My Daughter's Story

When I was pregnant with my youngest, I was very sick. Even some of my pro-life friends told me that if I had an abortion, it would be OK, as my life was in danger. What kind of mother would I be, to sacrifice my child for myself?
This is a long read, and I apologize in advance, but this must be told again. My daughter's story was in a 2 local newspapers years ago.


Today is my youngest daughter's birthday. She is 23 today, and I was in my early 40's when she was born.I had a horrible pregnancy, sick all the time, a lot of complications. I had major abdominal surgery when I was pregnant with her. The doctor thought she was in the tube instead of the womb, when I was about 3 months pregnant. When they tried to do a laprascope, they discovered my abdomen was so full of scar tissue from previous surgeries that there was no way my womb could expand any more and the scope could not take care of it.So, I was sliced open from my belly button down to the bottom for them to remove the scar tissue. As for my daughter, they could not find her. She wasn't in the womb, and she wasn't in the tube, but the tests showed I was pregnant. This was on a Friday. They did repeat ultrasounds all weekend, and still couldn't find her. Monday morning, when they did another ultrasound, they found her, just where she was supposed to be, happily scooting around my womb.
Where was she those 3 days? I will go into that at the end of my post.
Fast forward to February 16, 1995. The incision from the massive surgery I had to remove the scar tissue, never healed up right. There was not one good day all through the entire pregnancy. The OB told me that if I could make it to at least December 12th, which is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that she would live.I carried her full term, to everyone's surprise, including the OB.
I woke up the morning of that February 16th, swollen from head to toe like a puffer fish. I was not in labor, but I knew something was wrong. Even though I was sick all through the pregnancy, I had no swelling issues until that morning. I went right to the ER. They took me up to Labor and Delivery, and monitored me. I had no labor pains, and everything checked out OK. They could not find a reason why I suddenly swelled up. After a couple of hours,they told me to get dressed and go home. As soon as the doctor and nurse left the room so I could get dressed, I was hit with pain like I never had before. I screamed. The doctor and nurse came running back in. I was in labor, 3 minutes apart and 1 1/2 minute long contractions.The doctor grabbed a portable X-ray machine and did a quick pic which showed my daughter was coming out breech, feet first.They took my vitals, and they were almost non-existent. I was dying.The doctor and nurse grabbed my hospital bed and wheeled me down to the Operating Room.The doctor told me he could save my baby, but might not be able to save me. The last thing I said before losing consciousness, was for him to save my daughter and not worry about me.
I was given a 1 out of 10 chance of making it, after my daughter was delivered by emergency c-section. By the Grace of God, I am here talking to you all today.
Here is some more detail of the scar tissue surgery and all the events around this, and the after story.
Just as the nurses were starting to wheel me out of the room for the scar tissue removal surgery/laprascope, a Priest who I knew, and had left a message for earlier, came in the door. I was anointed and my daughter was baptized by pouring Holy water on my belly.I left everything in God's hands, as to what would happen.
As for my daughter, she was a very precocious child, starting to talk at 2 months old, the first word being "Momma". She could hold a conversation with an adult at 1 years old.When she was not quite 2 years old, I told her the story about what happened the day they took me down for surgery for the scar tissue, and couldn't find her. I told her she was gone for 3 days, until she finally showed up.She looked at me and smiled. She said "I was up in Heaven with a lot of other children. There was lots of animals to play with. It was so pretty ! Jesus came and served us all food at a real long table." I asked her why she came back. She said "because you needed me, Mommy".