Against All Odds: My Story (31 page)

After I finished my bath, I dressed, walked into the kitchen, put my arms around Gena, and said, “If it were humanly possible, I would love for us to have a baby together.”

Gena looked up at me and said nonchalantly, “I have already done a lot of praying and research about this. Would you be willing to fly to Houston to talk to a specialist about your vasectomy?”

“I'm willing to talk to him, but I don't think it will do any good.”

Gena smiled. “Let's put the matter in God's hands,” she said. “If it is meant to be, it will happen.”

Gena and I flew to Houston to meet with Dr. Larry Lipshultz in his office. While we were discussing our situation, I pessimistically told Dr. Lipshultz that I didn't believe a reversal would work because I'd had a vasectomy twenty-five years ago.

“Oh, no,” he said. “I don't plan on performing a reversal. I'm going right into your epidymius and extracting the sperm.”

“Would you mind repeating that?” I asked.

“If I can't get enough sperm out of your right testicle, then I will go into your left testicle.”

Once I got over the shock of what he meant, I managed to mumble, “Are you sure this will work?”

“Oh, yes,” he said. “It's a new procedure, but I feel very confident. The procedure is called MESA, Micro-Surgical Epididymal Sperm Aspiration.”

I asked the doctor to explain in plain English what he was talking about.

“I will make an incision into your scrotum exposing the epididymis, the tubules immediately adjacent to the testicles that collect the sperm. Using an operating microscope, an incision is made into these tubules and sperm is aspirated.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding as though I understood. I had no clue what the doctor was planning, but it didn't sound like much fun. Nevertheless, I had said that I'd be willing to do almost anything.…

In December 2000, I went to have the procedure done. I was nervous as could be but didn't feel a thing. Afterward Dr. Lipshultz said, “You did great! And you had all that we needed.”

On January 1, 2001, Gena started taking fertility shots every day to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs. During the month she made several trips to her doctors in Houston so they could monitor her progress. They told her she was doing remarkably well.

A month later the eggs in Gena's ovaries were mature and ready for harvest. The egg aspiration procedure was performed, and fifteen eggs were retrieved from Gena. Of the fifteen, eleven were considered viable enough to attempt ICSY, Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection. Of those eleven eggs six were healthy embryos. The doctor told us that Gena needed to do the embryo transfer the next day.

When Gena and I arrived at the hospital, her doctor suggested that all six embryos be implanted in her uterus to increase her chances of pregnancy. Gena and I went into another room to discuss our options. If six embryos were implanted, our chances of having one baby would increase, but so would our chances of having multiple births. We were hoping for one baby; two would be great, but six? We decided four embryos would be all we could handle. The nurses prepared Gena for the implantation and wheeled her into surgery. I wasn't allowed to go with her, so I sat nervously watching the clock in the waiting room.

While Gena was in the operating room, the nurse told her, “I want to show you something.” She wheeled Gena to an incubator where the four embryos were kept and gently opened the door. The incubator was bathed in warm light and soft classical music. Gena later told me it was the most incredible sight she had ever seen. “It was like looking at something from heaven.”

The four embryos were implanted directly into Gena's uterus, and she was brought back to the recovery room. At the end of the day, I was allowed to take her home, where she had to lie flat in bed for three days to give the embryos every opportunity to take.

At first everything seemed to be going well, and we were basking in the wonders of God's wisdom in the way he created our reproduction systems and the advances of modern science, making possible such unusual procedures. But then, eleven days after the implantation, Gena noticed her abdomen starting to swell. She called her doctor, who told her to come to his office right away. He examined Gena and said he believed she was experiencing what is called OHSS, Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome.

Gena was admitted to the hospital, and emergency tests revealed that she was, indeed, experiencing a severe case of OHSS. The good news was that a blood test confirmed that she was pregnant, as well. “But OHSS could be very dangerous for you and your child,” the doctor said, “so you must follow my directions and remain on complete bed rest. It could take weeks for the complications to pass.”

During the next few days, Gena's stomach swelled up with so much fluid that she looked eight months pregnant. The doctor said her ovaries were the size of footballs, full of blood and cysts. He told Gena that she had two options: she could wait it out and see if the OHSS corrected itself, or she could abort the pregnancy.

Abortion was not an option to Gena and me. We believed that if God blessed us with this pregnancy, he would see us through this difficult time.

Three weeks later we went to see Doctor Karen Bradshaw, Gena's obstetrician, for a sonogram. Dr. Bradshaw started moving the sonogram over Gena's stomach to check for signs of the baby. We were looking at the screen with her, when she said, “There's that little tyke.” Then she moved the sonogram upward, and said, “Wait! There's another one!”

“Wow,” I said, gulping hard, and taking a deep breath. “Twins!”

