It's a New Year Miracle!

When my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and told that the best chance for survival was a bone marrow transplant, that's what she decided to do. We were told that she would not be able to have children after the transplant. She had total body irradiation (like being a ground zero at Hiroshima) and the most lethal chemotherapy. The treatment is to literally "kill" you to "cure" you.

While we were told that Cristina couldn't have children, neither of us recall being told that she would be in menopause. About a month after we got home from the transplant, she started getting really crazy. I called her nurse practitioner several times, but they had no answers. Finally, as I was getting more and more concerned, the nurse practitioner asked if Cristina was suicidal. I said no. She asked about Cristina's hormones. I said, "What hormones?" This led us to going to the hospital where Cristina was found to be in complete ovarian failure - menopause. This meant she had to go on hormone replacement therapy.

That was 13 years ago. Long story/short... Cristina went on a new hormone regime and she began menstruating (for the first time since she was 19). The doctor was very surprised and they took a sonogram to make sure everything was alright in her uterus. The doctor said everything was fine and that, as unlikely as it was, Cristina did have about a 5% chance of conceiving if she wanted to.

We could not believe it! We were both laughing and crying at the same time... and so were some of our friends! The first thing Cristina said to me after she told me the news was, "Well, they said I'd only have a 15% chance of surviving and here I am!"

I don't know whether or not Cristina will decide to try to get pregnant at some time in the future, but what a way to start the New Year! Truly a Miracle!

The Unicorn is one of the "magical" symbols and one of Cristina's favorites