Why She Chose to Celebrate Her Pregnancy With a 50% Chance of Survival

For each person living with myasthenia gravis, or MG, their journey with this rare condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from iHeartRadio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share these powerful perspectives from real people with MG so their experiences can help inspire the MG community and educate others about this rare condition. Listen to find strength in community on the MG journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's summer at Starbucks, where the brightest drinks and the funnest flavors are all yours for the sipping. So whether you need to beat the heat, beat the crowds, or just take a beat, refreshing favorites are a tap away with the Starbucks app. For the ones who get it done.

And we continue with our American stories. Up next, you'll hear a story from Lex Ginger, a woman who has a remarkable journey and is quite possibly the only person to be sworn in as an attorney in the maternity ward of a hospital. Here's Lex. I'd always known that I could potentially have fertility issues. So I have something called polycystic ovary syndrome, where you have like little cysts all over your ovaries, and it can make getting pregnant kind of difficult. So I'd always been told that when I was starting at 18. And since then, I've even discovered I have a blood clotting disorder called factor five, which makes miscarriages very likely it makes maintaining a pregnancy very difficult, higher chance of stillbirth, etc.

Very dangerous. I had told my husband early on while we were dating that I wasn't sure if I could get pregnant and everything. And he said that didn't bother him whatsoever. We were in love, etc. We then got married six months later. So we celebrated our one year anniversary like a month before we got married. I think people probably from undergrad thought I lost my mind for a second. But once you meet Patrick, it all makes sense.

He's literally such an amazing person. And it was just when you know, you know type of thing. And then in October 2018, we decided that we would try this one month in October.

And if it didn't happen, we are going to hold off until summer 2019 because I had to take the bar, which is a test that attorneys have to take to practice in their state and become licensed. So we tried for it. And then two weeks, three weeks later, I thought, well, this is probably not going to be super accurate because of the PCOS, but hey, might as well. I peed on the stick and I put it down in my bathroom and then I went about my day. I didn't even look at it.

I ran errands around town. I didn't even think I was pregnant. I'd even wasn't even a thought in my mind that I could even possibly or potentially be pregnant. So I literally didn't look at it.

I didn't look at the stick. And then in the afternoon, it just like occurred to me. I'm like, oh, yeah, I did that.

I probably should look at it, you know, just to see. And it said pregnant. And I was just over the moon. First thing is I did is I called my doctor and they said, OK, we want you to come in today, Friday and do a blood work test and then come back in Monday and I believe Wednesday. And then we're going to see the levels of your blood work. Private women have something called HCG. It's the pregnancy hormone. And you should see a double every 48 hours.

They told me because, you know, it was so early on, they felt like it might be a chemical pregnancy and they didn't want me to get my hopes up. So I went and did the test and it was 200. And then I went back again and it more than doubled. It was eight hundred.

And I remember like the third time it was like a one thousand four hundred. And I remember asking the woman on the phone, I'm like, is this OK? Is this is this normal?

I'm like a little nervous. And she said, oh, no, this is this is great. This is like a really healthy pregnancy.

It's not a chemical pregnancy whatsoever. So we're going to set you in for your first ultrasound appointment at six weeks. And we went to it. And on the screen, we saw one yolk sac and we saw, you know, what appeared to be just one baby on the screen, as we thought and expected. And I remember the doctor saying, wow, this is just the strongest fetal heartbeat. I almost want to ask the other doctors to come in and hear it because it's so amazing how strong it is.

So we look at the screen. Everything's looking healthy. Everything's looking great.

Strong heartbeat. We're excited. I've been feeling really great at this point. I thought, oh, I got away with not getting morning sickness.

It runs in my family. I woke up. I remember it was dead on the money. Seven weeks. I could hardly open my eyes. Like they felt like they were shut for a couple of days. I wasn't able to even keep down water. So I called my doctor's office and they told me, hey, we can give you a prescription for the medication, but we really want to see you at least to pick up the prescription, maybe just, you know, have a look over you.

But it should be no big deal. We have an appointment in an hour. I told my husband, Pat, you know, I have this nausea check in.

