#2: Vonda

Vonda is the next recipient of the Under the Knife Award. She was given the award by Coalminer Heather.

Vonda's story:

It had been a routine yearly appointment back in 1999 with my gyn and he found a tumor on my right ovary. After a couple of months and several opinions, the Doc felt like the tumor needed to be removed. It was supposed to be a normal laparoscopy but I ended up needing a laparotomy which took weeks to heal from. After the surgery, my Dr. told me I had had severe endometriosis although I had never had any pain. He informed me it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen and if it had not been taken care of when it did, he would have had to reconstruct my colon. But the worst news he gave me was that having children may not be possible as well as the endometriosis would likely return. I was single at the time and devastated at this news as my hopes of becoming a Mom were dashed.

But God had a different plan. In 2005 I married the love of my life and with a huge move to Germany with the Air Force we decided to wait until we got all settled to start trying for a baby. I had told my husband before we even got married that the chances of having a baby may be slim but he was absolutely precious and told me that if we NEVER had children, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. We started trying for a baby in February 2006 and got pregnant in June 2006 and our beautiful baby girl was born in March 2007. I ended up having to have a c-section which ended up being a huge blessing because the Dr. was able to go in and clean up some of the scar tissue from the endometriosis surgery as well as tell me that the endo had NOT returned. We were thrilled!!! Because we are older, we also decided to wait only 6 months before trying for another baby. So when our precious baby girl turned 6 months in September, we started trying and we got pregnant immediately! I am now 10 weeks along in my pregnancy and we are due in June. We are just thrilled that God has blessed us so very much! My anguish was between 1999-2006 in not knowing if the endo had returned as it is hard to pin-point or if the endo would do so much damage that it would cause infertility. I know our story could have turned out so very different and it could have taken us years to even get pregnant or we could still be trying but we are so grateful to God for His grace!

Vonda L.