After undergoing successful chemotherapy for leukemia and then successful IVF treatments, Ioanna Lo Destro, right, and her husband, Grant Lo Destro celebrate their daughter Penelope’s first birthday in Batavia.
Courtesy of Ioanna Lo Destro
When she first found out she had leukemia, Ioanna Lo Destro’s heart dropped.
Instead of focusing on her mortality, however, Lo Destro’s hopes and fears turned to her dreams of motherhood: Her first IVF treatment was scheduled for the very next day.
Her diagnosis forced her to delay her dream. But now, six years later as her daughter Penelope celebrates her first birthday, Lo Destro reflects back to those dark days and sees her daughter as living proof that miracles can happen.
“After she was first laid on my chest, I was overwhelmed and crying realizing what we’ve dreamed and prayed for was finally here, this is our miracle,” Lo Destro said.
Lo Destro, a former teacher at Elk Grove High School who lives with her husband Grant in Batavia, said it was a full-circle moment being able to celebrate Penelope’s first birthday with the family and friends who supported them throughout the journey. She said their support was invaluable during the heavier moments she struggled to maintain faith.
‘My whole world crashed’
Lo Destro first felt lumps on her neck about a week after her 31st birthday. She and her husband had been struggling for the past year and a half to get pregnant and looking toward their first in vitro fertilization treatment.
“A nurse called me with test results and said, ‘You have some abnormalities, you need to go to the E.R. right away,’” Lo Destro said. “After a million tests, they announced I had leukemia, my whole world crashed. It just destroyed me thinking I couldn’t get pregnant. I was more consumed with losing motherhood than my mortality with cancer.”
Lo Destro begged her oncologist to give her a couple of weeks to freeze her eggs before the potentially hazardous chemotherapy and spinal taps for her aggressive blood cancer began.
“The oncologist said I won’t be here in a couple of weeks if we don’t start now,” Lo Destro said. “Then it hit me, I don’t think I was able to process how close I was to my deathbed. It still brings up tears and emotions because everything could have so easily gone the other way.”
Dr. Lia Ann Bernardi, a reproductive, endocrinology and infertility specialist at Northwestern Medicine Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine who worked alongside Lo Destro during her journey, said one of their greatest worries was that the cancer treatments would further damage Lo Destro’s already low egg supply, preventing IVF from being a viable option.
Many women who undergo cancer treatments lose the ability to still produce eggs.
“When she came to see us after her chemotherapy, her egg supply was even lower than it had been when she was first tested during her infertility diagnosis,” Bernardi said. “Success with IVF for someone with such a diminished ovarian reserve is more limited. We knew there was never a guarantee that she was going to be able to try again after her cancer was cured and be successful. Throughout it all, she was so amazing and resilient.”
Lo Destro’s first two IVF cycle attempts in 2018 after beginning her cancer treatments were unsuccessful. After her last batch of chemotherapy, she was in remission from the leukemia, but the cancer treatments had taken their toll.
“Even through the darkest days and moments, I tried to strive for optimism as much as possible, but I was also realistic,” Lo Destro said.
More IVF cycles followed. And a blood pregnancy test finally came back positive.
‘You’re pregnant’
“I can picture exactly where we were when we got the news, I tear up thinking about it,” Lo Destro said. “We were so overwhelmed with gratitude and disbelief, because it’s something we prayed about for years and years, it didn’t seem real. I was a little hesitant to celebrate because I was knocked down for so long, I was terrified something would happen again.”
Bernardi said she was privileged to play a role in Lo Destro’s long journey.
“I remember feeling so overjoyed when I knew she had conceived after that embryo transfer,” Bernardi said. “She had worked so hard to get there. She had been through so much, years and years of heartbreak. It was amazing when we were able to finally say, ‘you’re pregnant.’”
Bernardi said it was important to continue counseling and evaluating the health of any organs that may have been affected by the cancer treatments to ensure the greatest maternal health throughout the pregnancy.
Lo Destro said it took a while for the reality to set in. She continued to fear that somehow this miracle would be taken away from her again. She focused on getting through the pregnancy day by day until her faith began filling her with optimism.
Lo Destro said she and her husband are incredibly grateful that IVF was an option for them.
“We all go through adversity, but never give up on hope,” Lo Destro said. “It’s so easy to dwell in negativity, but you must rely on your strength too. Miracles do happen. Don’t let yourself live in the darkness. Find your way out into the light.”