The doctor's office across from her house. I said, please. He's an attorney.

He had court every morning. I said, please do not come to this appointment. I don't want you missing work for it. It's just a prescription pickup. So I go to the doctor's office with big sunglasses on in a solo cup full of ginger ale and the doctor saw me.

You know what? You look you look really bad. Let me just give you a quick ultrasound and make sure that everything's OK with the baby, because I know you've been throwing up so much and you look dehydrated, you might need an IV, et cetera. And she starts getting ultrasound. And I feel like at the time it just was taking a really long time.

And she just seemed like she was concentrating so hard on the screen. And I started kind of getting a little nervous. And the doctor, after minutes, minutes and minutes, looks at me and says, do you know you're having twins?

Like in shock. And I look at her and I just say, oh, no, I'm not. And she says, yes, you are. And I said, no, I'm not. And she said, yes, you are. And I said, there is no way.

I was just here last week and there was one. And and they don't they don't multiply like that. What are you talking about? And she's still like looking and looking and looking and looking at the screen. And she looks just so concerned in the way she was talking to me was just not in like a happy positive, like, oh, my gosh, you're having twins. It was like you're having twins. And I said, are they conjoined? And she looks at me and says they might be.

Let me explain. Twins normally each have their own yolk sac and there's just one here, but there's clearly two heartbeats. So they're either conjoined or there's something called mono amniotic, monochorionic twins that are not conjoined. You know, I always start asking her questions because I'm thinking, OK, there's a chance that they're not conjoined. Mono, mono.

That doesn't seem so bad. Like, I don't even know what that really means. And she tells me, well, mono amniotic, monochorionic means that your twins have one placenta and they're in the same sac together. And I looked at her and I'm like, OK, you know, still not really understanding. I said, OK, well, how many times do you see this a year?

You know, what's what's the prognosis, so to speak? And she looks at me and says, I've never seen this in my entire career. And then she kind of walked away to this cabinet and pulls out a medical textbook, flicks it open. I joke and say I feel like she blew dust off of it.

That's what it felt like. But she flips to the back and says, you know, there's three sentences on mono amniotic, monochorionic twins. You are one in 10,000 to one in 60,000 pregnancies a year in the United States. They have a 50 percent chance of surviving the first trimester. If your pregnancy makes it past 12 weeks in the second trimester, you have about a 30 percent chance of miscarriage. Whereas the average chance of miscarriage is about one to five percent. So it's very dangerous. And really, the likelihood that you're going to make it past 12 weeks is pretty slim. Meanwhile, my husband's not there.

This is a lot of information to take in. I start crying and I'm just bawling my eyes out. I had left my phone in the car in, you know, my haze of feeling so sick.

And I was just practically going to have a panic attack, to be honest with you. And the doctor just starts explaining that they're so dangerous because twins are usually in separate sacks. And that's what really keeps them safe. It keeps them from compressing. It keeps their umbilical cords from tangling.

It keeps them from doing all kinds of things like twins aren't actually supposed to touch skin to skin in the womb. They're not supposed to be able to hold hands or hug or anything because all of those things are just so dangerous. Just telling me all this information.

I'm just like mind blown. It's a lot for me to take. And I remember my doctor, who's a very stoic woman, says, can I give you a hug? And I was like, oh, no, mentally, because I'm like, she's not a hugger type. And if she's hugging me, this isn't good. So she's she starts hugging me.

I'm crying. And she tells me that I need to see something called a maternal fetal medicine specialist, but they won't see anyone until 14 weeks and that they're not going to be able to know whether they're conjoined or mano mano. Really, until then, my doctor said that her office was going to start doing weekly demise checks every single week until 14 weeks to see if the twins were still alive or not. Up until I was at 14 weeks, I felt floored. And you've been listening to Lex Ginger's story of her pregnancy, and it's one of the greatest moments in a couple's life when they find out that there's a baby.

And it's also one of the most worrisome moments of a life. Will the baby be healthy? Will the baby survive? We've done a lot of segments on miscarriage here on this show because it's real and the grief is profound. And Ronald Reagan signed into law the infant loss bill in 1984.

