She said, ‘That’s them. That’s my son’s parents.'

There is no way we are able to scan your sacrum while fully protecting your ovaries. The x-ray is a major risk to your future reproductive system.’ I was 12 years old when the radiologist technician told my mom and I this. I didn’t care, I wasn’t thinking about the need for non-fried ovaries and plus: I was going to adopt.

I was 18 — a month into college — when I landed in the hospital with bilateral pulmonary embolisms: blood clots in both lungs. They nearly suffocated me to death, blocking all of the oxygen from my right lung, with a multitude of clots ready to lodge at any point to plug up my left lung. I was poked and prodded, my blood tested and body scanned. By the end of the week we discovered I have two blood clotting disorders. I wasn’t planning on becoming a mom anytime soon, but the doctor sat me down and explained the high risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. If I get pregnant, I would need to be on blood thinners, and ASAP. Again, I shrugged it off, sure that whenever that time came, either a miracle would happen with my body or I simply wouldn’t have a desire to birth my children.

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