When Jordan Poitevint Gilbert was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2007, many questioned whether or not she would ever be able to have children.

“When I was first diagnosed I was 19, and I remember my mother asking the doctor if we needed to harvest my eggs. Even though the answer was no, I was always fearful I couldn’t have children,” she recalls.

She managed to get along and function day-by-day taking doses of high-powered medications that kept her alive. She was told she would have to take them for the rest of her life unless a breakthrough developed like a new medication. It didn’t slow her down any. She continued to work, finished her schooling at Auburn University, then went to work traveling the Southeastern states for a pharmaceutical company. She is now employed at Southwest Georgia Farm Credit. On April 30, 2016, she married Taylor Gilbert.

Like most newlywed couples they began thinking about having a family. After clearing things with her doctor she decided to go off the medication in March, 2018.

At a routine medical appointment she was asked if she could be pregnant. She replied, ‘Yes, that was why I stopped taking the medicine.” After a regular pregnancy test was negative, her physician at Emory Hospital in Atlanta wanted to see her immediately. “We had a family weekend trip planned at that time, and that is when I miscarried,” she explains.

Disappointed, she decided to quit trying and went back on her medication. Then, miracle of miracles, 23 days later she found herself pregnant again. When she was at 13 weeks of pregnancy she went on Interferon. She continued to have her blood levels checked regularly and they bounced around a good bit. She was told by physicians that they thought everything would be okay; but that there was always a chance it would not be.

She was also concerned about how all this would affect the baby. At 38 weeks she had a C-section as the baby was breech and her blood platelets were low. Baby boy Gregory Coy Gilbert was born February 26, 2019, weighing in at 8 pounds 1 ounce, and 21 inches in length. He is a handsome, well-developed child and Jordan is able to nurse him well. She continues to get the Interferon shots once a week as well as continuing to check her blood levels for as long as she nurses successfully.

“It is a really great feeling to be a Mom. It’s the best job ever,” she says with a huge smile as she looks fondly on her baby boy.

“Just to make it as far as we did with this pregnancy took five doctors”—two leukemia doctors, a high-risk physician from Phoebe Hospital in Albany, and her local obstetrical team of Dr. Don Robinson; and following his retirement Dr. Whitney Vance who delivered the baby.

She says the doctors are now telling her there is a chance that when she is done nursing she can go on a new medication that may make her cancer go into complete remission.

In the meantime she is enjoying every minute with this baby she describes as a good baby who sleeps through the night. “I just can’t quit looking at him even when he is asleep. He is such a miracle.”

Undoubtedly, both sets of grandparents agree. Gregory Coy is the first grandchild on both sides of the family.
Wishing all a joyous and loving Mother’s Day.