And he called it one of his most important just to give recognition to what happens to women and their husbands when a baby is lost in the womb. When we come back, more of the story of Lex Ginger's story. What happens next? Here on Our American Stories. For each person living with myasthenia gravis, or MG, their journey with this rare neuromuscular condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from iHeartRadio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share powerful perspectives from people living with the debilitating muscle weakness and fatigue caused by this rare disorder. Each episode will uncover the reality of life with myasthenia gravis. From early signs and symptoms to obtaining an accurate diagnosis and finding care, every person with MG has a story to tell. And by featuring these real life experiences, this podcast hopes to inspire the MG community, educate others about this rare condition, and let those living with it know that they are not alone.

Listen to Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Katie Lowes. I'm an actor, a podcast host, a mom, and honestly, very tired most of the time.

And I'm Adam Shapiro, an actor, a pretzel maker, a dad, and Katie's husband. And we're so excited because we're the new hosts of Chasing Sleep, the production of Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia in partnership with Mattress Firm. Sleep affects your physical and mental performance, your family dynamics, and your quality of life as you grow older. Sleep can even affect intimacy. One study showed that men who sleep less than five hours per night showed a 10% reduction in testosterone levels. 10% reduction is the equivalent of aging a man by about 10 years. We see similar hormonal effects in women. One study showed a 14% increase in her enjoyment of sexual activity and frequency. We're going to talk to the experts who will help everyday people like us explore the mysteries behind our own sleep.

So listen to Chasing Sleep on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we continue with Lex Ginger's story. And we're about to hear what happens next after hearing, well, just the worst possible news a woman could hear, and worse, her husband who wanted to be there.

He wasn't there, and she didn't even have a phone nearby. Let's pick up where we last left off. I get my phone that I left in my car, and I call my husband, bawling my eyes out.

He's probably confused, and he immediately takes off from work, meets me at the house. I'm just curled up in bed crying, and he's, you know, holding me, and just telling me everything's going to be all right. And it was just a lot to take, because the thing about monomono twins, too, is that if they were to demise, which is the medical term for, you know, twin death, it's any moment, because the tangling, the compressing, it can be, it's minute by minute. It's not something that you can predict, and it's not something you're going to feel. And it was just a feeling of overwhelming sadness, and I just felt like there's no way I'm going to even make it past 12 weeks. How sad is this? And I'm just crying, and Pat was like, you know, she says it's 50 percent.

Like, you're thinking 50 percent negative, but there's 50 percent in cases that can make it, and like, why not us? I ended up making it to 14 weeks. At this point, we had already had received the results for the gender of the twins. Another interesting thing about monomono twins is that 75 percent of the pregnancies are girls, and monomono twins are always identical.

They don't know why monomono twins are overwhelmingly girls, but the theory is that the female fetuses are stronger and can withstand all the tangling and the compressing better than boy fetuses, so to speak. But I was just, I was so sad, and I was like, it'll just make it tougher if I know the gender, and I miscarry, and I'm just going to be so sad. And at this point, I remember it was, my sadness was so bad that my husband would leave for work, and I would be in bed, and he'd get back home, and I would be in the same spot.

I hadn't moved. And it also doesn't help if you're so morning sick. Meanwhile, all of this going on, I'm studying for the bar to become a licensed attorney, which is one of the most stressful times in a young attorney's life just in general. So my husband was like, you really need to start seeing a therapist that, potentially like a trauma therapist that can walk you through this and help you reframe things, and so that's what I did. It really put me in a better mind frame. I started to delve into the bar study because I felt like it was a good distraction, and it helped me get to those appointments to appointments. I almost felt like I lived for those weekly appointment checks, and it actually helped studying for the bar.

I don't know how many people say, like, studying for a bar is a treat, but for me, it was a great distraction. So we made it to 14 weeks, which was going to be the MFM appointment. So since we made it to 14 weeks, we decided, like, let's do the gender.

Like, we made it this far, and I remember knowing. I'm like, they're going to be girls because they're always girls. And we did just a little dinner with family, and we did the one, two, three, cut open that cupcake, and dang it, if that icing wasn't blue, we were over the moon. We were excited because, honestly, we didn't care if they were boys or girls.

