When I got pregnant, I had already been seen for evaluations for double lung and liver transplants twice (2 appointments). We were not ttc at the time, it just happened and we were completely shocked. I had not been on birth control and we had been married for almost three years when I got pregnant. That kind of led us to believe that we would not have children (although I knew that it was possible).
Anyway, with already being evaluated for transplants, my lung function was 40 percent....not the greatest but not the worst. My CF doc (Dr. Sexton) told me to get up there right away the day after I took the pregnancy test and it showed positive. I went out to see him and before we did an ultrasound or anything he sat me down and told me that, given my current health condition, I should terminate the pregnancy. I cried because that is not the way I wanted the conversation to go, but kind of knew that it would. He told me there were so many reasons for me to terminate....the upcoming being listed for three organ transplant, my overall health, the meds that I was on, and the possibility that the baby would be born with CF.
I had the ultrasound done (internal one since we didn't know how far I was) and there was my little peanut! He was tiny but I could see him. It was determined that I was 9 weeks and one day pregnant at that time and I had to make my decision soon on if I wanted to terminate or not. We talked with a high risk OBGYN and they said the same things that Dr. Sexton said, along with they didn't think that the baby would make it and there was a chance that I wouldn't either. We decided to take our chances and if there were any troubles we knew that we had to save me over the baby and that's what the docs said that they would do anyway.
Well, the pregnancy went fine and I felt the greatest that I had felt in a really long time!!! I never got to experience labor because they didn't want me to go that far. They did a c-section at 33 weeks and took the baby. My little baby boy (Brady) came out screaming and weighed 3lbs 5oz! He was perfect!! He did not need oxygen or anything...just was put under the lights for jaundice and came home in a month and 4 days when he reached the 5 pound mark!
My PFT's after the pregnancy went down to 37% and of course continued to decline given the fact that I was already at the transplant stage. I was listed for transplants 7 months after the baby was born and received the double lung and liver transplant 5 months after I was listed.
Today....Brady is 2 1/2 and doing great and I am 1 1/2 year (almost) post transplant and doing great!! I hope that you follow your heart with what you want to do. Most of the time that's what we have to do when we have CF because the doctors are not always right!!
PS-The pic in my sig line is me and Brady a couple of weeks ago on vacation in Seattle, WA.
