Saturday, July 7, 2012

Lightning Strikes

There’s an old saying that lightning never strikes the same place twice.  After all, what are the chances that lightning will strike a specific place even once?  Hard to imagine . . . but twice, I don’t think so.
 
I grew up in on Little Tree Lane.  I kid you not.  What a quaint little name for a quiet little street.  Big lots, well maintained houses, nice neighbors, lots of kids walking to school together. You’d never guess that my house on Little Tree Lane actually WAS hit by lightning…twice.  I think I was pretty young the first time.  I know that the lightning hit a light switch downstairs but that’s all I know.  I had to have been pretty young not to remember because believe me, when you’ve been where lightning strikes it makes its impression.
 
We’re all different.  There are things we worry about and things we do not.  When you live in a house that’s been hit by lightning, you worry less in a storm.  You’re completely confident that even in a bad storm, the one place that lightning is  NOT going to hit is your house.  The second time it happened I remember vividly. The crash is deafening.  The earth shakes. Hard.  The wall is black.  Before you even know what just happened, you know you are terrified.
 
My whole life I looked back at those lightning strikes and thought what incredible bad luck that was.  And then, a few years after I got married, it all came full circle.
 
I was already living 1500 miles away at this point.  I was far from home and family and my Doctors, and I could not get pregnant.  We saw different Doctors, attempted surgery that could not successfully open my tubes to the point of viability, and were faced with the fact that the only option that could result in my giving birth was IVF, In-Vitro Fertilization.  It was a physically and emotionally arduous process, with the depressing statistical chance of a cycle ending in pregnancy at around 15% at that time. Our story is a very long story, each element an entire story in itself.  I won’t go into the whole thing here and now.
 
It’s not the kind of story you glaze over either, but here’s the basics:  The first attempted cycle was abruptly ended by growths on my ovaries. The first full cycle ended in pregnancy . . .  and miscarriage.  The second was a chemical pregnancy but the third time I got pregnancy with twins.  The twin that was ectopic (inside that little bit of tube we had opened) could have killed me but emergency surgery (in the middle of the night, when my husband was out of town and while the tornado sirens were sounding as I drove myself to the hospital) successfully removed that tube.  Miraculously my doctor (love you, Maud) was able to do it without jeopardizing the other, viable pregnancy.  Seven months later lightning struck.  Against great odds we had a son.
 
Here’s the thing about having lived in a house struck by lightning twice.  You end up with a skewed perspective.  You know it can happen.
 
Not long after Older Son’s birth we decided to try again.  It’s a harder decision than you’d think.  We had an amazing gift, did we really want to jump onto that emotional roller coaster again?  If not for those lightning strikes on Little Tree Lane all those years ago, I could very well have been a person who believed you beat the odds but once in a lifetime.  But as it happens I was not.
 
My first P-OS (post-Older Son) attempt ended abruptly when the embryos I had frozen were not viable at transfer time.  OK, off all the meds and try a full IVF cycle.  This one ended in pregnancy.  At about 10 weeks pregnant, while back home visiting family, I woke up cramping and in a pool of blood.  My doctor consulted with my former hometown gynecologist, who jumped in despite not having set eyes on me in years.  My sister’s friend gave me shots twice a day.  I was on bed rest.  It was a wait and see situation.
 
The following March lightning struck again.  We had 2 sons.
 
I wanted my kids to know the circumstances that brought them to us.  They were always told the basics of how we came to have them and how many people we needed to help us. When the boys were little we used to go into Maud’s office once a year.  They went to tell her “thank you for putting me in Mommy’s belly”.
 
I know you think that I’m telling YOU this story but I’m not.  I’m reminding me.  In my life, lightning HAS struck twice.  And it has happened…twice.
 
Strawberry Parfait | www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe
Strawberry parfaits

Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

PS: A version of this post was published on  Huffington Post Parents as Lightning Strikes: What the Weather Taught me About Infertility on 5-14-15.

Strawberry Parfaits
                                              ©www.BakingInATornado.com



Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
1 (3 oz) pkg strawberry jello
1 cup boiling water
1 cup chopped strawberries
½ cup cold water
Whipped cream (I used Redi-Whip)
 
 
Directions:
*Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
*In food processor, liquefy the strawberries.
*Mix the strawberries and the cold water into the jello.
*Refrigerate until it starts to thicken (about an hour) then skim off foam.
*Refrigerate another 2 hours till almost totally firm.  Place into see-through container alternating with whipped cream.

18 comments:

  1. Sometimes, getting struck by lightning is a good thing :) Thanks for joining our blog hop recipe swap today!

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    1. It was the luckiest thing to ever happen to me, well, the second time anyway.

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  2. Your strawberry parfait looks so good! Thanks for stopping by our Blog Hop Recipe Swap!

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    1. Thanks, Chelsea. Recipe hop is a fun way to spend a Friday.

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  3. Thanks for sharing your story! Oh yea and those strawberry parfaits are beautiful!

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  4. I loved your story Karen. Thank you so much for sharing. And yummy looking parfaits.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, after all these years it's still not an easy story to tell.

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  5. OH dear, crying so hard...because of my experience IVF stories really get me. Even if we could try again, I could go through the process again. The first time only my two positive friends knew, this time everyone would figure it out and I don't need that stress. Thank you for sharing, what beautiful miracles you have.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think I could have done it again if I had waited, I knew it was too difficult to stop and then later go back and start all over. We're both very lucky.

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  6. Such an amazing story, thank you for sharing. <3

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Kelly. Like you I'm letting things, long bottled up, come out a little at a time.

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  7. This is so beautifully written and so poignant. Lightning did strike twice, and you were blessed twice. Thank you so much of having the courage to share your story. <3

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    Replies
    1. Such an amazing connection between us. You lost a Jason who was a twin. I have my Jason but lost his twin. It's stunning.

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  8. Thank you for sharing your story Karen. I somehow missing it, but found it through the the bereavement linky. I guess it was meant for me to see.

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you found it. I love sharing it because it reminds me of how lucky I am.

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  9. What a burdensome way you had to go. It's wonderful that you were able to beat the odds. Miracles do happen!
    Tornado sirens…
    Thank you for sharing your story. Big hugs :-)

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    Replies
    1. It was such a difficult time, yet I look back now and it reminds me to be grateful.

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