We just wanted healthy babies. And I remember when we got home, my husband was like, okay, well, we only have two boy names ever on our list, before we ever even had kids. We just had tons of girl names, and then we just had two boy names, Maxwell and Miles.

And he goes, well, that makes it easy. We got Maxwell and Miles. And I looked at him, and I'm like, oh, we can't name them. Like, that's bad luck. Like, what if they don't make it?

And I can't, I don't know if I can handle them having names. And my husband looks at me, and he's like, Max and Miles are going to make it, so I don't know what you're talking about. So positive all the time, and it was extremely helpful, because I think if you have two people that believe the world is ending, it would be a very tough marriage, but it's a good balance. And he wanted us to have a baby shower, and I said, oh, no, no, we can't have a baby shower. We're going to jinx things. What if we, like, lose them right before, and we're going to have to call everyone? And I remember I talked to my therapist, and I remember telling her, I said, what if they don't make it? And she goes, and what if they don't? And I go, well, then I'm going to have to call everyone and tell them that they didn't make it. And she goes, well, can you assign someone to do that for you, so you don't have to do that emotional baggage?

And I said, well, of course I can. And she goes, okay, well, then why else don't you want a baby shower? And I remember saying, I'm like, I don't know, it will kind of be embarrassing if maybe we have a baby shower, and then I lose them the next day. And she goes, is that really going to be, you know, embarrassing? And I said, well, it's not going to be embarrassing. It's just going to be very sad. And she told me, she's like, well, is it going to be more or less sad just because you had a party for them? And I said, well, no, not for me. It will be sad either way. It will be devastating either way.

And she says, okay, well, then you take that what you will. We go to my maternal fetal medicine specialist, and she kind of gives me the news. I'd already looked up some things on Google, which I do not recommend if you have a high-risk pregnancy. But my MFM told me the boys are monomniotic monochorionic twins. They have separate blood flows and they are not conjoined.

But they're definitely monomniotic monochorionics. This is a very potentially dangerous pregnancy for the twins. And my MFM kind of gave me the bomb that I knew was coming, which was at somewhere between 24 and 26 weeks. You'll have to be admitted into the hospital and you'll have to be monitored on a schedule. It's going to be grueling and you're going to have to have a plan C section between 32 and 34 weeks. And she said, our hospital that our group is associated with, we don't have 24 hour OBGYNs on staff. And she said, you're going to have to go to a research hospital. You're also going to want to be at the research hospital because they have a level four NICU. So if your twins make it, you want to have the best NICU care possible and our team cannot provide that for you.

That's a lot of information to take. Obviously, it kind of made it more scary to hear that like the big labor hospital in town can't take you because you're too high risk. So at 14 weeks, I get moved over to a completely new group and I find some just wonderful doctors. But I remember my very first point with an OBGYN was at 18 weeks.

And I remember I went to this 18 week appointment and this doctor is flipping through my file. And she kind of I remember just kind of says it not in a kind way. Very blunt said, you know, one of your twins has a marker for Down syndrome.

And I was like, no, I've never been told that. And she goes, yep, they have a little spot in their brain and kind of just keeps flipping through the file and doesn't pause to like let me process information. I said, OK. And then she keeps flipping shows.

Oh, by the way, we notice here that one of the twins has one hole in his heart and the other one has two holes in the art. So you're going to have to start seeing a fetal cardiologist and then just kind of keeps moving on. She didn't have the best bedside manner is what I'm trying to say. She kept dropping bombs and just would keep moving on the conversation. I had a lot going on.

Obviously, it's a lot of really tough medical information to take. But I kept just trying to stay on the path of positivity at the time I still was studying for the bar. And I remember when I was five months pregnant, it was time for me to go take the bar. This was maybe a week before my planned baby shower at 22 weeks. You have to do baby shower early because, you know, you're going to the hospital.

And I remember I woke up that morning and I just cried. I said, Patrick, I cannot take the bar. I you know, I have been so nauseous.

