Everyone tells me I am a huge success story for Dr. Jack, and I know that I am, we have made a great team. Sending my Hashimoto’s disease packing was no easy task. Curing all my symptoms, and helping me cure a multitude of problems has been a challenge, and Dr. Jack has been up for the task. But, that is not the big “Dr. Jack Miracle” for my family, not by a long shot. You see, I have been hanging onto a secret for a while now, and my fingers have been itching to tell you, and finally….. we are alllll ready! The wish and dream come true for our family is this person …..
Although, we have not officially met yet, and won’t be until sometime in November, this person is already holding an enormous place in my heart. He or she has no idea how much heartache and pain has been endured waiting. THIS is the big miracle that Dr. Jack has helped come true, my grandchild, the child of my daughter, Sara, and her husband, Russ. I am going to be a grandma!!!! And besides owing Russ and Sara for this great miracle, the truth is, I truly and wholeheartedly owe Dr. Jack!!
So, to understand this story and how Dr. Jack is involved, you have to know a little background. My sweet daughter has had PCOS for many years, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. It was always an issue, causing her a multitude of problems and symptoms. But then, it’s true colors showed up when she married five years ago.
Like so many married couples, this happy couple wanted a baby, but it just wasn’t happening….. not ever….. Sara’s problem is no surprise to me. I have had female issues forever, and getting pregnant was a huge problem for me, too. There is also a big reason for six years between my two children. It wasn’t a lack of trying, it was simply many times of false positives, or positives that ended in early miscarriages. The truth is that I am sure I had the same problem for years, undiagnosed.
So, one day, last winter, Dr. Jack had invited me to talk at his one of his seminars. And I just didn’t want to go alone. After all, it is my first time actually meeting him face to face and hard enough to stand in front of a group of people and explain how much failure you endured before you got to him, and I needed a little moral support. I wanted to help people understand how life changing this doctor has been to me, but it was a little out of my comfort zone.
Sara wanted to meet Dr. Jack because she was curious about the man that was helping me get my life back, and curious about this program that had me dancing circles around my children. We went and I got to see my hero face to face. I stood up to speak, did okay and sat down. We listened to his presentation, something I could do every single time!
He talked about thyroid diseases and subclinical symptomology. He explained about differing diseases and illnesses, all kinds of symptoms and issues, and suddenly she turned to me. I will never forget the look in her eyes, “Mom, everything he is talking about? That’s me.”
I patted her hand, “Yeah, I know.” I have always thought my Sara was a thyroid patient. She exhibits every symptom with no actual diagnosis and no blood test results to back it up. But, neither did I for so many years. She asked what I thought about signing up for a twelve week program with him, and I gave my encouragement. No one will ever, ever convince me that any other program cures what his does. I know what he is capable of helping, and I was excited for her.
After all, I am a first hand expert in the things Dr. Jack can fix. My symptoms are gone, but what I didn’t realize was that his methods could help Sara with more than her symptoms and weight. A few weeks in, and her PCOS symptoms started to disappear, as well as some weight. She felt different, no surprise to me. Her periods became more regular, and her cycle not as awful. Things were normalizing in so many ways. Each week they improved. And then it happened, for the first time in the four years she had been married? A positive pregnancy test. We were ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic.
When she went to the doctor, she was hoping for all the things new mothers dream of. But things didn’t look quite right in the photo, and the heartbeat wasn’t there, and I knew….I just knew, I knew what was coming. I had been down this road so many times, I knew, and she soon miscarried.
To understand that trauma, you have to know that my kids are just like me. We love BIG and we hurt BIGGER. We were all devastated.
I know you don’t know who I am as a mother. In front of my kids I have an IRON will. I will not cry, I will not shake, I will not flinch, no matter what you tell me. I will stand strong and be there for you to lean on. But then I go home, and crawl into a corner in my room where I LOSE it. I was so hurt for her, I kept asking for anything to be done to me, but not to watch my child so hurt.
I called Dr. Jack, and I explained. Like so many situations in my life and hers, he was the voice of knowledge, wisdom and hope. He called her, “When you came to me, you couldn’t get pregnant at all. We are on our way. Just try again.”
It took her a little to get to the place where she could emotionally heal and then she did try again, which also resulted in a second miscarriage at six weeks. Two miscarriages in six months. She was devastated the second time worse than the first and I thought she might give up. It was hard for her husband to watch. He is a strong man but he, too, was crushed. Again, Dr. Jack was the voice in her head as he is mine, every single day. “Sara, third time is the charm. Just keep trying. I know this is going to happen, you have to trust me.” Ahhhhhh…. there it is, the phrase that has been my life saver…. you have to trust me….. Like her mom, Sara did trust him and decided to just keep going.
The ob/gyn recommended a fertility specialist. Dr. Jack said he was interested in what the specialist had to say and added his own advice, “You got pregnant twice in six months? That’s awesome. Your body is healing. You are on your way. It is going to happen, I know it is. You just have to keep trying. You CAN do this.” I watched Sara’s face as she listened to him on the phone, watched her body relax as he talked. We have come to put so much faith and trust in him, he can’t even begin to understand the enormity of that trust, and I was grateful to him at that moment for giving her what I could not.
The Ob/Gyn suggested a particular fertility doctor and Sara made an appointment, but the doctor had to reschedule. All good, as she needed time to heal.
