I was at a cocktail party for my husband’s firm recently and an attorney’s wife, who was also an attorney, asked me if I was a lawyer too. Well, with four lawyers in my family, I certainly am familiar with the lifestyle, workload, and idioms. This is really just a polite way of asking what I do. When I told her I was a writer and soon to be author of the forthcoming book Twin to Twin, she was very surprised. I shared some of my story with her and then she asked me why I decided to write a book about such a difficult time in my life? That is a great question. Why did I choose to write a book?
I could have started a non-profit, kickstart a campaign to raise funds and donate back to the hospital. There are a number of ways to directly give back to families that navigate through this difficult journey. I chose to write a book for the same reason all writers choose to write a book. Because we feel an overwhelming urgency and sensation to tell the story. I have described it before as a blessed curse. No matter how long it takes, how frustrating it can be at times, I simply must do this. My good friend Ivy Ruths is a clinical psychologist specializing in treating OCD. She describes people with OCD as feeling the need to carry out a compulsion and as something that starts to interfere with living your life. Well, then I would diagnose myself with OCD to write. It’s something I must do.
For Twin to Twin, I wanted to share and re-live all those moments of joy and terror in hopes that they might help someone else. I wrote Twin to Twin to read like fiction—it takes the reader on my journey through each of the big different stages of my path—deadly ttts diagnosis, bedrest in the hospital, my NICU journey, and bits of my past weaved in there.
I’d love to share a blurb that my good friend, award winning journalist and ASJA podcast host Estelle Erasmus sent me. Here’s what Estelle thinks about Twin to twin.
“In her book, Twin to Twin, Crystal Duffy (who calls herself “feisty” and her pregnant body a “science project”) shares her journey through loss, pregnancy, renewal and the miracle of being part of the 1 percent of mothers with a Mono-Mono twin pregnancy. Buoyed by her faith, the love of her husband, Ed, and a cast of unlikely heroes at the hospital worthy of their own sitcom—like Paul, the male nurse she binge watches Bravo’s Housewives shows with, and the music therapist, Charlotte, who helps her channel her suffering into song—Crystal shares every stage of her perilous journey toward birthing her babies, with honesty, humility and humor.
Everyone has a birth story but this one will move you to tears, make you chuckle, and count your blessings along with Crystal as she illustrates, through words and poetry, her weeks as a hospital inpatient, and the path that led to her current work as an antepartum and neonatal patient advocate.”
I hope you keep reading my blog, The Duffy Diary, where I will be taking my readers on my journey with me. I’ll share my thoughts and insight on pregnancy, bedrest, NICU, writing, creative outlets for healing, patient advocacy and much more!