I've hardly been able to study to the amount I really would like. I can't. It's a waste of my time to go. And, you know, I'm feeling nauseous.

I think I'm going to stay home. And he tells me, he's like, Lex, what do you got to lose? He's like, if anything, you'll just just sit there.

He goes, you don't even have to fill out a bubble. And I said, you know what, babe, you're right. And in Florida, the bar is a two day event. And it's three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon.

So it's a total of twelve hours of tests taken. And I remember after the second day, I got in the car and my husband was so but he's like clapping. He's like, you did it.

You did it. And I was just bawling my eyes on. I said, Pat, there's no way I passed. He goes, I'm going to take you to hibachi. So he knows I love hibachi, especially when I was pregnant. I started crying at the hibachi place. I mean, I was a real mess. I don't know if it was the test.

The hormones are just feeling, you know, down about everything. But I was proud of myself that I at least had sat there and had taken it. So the next week I had a bunch of friends fly in from all over. Our baby shower was probably one hundred and fifty people. It was quite the quite the event. And it was just like a very beautiful day having everyone together and celebrating the babies. And everyone was just so happy.

And I'm very happy looking back that I had a baby shower. And you've been listening to Lex Ginger's story. And what a story it is indeed. The news just kept getting worse for her, learning that Max and Miles, one of them had a hole in the heart, one had two. And one of them had a marker for Down syndrome.

And during that whole time, she also had to sit for the bar exam. When we come back, more of Lex Ginger's story here on Our American Stories. For each person living with myasthenia gravis, or MG, their journey with this rare neuromuscular condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from iHeartRadio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share powerful perspectives from people living with the debilitating muscle weakness and fatigue caused by this rare disorder. Each episode will uncover the reality of life with myasthenia gravis. From early signs and symptoms to obtaining an accurate diagnosis and finding care, every person with MG has a story to tell. And by featuring these real life experiences, this podcast hopes to inspire the MG community, educate others about this rare condition, and let those living with it know that they are not alone.

Listen to Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Katie Lowes. I'm an actor, a podcast host, a mom, and honestly, very tired most of the time.

And I'm Adam Shapiro, an actor, a pretzel maker, a dad, and Katie's husband. And we're so excited because we're the new hosts of Chasing Sleep, the production of Ruby Studios from iHeartMedia in partnership with Mattress Firm. Sleep affects your physical and mental performance, your family dynamics, and your quality of life as you grow older. Sleep can even affect parenting. Sleep does change very rapidly throughout childhood. The chronotype of a child will shift. Biologically, teenagers are not able to get enough sleep and get up at 6 a.m. to go to school. That's just literally not possible. So we have to start high schools later. That's one of the biggest public health things we can and should do immediately. We're going to talk to the experts who will help everyday people like us explore the mysteries behind our own sleep. So listen to Chasing Sleep on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we continue with our American stories and with Lex Ginger, sharing her story of why she decided to celebrate a twin pregnancy that only had a 50 percent chance of making it.

Back to Lex with the rest of her story. In the next week, I was going to be inpatient in the hospital. I remember people thought I was crazy. So I pull up with like a palette of objects. I had this little plastic drawer set from Target. I had a little laundry basket. I had brought my own mattress topper. I had brought my own Wi-Fi diverter. I'd even brought a little rug. I brought a shower curtain. I had brought everything. But you know, you think that's crazy, but you're also living there for potentially two months.

You might as well make it a little comfortable. And so I did. I was 25 weeks is when I decided to become inpatient. And around that time, the results for the bar came out.

I had no sights that I had passed whatsoever. And then I look at my number and it says, pass, pass, pass. You're a licensed attorney. I got so excited that my heart monitors went off. I had nurses and doctors run into my room like, are you okay?

Is everything okay? And I was like, I'm an attorney! And everyone starts clapping.

I told everyone about these results that were coming out. And I remember thinking, well, oh shoot. To actually become a licensed attorney after passing, you have to still be sworn into the bar. And usually these swearing ceremonies, you know, they don't take place in hospitals, right? And I couldn't leave the premises. My husband at the time was working at the public defender's office and his boss, Julianne Holt, is someone who can swear people in.