Then she moved the sonogram to the left and said, “There might be another one.”

“Triplets? Are you sure?” I had to sit down on that one.

“No,” she said. “We'll have to wait a week to see if you are going to have two or three babies.”

During the week all I could think about was: Are we going to have twins or triplets? If Gena gives birth to triplets, how are we going to rock and feed them at the same time? How does a family with four or five babies care for them all at the same time?

The week passed, and the question was answered. We were having twins. I breathed a sigh of relief. Two babies we could handle!

During the weeks that followed, Gena remained confined to her bed. She needed oxygen to help her breathe, and a nurse came by each day to take her vitals and draw blood. Another nurse came at night to make sure that she remained stable. The nights seemed to be the hardest on Gena.

Since her movement was extremely restricted and throwing a big party was out of the question, for my birthday Gena arranged a spa treatment package for me. It was a wonderful gift in more ways than I could ever have imagined. I climbed on the table, stretched out, closed my eyes, and the masseuse went to work on me. I was so relaxed I almost drifted off to sleep, right there on the table.

But then it happened. I had a strong premonition that Gena and I were going to be having a boy and a girl and that the boy would be named Dakota Alan and the girl Dani Lee. Alan was after my father-in-law, and Lee was after my mother. At about the fourteenth week, we found out through one of the ultrasounds that our twins were indeed a boy and girl.

During the following weeks Gena's condition seemed to improve; her left ovary was returning to normal, but her right ovary remained enlarged. A specialist explained that such a problem could be life-threatening to Gena or the babies and talked of removing her right ovary while she was pregnant. He said if her condition did not improve by the twentieth week of the pregnancy, the ovary must be removed. We prayed constantly that God would intercede, even if it meant performing a modern-day medical miracle.

Our prayers were answered! By the twentieth week, both ovaries had shrunk, and the surgery was no longer necessary.

When Gena told my stepdaughter Kelley what we were going to name the babies, her reply was, “I think Kelley should be somewhere in my baby sister's name.” We talked about it, and agreed with Kelley. We changed the name Dani Lee to Danilee Kelley Norris.

Steve Scott, a close friend and board member of my KICKSTART Foundation, told me that when his wife Shannon had experienced difficulty with her pregnancy, he took her to see Dr. Greg Devore, a leading perinatologist in Pasadena, California. He believed Dr. Devore was responsible for saving their baby.

Gena was happy with the hospital and the doctors in Texas, but I couldn't get Steve's comment out of my mind. You could call it an instinct, but I believe it was God's Spirit telling me that Gena needed to be near this particular doctor, just in case another emergency should arise. When I told Gena that I felt strongly that we needed to be near Dr. Devore, so we were moving to our house in Los Angeles and having the babies there, she was not happy with the news.

Quite the contrary! Gena cried and cried. She loved her doctors and wanted very much for our babies to be born in Texas. Besides, she'd have to find a good obstetrician who could take care of her and deliver the babies in California. I explained as best I could about the premonitions I was sensing, and reluctantly, she agreed to go. So, with Gena in her twentieth week of pregnancy, we moved to Los Angeles.

Once in LA, Gena was able to find an obstetrician who was just minutes from our house, as well as a nearby hospital. She also started to see Dr. Devore regularly.

At twenty-three weeks into her pregnancy, Gena started feeling some pressure in her cervical area and began experiencing contractions, but she dismissed the discomfort as an aspect of carrying twins.

That same week I was scheduled to go to Washington D.C. for President Bush's first White House dinner. “Oh, go ahead. Don't worry about me,” Gena said sincerely. “I'll be fine. You and the guys go and enjoy the celebration.”

I invited my brother, Aaron, and our friends, Dennis Berman and John Hensley, the former head of US Customs, to join me for the presidential gala. Phil Cameron, my personal protection officer, joined us as well.

While I was in Washington, Gena was scheduled for her regular appointment to see Dr. Devore. She considered canceling her appointment, but she felt something was just not right. She drove herself to the appointment with Dr. Devore.

When Gena explained to Dr. Devore about the unusual level of discomfort she was feeling, the doctor was concerned. He immediately examined her cervix with an ultrasound and checked the babies. When he finished the exam, the doctor appeared perplexed. He explained to Gena that Dakota's heart was working too hard and was developing fluid around it. He also expressed concern that Gena's cervix was beginning to soften. She was going into preterm labor. “Gena, we need to admit you to the hospital right away,” Dr. Devore said. “We must surgically insert a cerclage, basically to sew your cervix closed.” Dr. Devore explained, “The babies are not yet viable, weighing approximately one pound each. If you go into labor, the babies probably will not survive.”

CHAPTER 26

MIRACLE BABIES