In February, Sara and Russ went on a little vacation to visit family in Florida, while I dog sat, at their house. Russ had told me that he knew this time away would give her a chance to heal, physically and emotionally. Sara had a great time, and I mean a great time! She talked to her sister in law about her miscarriages, her sister in law who also had that problem. She was away, relaxed, without a care. She was on a roller coaster, sitting in a hot tub, and not worrying about much of anything. She came back glowing and I thought, “Hmmmm….. something is different.”
When she returned, she had her appointment with the fertility doctor. He was shocked she could get pregnant unassisted at all. Her PCOS had been so bad and he told her most people with her severity rarely get pregnant, and he was surprised. He was extremely kind and went down a list of tests he would do in the coming future along with the advice, that whatever magic formula Dr. Jack was using, well, just keep on doing it. Because it was obvious, that the plan was having an effect. He thought he could narrow down the problem and solve it.
She called me to tell the news. I listened to the battery of tests and procedures and just prayed that they would help her get what they both wanted so much. The next morning, while getting ready for work, my phone beeped with a text, “Ummm, Mom? There was one thing I forgot to ask the fertility specialist. What if this happens?” I clung to the phone waiting. The next message? A positive pregnancy test. My heart started racing, as I texted back. “You need to call them ……NOW.”
Sara is all the silly joke at the clinic, “You just need to walk in the door and you are pregnant.” He didn’t even do anything yet and there she was, already pregnant. The fertility doctor kept her a few weeks to be sure that things began in the right place and Sara, dutifully, kept eating as Dr. Jack suggested. He did a few things to help with some adjustments due to an undetected autoimmune disorder. My child with an autoimmune disorder? No shocker there.
When the fertility doctor saw things were normal, he sent her back to the Ob/Gyn.
Well, a few weeks ago on a Monday, she went for a sonogram. I sat in my classroom, on my free period, nervously holding my phone, “Come on!!!! What is taking sooooo long! Please let it look like a baby…. please…… why is this taking so long…” and then BEEP….
Well, that is the picture…… that perfect growing beautiful picture. My heart jumped to my throat. My eyes swelled with tears that I dropped all over the phone. There you are!!
My grandchild…… That little peanut is perfect!! A strong heartbeat and dancing all over inside her, playing so much so that they had trouble getting a picture. So typical of all of us. Hyper and happy…. obviously not a care in the world, and not knowing any of the heartache it took to get here. What a miracle….. my heart is filled with love for someone I don’t even know yet. I didn’t care who or what they are…. they are ours…. loved by our whole family already.
Sara has held her little secret for a bit, but now has started to share outside the immediate circle of our family. Each person, who knows her story, erupts in screams of joy, tears and hugging. She was scared to be happy, I think. With each week we held our breath and prayed.
For myself? I can’t wait. I have visions of hand painting the bedroom with murals of fun. There are so many things to make, memories to be made to ready our family for this beautiful addition. I have fallen in love with this baby already. We all have.
I was thinking that all my adult life I have been a teacher and a mom, you know, the one that had to enforce the rules? The homework police, the one who made them tow the line.
And it just occurred to me, that I am finally here! I get to be the FUN one!!! How amazing is that? That this is going to happen when I am actually physically BETTER now than I was in my thirties?? I am going to be a more active grandmother than I was as a mom. I am finally going to be the fun one! Bring on the play dough and the dirt and the bicycles and messes. Gooey, sticky art projects! Afternoons of story books and coloring. Rolling around in the grass, crawling on the floor, blanket forts, trips to the park, jump rope, chalk drawings….. my mind just races. I am going to be a grandmother and everything that goes with it!
I am so grateful. So totally grateful….. There are no words that I can every use that will ever adequately explain to Dr. Jack, the thanks I have for him, my total gratitude for watching over not just me, but my daughter, my whole family.….. for saying YES, on that day I sent my first note, of “Please Help Me,” to all the things, and I mean ALL the things he has done to make me well. You really don’t know the half of it, everyone thinks it’s physical, but you don’t really know the other things he has healed. That is material for the next twenty years of this blog, maybe one day I will have the courage to share some of that.
But this? This is over the top. This is truly a miracle……the best miracle ever…
He reminded Sara, that “Jack” is great name for a baby. Smiling…….. I have to agree.
Sara has been nervous to enjoy her pregnancy, something I completely understand. The more she vests herself in, the more hurt she would be if something happened. But I reminded her last week, it’s time. For her birthday last week I ordered her one of those boards where you record things about your pregnancy, to take photos and document what is going on. It’s time…… to enjoy…. to smile…. to share…..to be happy about what is going on….
If you know someone with PCOS, all hope is not lost. There are OTHER options, and if I could give people one piece of advice, regardless of what your medical problem is, I would tell them to talk to Dr. Jack. He has answers for sooooooooooo much. He is a wealth of information.
But beyond all his knowledge, is the greatest gift of who he is. He is kindest and most compassionate person I have ever met. He has a heart that is huge for people and his entire life’s work has been to make life better for people. He wants to heal everyone. His talent is his ability to cure so many things, but his giftedness is his methods and who he is, the beautiful qualities he possesses as a human being. I am his biggest fan, is that obvious? How could I not be? For the gift of him, and the gift of what will be in November?
Tell me, how do I ever find the right words to say thank you for that?
Hugs,
Chris