Double trouble: the joy of twins

I had always wanted to have twins. All my life I wanted twins. I had 2 sets of twin cousins, an Uncle and Aunt who were twins and a good friend who had a twin sister and brother. I don’t know why, but I had this longing for a set of my own cute twin bubbas.

Life went on and I eventually grew up and married. The thought of twins was always with me.

My first child was a single birth, a dear little boy. I was happy. A couple of years later his sister arrived. I was even more happy, one of each. Life was good, my children were healthy and thriving. My marriage however, wasn’t. After 10 years we parted company.

Well, I thought, there goes my chance of having twins.

A few years later I met and a nice man and remarried. We decided to have a child – I was excited, maybe it would be those elusive twins? But no, it was another dear little boy. He was so cute, I was very happy to have him.

15 months on, we decided it would be nice to have another child. I was once again delighted when I became pregnant. This time it was different though. I was horribly ill. Not one of my previous pregnancies had made me ill. Never had I been so sick. It was terrible, I could not eat or drink without being sick.

I had my first visit to the GP and he assured me the sickness would pass and that I was healthy. The time came for my first scan. I was still feeling sick. The scan was done, and then the woman doing the scan said she would have to get the Dr to come in. I wondered what was the matter. Was something wrong?

“Sit down”, the doctor said. “I have some news for you”. My heart was racing as I anticipated bad news. “Do twins run in your family?”, he asked. “Well yes they do!”, I replied.

“Congratulations, you are expecting twins”.

I was over the moon. The sickness was worth it: I was going to get my longed for twins after all.

I had regular scans over the next few months and the twins were doing well. I was still sick but was told that was normal with twins because of the extra load on my body. The babies started to move around and it felt like a football match happening inside of me. Suddenly one side wasn’t moving much. I had a sense that all was not well. Making an appointment I went and saw my GP. “Something is wrong”, I told him. I need to get another scan done. He told me all was okay but I insisted, I knew something was not right. Reluctantly he arranged for another scan.

A specialist came in to see me after I had the scan. “There is trouble”, he said. “You have what is known as TTTS”. Twin to Twin Transfer Syndrome. What was this thing?

Well, it occurs in identical twins when one twin starts transferring blood from the other twin. “We need to get these babies out if there is to be any hope of survival”, the doctor warned.

I was devastated. The twins were not due for another 8 weeks. Would they be okay, would they survive?

I was admitted to hospital and scheduled for surgery the next morning. I was scared for my babies. In the bed next to me was a young girl who had already lost 3 babies and was also waiting to be delivered the next morning.

We talked and talked, both of us worried but also comforted by each other.

The hospital overlooked a race track; there was a nice view of green track and trees and flowers. There were no buildings anywhere. Late afternoon we stood looking out at the peaceful scene and reflecting. Both of us lost in our own thoughts of despair.

As darkness fell, I saw it. A huge cross in the sky. It was huge, brightly lit up with stars and glowing lights.

I looked across at my room mate. “Can you see that?”, I asked her. She nodded. “Our babies are going to be fine”, I told her. We both went to bed and slept.

In the morning as I was being wheeled off to surgery, I asked the nurse what the cross was. She looked at me in a strange way and said, “what cross?”. I asked to be wheeled to the window, and looked out. There was nothing there, just green grass, trees and flowers.

A few hours later my adorable twin sons were delivered. Not in the best of health, but they were alive. The recipient twin had to have blood removed as he had too much and the donor had to have a transfusion and be topped up with blood, but all in all they were going to be okay!

The boys were 4 and 5 lbs, so quite large despite being two months prem. Doctors told me they would always be on the small side and would probably struggle with learning.

How wrong they were! These boys are now 29 years old. They are both 6 foot tall and were A grade students. One is a high school maths teacher and the other an IT guru. If only those doctors were still around, I would take the little twins back to visit!