She's the public defender of our county. And he asked her if she could come down to the hospital and swear me in. And she agreed and that was just so sweet. And I remember the day came, it was maybe like a week later, and I got all gussied up. And my husband comes in my room and he was like, hey, why don't we go down to the conference room?

There's going to be more space there. And I was like, but I cleaned my room. I remember saying, but I cleaned my room. And he's like, no, no, you definitely want to come to the conference room.

Like, she needs lots of space to do the swearing in ceremony. And I was like, okay, that's fine. And I remember kind of like waddling in these little heels down the hallway. And I opened the conference room. And I didn't hear surprise.

I heard surprise because no one wanted to scare a pregnant lady. But in the room it was my nursing staff, some doctors, friends and family. And they'd all come in to see me get sworn in, which is just, oh my gosh, was just so special. And I got sworn in in the maternity ward. I have no idea if anyone else ever has been. But it felt very special and unique.

And it was just a very, very cool moment. There's only really four study on mono-mono twins. It's very difficult for them to do big, solid studies. And the end of every single one of the study is the only thing you can do is monitor. We really have no further information, more research needed. Which is not something you want to read when it comes to your high-risk pregnancy.

Because the answer is there's no real set way to deal with it medically. They said that they considered me to be their most high-risk patient that they had at the hospital at the time. So they put me in the room right next to the OR. And MFM, I ended up having quite lovely chats with him.

He was one of the head MFMs. And he said, you know, we have a lot of cases on this floor. But the only one that keeps me up at night is yours. And I was like, I don't know. And we just kind of chuckled. I have that kind of sense of humor. I'm like, I know, I'm not getting any sleep either. And he would come and make sure that he was at all of my ultrasound appointments with me as well.

Because I think he wanted to see with his own eyes how they were progressing. And I appreciate that. I also got very close with a resident who was a resident for an OBGYN, Dr. Dean.

And I remember she had the coolest black nail polish. So I made it to my 32 week. I had been able to, for my C-section, to pick out my entire team. And I remember I asked also the resident, Dr. Dean, can you be there? And she said, I can't because I'm a night shift doctor. And your C-section schedule for the morning, you have to pick morning doctors. And I said, okay.

So, you know, the day comes. I'm 32 weeks. I made it to my day. And I remember not even being nervous because I just felt like an overwhelming sense of calm and success that I even had made it to 32 weeks. We walked to the next door because they had literally put me next to the OR. And they tell you like you're going to feel a little nauseous potentially.

You might feel a little shaky. They kind of start prepping me. My husband's still not in the room. They don't grab the partner at my hospital until it's like kind of like game time, game time.

So there was a lot to do before then. But that's kind of scary because, you know, you don't have a family member in there with you. I remember feeling like all of a sudden this wave of nausea just hits me really bad. And I remember just thinking like, I feel so sick, I feel so sick, I feel so sick.

I was like, I think I'm going to throw. And I look over and someone grabs my hand and it's a hand with black nail polish. And I look up and it's Dr. Dean. And she goes, Lex, I'm right here. And I'm like, Dr. Dean, how are you here? And she was like, I got special permission by the hospital to be present at your C-section.

I won't be, you know, doing anything. I just got off night shift, but they're allowing me to be here with you like a support person. It was such like this beautiful moment. And I remember thinking, I'm like, Dr. Dean, am I dying because I feel really sick and she goes, you are the most alive person in this room, Lex.

Like your stats are amazing. She was reading them out to me. And then at a certain point she says, hey, let me go get your husband for you. It was time. They brought in Pat and they told me, they're like, okay, these are going to be 32 week babies. So, you know, they might come out and they might not be screaming, but it's game time.

They pulled out the twins back to back. And if they were not screaming, they were screaming cute as can be healthy boys. They were born with an Apgar score of nine out of 10, which is better for even just like a regular full term baby. Great color, great size for their age.

You know, good lungs, everything. And so we were actually able in the C-section room to take, you know, photos with them. My husband was able to cut their cord in the room. There was probably because each baby had two NICU teams. My husband says there's probably 25 people in the operating room who said it was wild, like it was crazy.

