From Grief to Hope. Our Surrogacy Journey

Hi my name is Melody and I am a Uterine Cancer Survivor. I say survivor, feeling blessed but also with a heavy heart because cancer took my ability to have kids away from me. Here’s my story…

I grew up as an only child, and as a young girl always wanted a big family and used to say things like I wanted noise in my house. I remember as a little girl asking my mom what if felt like to be called mommy not knowing that, that question would be a question that I would one day have to wonder as an adult.

When I was 27 I went in for my routine papsmear. I had never had any abnormalities before or any family history of any abnormalities so this was just routine. I was working in the medical center down the street from my gynecologist when I got a call from my gynecologist nurse, saying that she wanted to go over my results. I told her I was at work and could schedule a time for later in the week. When she said “the doctor would like you to come in as soon as you can”, I thought it was a bit odd but just told my manager I needed to leave. When I got to the office, I was taken into my doctors offices, which I had never seen, the only thing that was on the table was a tissue box. I knew something wasn’t right. When she walked in she told me they found adnocarcinoma in my uterus and said she was sorry and that I would need to see an oncologist. The following 3 weeks, I had a lot of appointments, additional testing etc. I didn’t tell my mom anything at that point because I didn’t really understand what this all meant and I was just going through the motions and going to the appointments. After about 3 weeks I had my 1st appointment with gynecology oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. That was the day I was told that I had Stage 1, grade 2 Uterine Cancer and I would need to have a full hysterectomy and immediately start chemotherapy. I was devastated. I literally felt pain in my chest. I was scared, sad, and confused. After that I told my mom and of course she was devastated too.

•Less than 5% of women under the age of 40 have uterine cancer

•Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect and was not found until after my surgery.

•I had double primary tumors uterine and ovarian

•I had no family history of cancer that I’m aware of.

•I was not a carrier of HPV(human papilloma Virus) usually associated with Cervical Cancer

The doctor said I could schedule with the fertility specialist and I did to discuss options for freezing my eggs. That was on 9/27/2013. On 11/22/2013 I underwent a full hysterectomy. I had a little hope because the plan was to keep my ovaries but when I woke up from the procedure they had tested my ovaries and there was a malignant spot on both and the Doctor had to remove both of my ovaries also. I felt like my world was turned upside down. My heart was in so much pain and the leading few years were painful. It took me several years to heal. Through my healing, I had really pushed the idea of having kids out of my head as a way of healing and I am just realizing that. In 2019 I met the love of my life and now husband. We got married in 2021. I was open with him about my diagnosis and what it meant for our future and he accepted that but our family just doesn’t feel complete. We are now optimistic about our future and becoming parents and hoping to start our family through Gestational Surrogacy. We have been truly blessed to have a friend that is willing to carry our bundle for us but we have a long road ahead of us because of financial component of it all. We are hoping to raise the funds to pay for our IVF, egg retrieval, medication for our surrogate, agency fees, insurance fees, attorney fees etc and assistance with the financial burden of surrogacy.

Anything helps even a five dollar donation would help our dreams of becoming parents become a reality. Thank you for allowing us to share our story and spread some cancer awareness. Thank you for your generosity.

Your donation will go towards our dream of becoming parents. We will provide updates throughout our journey so you know just how much of an impact your donation made.

Sincerely,

Frazier family