Many couples have difficulty conceiving. This is true. However, when you are having difficulty yourself, you lose sight of this truth and feel that you are the only one that cannot have a child. It can be an extraordinarily humbling and emotionally evocative experience, one that is further confounded by friend’s experiences and strangers’ accounts on internet blogs as he or she navigates the preponderance of information and misinformation throughout the process. We have been there. We had spent the tears. We had spent the money. We were spent. Or we thought we were.
We were fortunate to have a friend that was in fellowship training for reproductive endocrinology and infertility who gave us the name of a Dr. Summer James who was opening a practice here in San Antonio. If our high regard for his opinion was not enough, the fact that Dr. James was part of the highly regarded Texas Fertility Center out of Austin assured that we would seek her out. To be honest, these two factors are largely immaterial to us at this point as Dr. James herself and not her references and practice association are what endear us to her.
We have never encountered a physician who provides such expert care and does so with a level of professionalism, honesty and compassion that is second-to-none. And we mean second-to-none. And we mean not just Dr. James, but her entire staff. We truly felt like we were all in it together. It was still a rollercoaster, but we knew we were not in it alone. We celebrated the Christmas Eve revelation that we were pregnant. If the many late afternoon weekday and weekend office visits and countless phone conversations weren’t evidence enough of Dr. James’ dedication, the fact that she fought back tears of joy as she followed our progress. However, the most memorable series of events was when Dr. James discovered on routine ultrasound that all may not have been as perfect as we initially thought. With the same honesty and compassion we had come to know, Dr. James shepherded us through what was a dark few weeks. Referrals to specialists were immediate. And Dr. James was there. We mean in the same room “there.” Even if that room was miles up the road in Austin and the roads had just been reopened after being closed due to ice. Dr. James went above and beyond what any physician would do for one of her patients. We have and will continue to recommend Dr. James to anyone we know needing fertility care. Dr. James and her staff will always be a part of our family.