Miles was born at a weight of three pounds, 14 ounces, and Max was three pounds, 13 ounces. And they pulled them out at random, you know, they're in the same sack together. And the NICU team brought them down and they did really great in the NICU. Max did have two holes in his heart.

Miles had one, but they were pretty small. One of the first things they did was do the cardiology scan with their cardiologist who had seen me. And he said, you know, I have a feeling these are going to close by one years old. And gosh darn they did. At one years old, they got confirmed that they had closed and that we would never have to, for this, see a cardiologist for them again in their life. So that was like a real blessing. They were, you know, just healthy boys. And at that point, it no longer mattered that they were in a mano a mano twin pregnancy. They were only in the NICU for 30 days, which is pretty, pretty great.

And we brought them home and it's, it's been wonderful since then. I think a big part of me celebrating the boys, even though we got this scary high-risk diagnosis, is that, you know, I did have, and I still do have these issues with fertility. The fact that I got pregnant and was able to hold a pregnancy, let alone a high-risk one, is truly amazing. There was a doctor at around 10 weeks that, you know, we were talking about everything. I hadn't seen her before and she was the only doctor at that point that had seen a mano a mano pregnancy, but had seen it end in a stillbirth. And she looked at me and she goes, well, you know, you can just get a termination. And I look at her and I was like, I mean, we do know that, but we just kind of, we want to, we want to try. And she was like, kind of give me a look, like, okay, like kind of like, you know, it's going to be tough.

But, you know, I let her know, you know, we are continuing on, onward, onward and upward, hopefully. But it was really hard and I don't want to, you know, downplay that. It was very depressing. When I say I refuse to set up a nursery, I refuse. I said, I cannot come home if they don't make it and see a whole set up crib and I can't do it.

I was like, that's the one thing, Pat, I can't do. So we had a whole room filled with boxes. And once the boys were born, that's when I was like, okay, we made it, here we are.

And I called my family and, you know, I was recovering from a C-section and like 10 of my family members came over and set up the whole nursery for us while the boys were in the NICU. We have two healthy boys now. They're very different. Max is more stoic. He's the most adventurous, like he has no fears, which is always a little scary as a parent, right? He just goes headfirst into anything he's doing and he doesn't think twice. You then get his brother, Miles, who is a little bit of, you know, he's a little bit more, I don't want to say a worry wort, but he definitely thinks twice before everything. Like he's just much more like aware of the potential dangers around him, so to speak, even for a three-year-old. He's always reeling back his brother, Max. Max is, you know, about to jump off the top of the playground.

He'll be the one holding the shirt, you know? So even though they're identical twins, they're very different, very different. They just started baseball and basketball, which is so cute at the age of three because, you know, they don't know what they're doing. But it's really, really sweet. And they seem to really love getting outside and doing that. And they're just, you know, typical fun little boys and just in real sweeties. We feel like very blessed, very blessed. And a terrific job on the production by Madison Derricotte. And a special thanks to Lex Ginger for sharing her story, her husband, Patrick, and her two beautiful boys, Miles and Max. The story about so many things, about faith, about optimism, about love. That swear-in ceremony in that conference center, just spectacular.

You almost wanted to wish in some way you could have been there for something so special. And the way the medical community in this country works, how they come to the aid of folks. It's a beautiful, precious system we have filled with people like that lady with the black nail polish, Dr. Dean. A beautiful story about love, birth, and life. Lex Ginger's story here on Our American Stories. In 2014, Hackett will share these powerful perspectives from real people with MG. So their experiences can help inspire the MG community and educate others about this rare condition.

Listen to find strength in community on the MG journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There are some things in life you just can't trust. Like a free couch on the side of the road, or the sushi rolls from your local gas station. Or when your kids say they don't need the bathroom before the road trip.

But there are some things in life you can trust. Like the HP Smart Tank Printer. With up to two years of ink included, and outstanding print quality. You can rely on the HP Smart Tank Printer. From HP, America's most trusted printer brand. I'm Malcolm Gladwell.