid disease. This was a common occurrence with radiation therapy damage. My doctor warned me to be careful because a lot of women with a corrected thyroid got pregnant pretty fast with some weight loss. Well I lost about 40 lbs and guess what? We were pregnant.

The Pregnancy

Here it was on the "EPT: Digital Certainty" Pregnant! I ran up the stairs, jumped on Maurice in the bed, and told him that I was pregnant. He told me that he figured as much. A few days later with a confirmed pregnancy, I was excited to know if it would be a boy or girl. Later that night I was sitting on the sofa watching TV and I heard a whisper and started to smile. My husband came into the room and said to me "What are you smiling so hard about?" I looked at him and told him "God just whispered to me that I was carrying twins." Maurice said "Yea right gurl" and smiled. A few days later at our first ultrasound appointment, the technician asked us "If we had a history of twins in our family?" because she had detected two fetal heartbeats. Maurice was pleasantly shocked but I was not. God told me ahead of time and I believed his words.

For the first few months, my pregnancy was wonderful. I only got morning sickness twice. In my 8th month of pregnancy, I had to be hospitalized twice because of my blood pressure. The first time I actually had to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning in the hospital. It was a very stressful and emotional time. On January 10, my pressure shot up again while I was at one of my regular appointments. Based on my pressure and condition the doctor recommended delivery of the babies immediately. He then admitted me to the hospital and my OB/GYN came in to tell us that we had two choices. We could induce labor over 12 hours; or they could do a C-section and get them both out at once. We chose the second option and to make a long story short, we had babies.

Heart Failure after the twins

I developed Postpartum Cardiomyopathy and had congestive heart failure. I was back in the hospital only one day of being discharged from when the twins were born. My heart’s injection fraction was less than 20%; I could no longer pump breast milk because of all the medications that I would now be on. We can deal with this Maurice and I said as long as we are together.After my first episode with my heart, the day I was released from the hospital was the day that CJ was rushed to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. I was restricted from the NICU to see CJ because of my heart condition. I was told to get lots of rest and to only come and see him twice a week. After a few weeks, I was able to see him more frequently. I would go to visit as soon as Maurice got home from work.

Becoming a Mommy Nurse

I began to train with the nurses in the NICU to prepare for CJs homecoming. It was over 5 months now in the NICU for him. I had to learn how to put in an NG tube, change a colostomy bag, give him medications through his tube, how to flush his central line and just look for signs of infection. At this time, CJ had a nurse and I had nothing to worry about. Eventually I was on my own and had to do everything that the nurses did.

• Replace NG tubes
• Flush central line
• Mix TPN
• Give him meds
• Give him his feeds
• Change and empty his colostomy bag

After two months, I lost all nursing because I ran out of hours with insurance. It has been hard to spend my every waking moment holding CJ or Victor. If I am not drawing up meds, I am changing and feeding Victor among a number of things for the twins. Maurice and I take all of this in stride and consider it a true blessing from God to see our babies with each other. It is so very hard giving time to both babies but we make every day a challenge to do so. The entire day would consist of getting up early and Maurice would feed and change Victor and bring CJ into the living room for me to handle. Maurice was off to work after this. The morning would start with CJs’ meds at 9am, 12pm, 3pm. (6pm TPN hookup) 9pm meds, 12am meds 3am meds and this did not include Victor and his feeds. This did not include that fact that CJ was throwing up almost every day for a few months. Maurice and I would bathe the babies when he came home from work. The job was never ending. (many thought that we were making all of our hardships up) I feel that this is truly funny because the average person could not go through what this family has gone through and still be together. I know that God is walking with us in all aspects of this. I always say that there is a reason why we go through some things.

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