I suffered my first miscarriage on holiday in the USA and could not believe it could happen to me. I was told by the doctors both in the US and in the UK that it was as common as 1 in 3 pregnancies and that the likelyhood was that my next pregnancy would be fine. It took only a matter of months to get pregnant again much to our delight and we thought we could finally put the miscarriage behind us.

Unfortunately this was not to be and at 7 weeks I miscarried again. By this point, I was convinced that something must be wrong and was determined to get to the bottom of it – however, I was told that two miscarriages is just bad luck and there would be no testing offered until I had had three. Unconvinced I decided to go down the private route. The first specialist I saw gave me a couple of tests, told me there was nothing wrong, it was bad luck and gave me a lot of statistics and sent me on my way. Still unconvinced I decided to seek another opinion and one day I was very lucky to find myself in Mr Shehata’s office.

The first time we met Mr Shehata we knew we were in capable hands and we left our first appointment filled with hope and positivity. Following a comprehensive range of tests, he informed me that I had a high level of Natural Killer Cells which were attacking the embryo resulting in a miscarriage. The diagnosis and treatment was explained clearly and was easy to understand, this was refreshing following all the medical jargon that had been thrown at us previously. I was given a basic treatment plan of 25 grams of prednisolone daily from ovulation, heparin injections and aspirin. I was not relishing the thought of the injections as a complete needle phobic, however, its amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it and it very quickly became part of daily life.

Unfortunately the treatment was unsuccessful and I miscarried at 7 weeks. Although we were feeling disheartened by this, Mr Shehata re-assured us that we would have success but we would need to adjust the treatment until we found the correct dosage – with his help we remained positive.
Months followed, I continued the treatment during the appropriate times of my cycle but we started to get anxious about not getting pregnant. Mr Shehata suggested I try Gonal F – a fertility drug which prooved to be successful as I found myself pregnant for the fourth time. This time I was very anxious and asked Mr Shehata to throw everything he had at me. I agreed to take a very high dose of prednisolone – 60mg, the aspirin, heparin and cyclogest. As an extra precaution, I also had an IVIG – blood infusion at 6 weeks. It all worked, and week after week passed without any scares. After 12 weeks I started to come off the drugs and feel normal again, I went back to work and the rest of my pregnancy was pretty much text book. On the 26th June 2010, Raphael Jones Miller was born and our nightmare had finally come to an end.

We cannot express our gratitude to Mr Shehata enough and every day with our little boy is a complete miracle! We also look forward to the day when we walk back into Mr Shehata’s office to discuss number 2!

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