Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #520

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Wo ma n D i d n ' t K n o w S h e Wa s P r e g n a n t F o r 9Months: ‘There'sABabyInTheToilet'
By Alysha Palumbo
For Melissa Surgecoff and her fiancé Donnie Campbell, March 8 started out just like any other day, until Surgecoff suddenly started feeling intense cramping and pain.
“I called 911 because we thought she was passing a kidney stone,” Campbell said.
The couple, from Peabody, Massachusetts, has been together for seven years, through health issues following Campbell's trau- matic brain injury and Surgecoff's multiple sclerosis.
After their 2020 wedding was
delayed, they put off starting a fami- ly, or so they thought.
“We always want- ed our ducks in a row, we wanted to get married, we wanted to move out, we wanted to have the right
jobs,” Surgecoff said.
But little Liam had other plans.
“We were just kind of in shock and not expecting it, and all the sud- den there’s a baby in the toilet,”
Campbell said.
As it turns out, Surgecoff wasn’t passing kidney stones at all.
“The EMT’s came,” she said, “they were look- ing for this kidney stone and it
ended up being a baby.”
Surgecoff was just as shocked as anyone as to how she could have been preg- nant for nine months and not known.
She says she’s always had an irregular cycle, and in hindsight, she had gained a little weight and felt flutters that she thought was just gas.
But when it came to the weight gain, Surgecoff attributed it to something else.
“We thought it was medication because I had just changed to a new multiple scle- rosis medication and that was one of the symptoms,
gaining weight,” she said.
After the initial shock wore off – and family mem- bers showered them with diapers and clothes – Surgecoff and Campbell say they’re getting the hang of this par- enting thing even if it wasn’t in their plans.
“Yeah it’s amaz- ing now,” Surgecoff said, “so I wouldn’t change it for any- thing.”
Despite not hav- ing any prenatal care, Liam is doing great and only had to spend a couple of days at the hospital before being able to go home with mom and dad.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine