Here .: This Transcript Was Exported On Aug 13, 2020 - View Latest Version

This transcript was exported on Aug 13, 2020 - view latest version here.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Hello. My name is Alan Lindemann. I graduated from St. Paul Ramsey in 1981, [inaudible 00:00:08]
Regions and I became a board certified OBGYN. Sandy came to see me I think in the Fall of '97.
Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Yep. Yes, that's when it was.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep. Can you tell me what led up to your visit?

Well, we had started fertility work at MeritCare, and I had... We'd been unable to get pregnant for...
Doug Powell, father of quads:

Conceive.

For three, four years. It had been a while. So, we were having fertility treatment there at MeritCare. And
on the last round of fertility work, it actually worked. We had gone through the insemination process
and they actually were going to stop the process that month because I had eight eggs that were ready
that day, and there was eight more that were going to mature within the next 24 hours. And so, they
wanted to stop it. And that wasn't going to work for us because we were [inaudible 00:01:12] That was
our last month of medication, kind of tapped off the resources. So, we signed the waiver that we
wouldn't sue them for a high order multiple. So, we went through ahead with the insemination and low
and behold, three, four weeks later, we got the call that it was positive.
Went in for the internal ultrasound and they immediately found two, and we were thrilled
because everybody who does fertility work wants twins. And then they found a third one. And I
remember laying there going like, "Yay." And then they said, "Hold on, we've got to go to the other side
of the uterus." And I went like, "Oh." Got to the other side of the uterus and found a fourth one. And a
little bit of panic set in at that point and I remember looking at the technician and I said, "You can't find
anymore. There can't be anymore." And fortunately, there were not. There was only four from the
beginning. And so, we finished the ultrasound, went into the physician's office and he said, "Well, now
we've got a problem when we've got four." And at that point, the discussion then turned to a selective
reduction.
They wanted us to do... The selective reduction wanted us to go talk to somebody [inaudible
00:02:40] At North Western to reduce it to two or three to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.
We agreed to go down to have at North Western and I just decided we would go talk to them and I
would just have a discussion with Doug once we were not in the presence of the doctor. But made the
appointment, walked out of the building and I told Doug, I said, "Well," I said, "I want to go talk to
somebody who's delivered quadruplets." But I said, "I'm not going to reduce this and we can do this."
And I just said as we walked out of there, I said, "It's... I can do this. We can do this. This won't beat us
and we'll be okay."
And so, we went down to Abbott and talked to the doctor and she said, "So, you're here for
reduction?" I said, "Nope. Just want to talk to somebody who's down this." And we talked and learned
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what some of the chances were and what we were in for, and this wasn't going to be easy, and came
back home and realized we don't have a doctor. And so, then the hunt became... Because I was naïve,
and I thought my fertility doctor was going to take me through the pregnancy. Nobody... I was only 24
years old. Nobody told me that my fertility doctor wasn't going to then take care of me through the
pregnancy. So, the search then turned to, "I got to find a doctor and I got to find one fast because I don't
have a lot of time with this."
So, I started calling every OB in the phone book who... And asked... The first thing I asked, "Has
doctor so and so delivered twins or triplets?" And if the answer was yes, I started making appointments
to go talk to that OB, and to meet with that OB because I didn't have one. And you were second. The
first one that I met with was at MeriCare. Did not particularly care and I don't even know the doctor.

When we walked out of your office, she, "Yeah. He's going to be my doctor."

Yeah.

She knew right away.

We did. We went in there and I just... There was just something that clicked when we were talking to
you about... You were honest with us about kind of... Like, "Okay, well we can't do this like we can every
other pregnancy. We're just going to have to play this by ear and do it." And I felt comfortable with you
immediately, I trusted you immediately, and in the parking lot as we walked out, I told Doug, I said,
"Okay. He's my doctor. We're not going to go see anybody else." And that's where we made the
decision.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

We didn't talk about reduction.

We did not because I was never going to do it. No. And I... I was irritated from the beginning when they
brought it up at the fertility clinic about it because I thought, that's what we were trying to... I mean, this
is what we were trying to do. I'm not going to go ahead and undo what we've spent all this time trying to
do.

Oh, there was more to it than that too. How do you make that decision? How do you make that choice?
We talked about but this is what we were dealt, and we were going to make it work.

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yep. Yeah, we were going to take our chances. I mean, it's... This is what we
were supposed to have. And we were going to do what we could do, and do the best what we could do,
and stick with each other.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, how far did you get in pregnancy? You said 25 weeks?

25 weeks and two days.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay. How much time did you spend in the hospital?

I went in a week and a half before the kids were born. I was put on restrictive activity the 19th of
December. They were born the 13th of January. But about a week and... I spent about a little over a
week in the hospital before they were born because I was no longer able to digest food and the day
after they were born, was the day that I was scheduled to have that. I was supposed to have that
feeding tube put in my neck because I wasn't able to swallow food anymore because of where Matt was
sitting.

She was... You were in for almost a week, and then they let you come home.

Well, then I had been back, and I went back. Yeah.

I think you were back in by the end of that day, weren't you?

The next day.

Was it the next day?

You came home from work and I was lying on the couch, and I couldn't even get up. I just waved my arm
in the air and I just said, "I got to go back."
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, I can remember the night I got the phone call. It was about 11 o'clock, and it was cold, in January,
1998. And the nurse called me from MeriCare and said, "She had a back ache. What can I give her?" So I

said, "You really need to check her cervix." So, I got a panic call about 10 minutes later, "She's
complete." What happened then?

Everybody... Everybody panicked. And they... It went into mass chaos in the room and they... I
remember the nurses [inaudible 00:08:01] They said, "Well, if Dr. Lindemann isn't going to get here in
time, we'll have the OB on call deliver the kids." And I think there was some four letter words that came
out in what I said but I said, "No, he'll get here." I said, "Dr. Lindemann... Nobody's delivering these kids
but Dr. Lindemann." And I said, "He will get here. Call him right now. He'll be here." And they started the
magnesium... Is it magnesium sulfate?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yes. It is. Yep.

Yep. And I remember them just like in a movie squeezing the IV bag.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Tried to get [crosstalk 00:08:32]

Yep. Yep. And I remember. I mean, again, I was 24, and you're just laying there going like, "What's going
on? What's happening?"

Scared.

I was scared to death. And I knew I didn't make it far enough. We had a goal date of February 16th, my
dad's birthday. And that was the goal date because that was I want to say the 32 week mark. And that's
what we were shooting for. And I just remember the panic. I'm not there and then all the questions...
Then they put the monitor back on.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah. Tell me about why they took it off.

Oh yeah.

So, the day before they had taken my double monitor off of me and they said they had a high risk twin
pregnancy and so they were taking the double monitor off of me and they gave me the single monitor.
And I remember thinking to myself, "Well, can't the twin mom have the single monitor, and the quad
mom have the twin monitor because it leaves the rain shields where they should be." And so, then I

didn't have a monitor on for the majority of that day that the kids were born. And so, they did come in
and check me earlier that day and they couldn't find a heartbeat. We went back down to ultrasound
that morning because they thought... We thought we had lost a heartbeat.
And they did an ultrasound, find the fourth heartbeat, so everything was okay but there was a
lot of in and out that as far as where I was at but I didn't have the monitoring on. So, when everything
broke loose and everything went nuts and they put the monitor on, I was apparently having contractions
about every 30 seconds. And they kept asking me, "Are you feeling that? Are you feeling that?" And I'm
like, "No." I mean, I'm just laying there. I was uncomfortable. My back hurt and I was feeling pressure
but of course I didn't know what that was because I had not ever done this before. But I wasn't feeling
the contractions you had watched on the monitor but I just wasn't feeling because I was of course big as
a house.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

We had a conversation a few weeks ago and you said something that really hit home. You said, "They
took the monitor off because of the high risk twins." And you said, "Well, who can be higher risk than
quads?"

It was higher risk than me, yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And that's absolutely right. The other thing that I found fascinating was you had your entire labor
without anybody knowing it.

Yes.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Which is really scary.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And there wasn't anybody that [crosstalk 00:11:00]
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep.

She was just uncomfortable.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah.

Yeah.


And that's what everyone passed it off as that she was just uncomfortable because she was so big. I
remember we were having a little bit of a heated discussion that evening and I was going to leave to go
to work and I had stepped out for a few minutes for something and came back in, and this was all
starting. Oh, I had stepped out because they were going to check your cervix. That's what it was.
Anyway, everything changed from that point on. I didn't know what to do. What am I going to do? I was
standing there and I called-

You started calling everybody.

Yeah. I started making phone calls and no one understood what I was getting at. Because no one
expected it to be happening.

He would call everybody and he would say, "They're coming." Everybody's like, "Well, who's coming?"

I'd say, "The kids were coming." And they would, "Who's kids?"

Yeah.

So, there was a lot of confusion.

It was a lot of confusion that night.

On everybody's part.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, I think everything went nicely. The C-section was easily enough done.

Well, once you got there, then everything calmed down but I... In all honesty, I went into a panic the
minute they said, "If Dr. Lindemann doesn't get here, somebody else will deliver the kids." That was
about all it took to send me into a panic that night because again, I was 24 years old and I had grown
extremely close to you during my pregnancy because of the weekly doctor visits. We just counted
heartbeats every week. That's what we did together. We counted heartbeats. "Okay, we still have four."
And then I could go to McDonald's and have my reward of my little small fountain Coke because I wasn't
drink pop while I was pregnant. And that was my reward for the day.

I still had four heartbeats. And we would call our friends and we would be like, "Okay. We're
good for the week." And we would... It was... I could go in there and we had a relationship where we just
did things on how I felt, and what my body was doing. When we tried to run the [inaudible 00:13:41]
Diabetes, and I tried to not eat to do the stuff, and I was half dead and you were like, "Okay. We're just
going to scratch that because you can't do it." So then, all of a sudden when there was the thought of
another doctor coming in, I did literally go into a panic and I probably made it harder on that staff at the
hospital.

Your adjustment... You have guidelines that you go by as the doctor for pregnancies but you always told
her to do what she thought was best for her. And that was a level of comfort for her, so that was very
important. And just every... She would worry herself sick which wasn't good. So, after the visit, there
was always a sense of relief and that, that was a big part... That played a big part in her pregnancy
because she was... She had to be able to relax and if she didn't, it just... Your being there, and
comforting her, and reassuring her was a big part of the pregnancy.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, thank you for that. In a minute, I want to talk about pre-natal care because there's something... I
went to a conference at MAYO a few years ago.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And there was this specialist obstetrician from MAYO who said, "If we do less pre-natal care, we'll save a
lot of money and we'll still have the same results." And I'm thinking, "The only way that would work is if
the pre-natal care were not very good."

Yeah.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense and what you're talking about does make sense. It is comfort and
trust.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

One of the things that is so important is, I know if I... I want to know you well enough, so that when you
tell me something, I know what you're telling me.


Right.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Like, "My back aches."

Yep. Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I'd like to hear from the four of you.
Ashley Powell, quad 1:

[inaudible 00:16:06] I guess. Do you want me to shut the door?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sure. Oh, because of the...
Speaker 6:
That'd be a good idea, yeah.

Yeah. [crosstalk 00:16:21] Talking.

Could you hear her?

Yeah. They can edit that out.

Hopefully. But still.
Speaker 6:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:16:25]

Okay.

What do you want to hear from us?

What do you want to hear from them?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, how much did you weigh? Do you know how long you were when you were born?
Samantha Powell, quad 2:

No.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Mom knows.

We only know the weight.

You were all 10 and a half, or 11 inches long.

Okay.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay. Good.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And so, how much did you weight when you were born?

One pound 13 ounces.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Our birth date.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Oh, one 13.

One 13.


One 13.

I never thought about it that way. Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

What questions are you tired of being asked?

Are you twins?

Yeah.

Specifically to me and her. I'll respond either like, "No." Or, "Kind of."

[crosstalk 00:17:14]

And then everyone's like, "What do you mean?" And we're like, "Well, actually, we're quads." And then
everyone's like, "What?" So, yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, how is it with birthdays and Christmas, and all kinds of celebrations being a part?

Being a part.
Andrea Powell, quad 4:

Being separated?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yes.

Yeah.

Hard. Very hard.


Well, we didn't like it when we were younger but now that we're older we've...

We've kind of...

Accustomed.

Yeah. We're like, "Well, eventually it's going to happen so we might as well get used to it."
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, are you getting used to it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We do.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

What happened when you were sick? I mean, somebody must have had ear infections, or sore throats,
or coughs, or pneumonia, or colds.

If it was one of us three that was sick, and if he wasn't sick, he would take care of us.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay.

Very good caretaker.

If he was the one sick, we'd just let him be.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, you know, it's hard enough to have one child with an ear ache. So, what do you do when you have
four children with an ear ache?


They... Well, I mean, we didn't [crosstalk 00:18:35] We didn't have a lot of ear infections at the same
time but we did have flu's. All hit the house at the same time, and that was ridiculous. In fact, we have
one time where Samantha ended up in pediatric ICU for dehydration from a flu that had hit the house,
and poor Doug got stuck at home with the other three sick. And I think you were just getting over it as
well, and I was up in ICU with Samantha because she was sick. But at the time, she was so tiny.
Samantha did not really grow at the rate everybody else did. I think she only weight about seven pounds
when it hit her. And so, it doesn't take long at seven pounds for the organs to start to shut down from
dehydration. So, they put her in ICU for a couple of days for that but Matt's always been the caretaker of
the group when it comes to somebody being sick, or having had surgery, or anything like that.
He's the caretaker of that. So, that's the role that he has.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, now your caretaker is gone.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

They're just now experiencing what it's like to be separated, so they're learning.

Yeah.

[inaudible 00:19:52] Because they've always been together.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Did you leave the NICU all about the same time?

No.

Well, Matt and Samantha...

We were on the same day. Andy left the next day.

Yeah, Matt and Samantha came home one day. Andy came home the very next day. But they were
home for four weeks before Ashley came home. The week that those three came home, was the week
that Ashley was downgraded from grave condition to stable. They left her in grave condition the entire

time. And that was the first week of April. They came home April third and fourth. She didn't come
home until May 5th. She had been slated to come home one time prior that and I don't know if you
remember, we had the news there and everybody because the last quadruplet was coming home and
she coded in the lobby of the hospital.
And Doug went to get the van to load her in, and then she coded, and they called it code blue
and they were doing CPR all the way back up to the NICU because she hadn't left the hospital, so they
put her back in the NICU, not [inaudible 00:21:05] But she didn't... She had passed the car seat and then
[inaudible 00:21:12] But she didn't make it out of the hospital. So, that bought her another couple of
weeks in before they let her come home after that.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Approximately, what weights were you when you left the hospital?

They all sat at about five... Four and a half to five pounds when they came home. Four and a half was the
minimum that they would let them come home at.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you were about what? 37, or 38 weeks when you went home?

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Something like that?

Yep. Because the due date was...

My birthday originally.

April 24th.

April 24th. So, yeah. They were a few weeks shy of that.

Yeah. So, still little but got them home.

Got them home on the monitors. The monitors were bigger than [inaudible 00:22:01]


Yep. Yeah. They all came home on... They were still on monitors, they were still on caffeine, they were
still on a bunch of stuff when they came home.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you had a lot of work to do when you went home?

Oh, yeah.

A lot.

Yep. Yeah. It was pretty crazy those first few weeks until we adjusted to them coming home. The worst
part about it was though, was once those three came home, it was so hard to get up to the hospital to
see this one because you had the three at home, and you still had the one up there and it's hard to
break away from three. I mean, as infants, to get back up to the hospital to see the one. So, the days of
spending all your spare time with them in the NICU ended. But we got out there.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, it's nice to be here and I think that a lot of people would like to hear your story if you will let us tell
it.

Oh yeah. Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And I appreciate that so much.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I think you really hit home some important points. And one of them is pre-natal care.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And getting to know who you are. You get to know me, you get to know me, I get to know you, I get to
know you.


Right.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And that's really important. And if there's such a thing as magic in OB, that is it.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

It is getting to know you.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And that's a thing that we don't have anymore. We have the doc on deck who will do the delivery if you
come in, and then you've got a rotating team that comes by that you see once a month and it might be a
nurse practitioner, it might be one of the OB doctors but you never really know for sure. My daughter
delivered a couple years ago. Well, I guess about six now. And she had three different doctors in a day
and a half.

Oh my.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, things are different.

Wow.

Yeah. That's crazy.

Do it as a team rather than individually.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, it works out nicely for the doctors because they get to go home at night. And sleep.

Yeah.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

But anyway, I got a good night sleep that night after you delivered.

Yeah. I mean, it was crazy but like I said, once you got there then I calmed down, and I was probably
nicer to the staff. I was a little-

Well, it's hard to [crosstalk 00:24:37]

I was scared. And I just needed to make sure that everybody... My mom was there with me, and Doug
was there with me. And then we started calling... We had a list of people, like the other set of parents,
his parents in North Dakota and we had some friends that needed to be called. He had a list of people to
call and they all got notified and the ones that we wanted up there were there, and so, I knew that we
ended up that night surrounded by the people that we needed there. But it was a scary night because
none of them were breathing and it was a rough night.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, it looks like everything has turned out quite nicely.

It did. It did.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And you're all 21 now?

Yep.

Yep.

Yep. Yep.

We got very lucky.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah.

We did.

And we know it.

And we know it.

Yep.

Yeah. We don't ever expect to buy a winning lottery ticket because we got ours 21 years ago. But we
did.

We met many a parents in that NICU that only had one child. And there were children that were... Kids
that were much worse than they were health wise. And to have... All four of them... They had their
issues but to... Yeah, we were definitely lucky. We know that.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I think some of this might be actually due to the fact that there are four of you. In other words, you all
had probably some... I'm not going to say stress but you got ready sooner than if you had been one. In
other words, before you came out, you were really getting ready to come out.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We had to really look into the future because we knew what was ahead for us. And so, yeah,
you're right, we did. We had to make preparations. A lot of them. Yep.

Yeah. One thing we did miss out on though is the... I don't remember the name of that drug that... Does
it start with a C? The drug that-
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Celestone.

Yeah. That matures the lungs.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Because nobody thought I was going to go, so we didn't get that. And I remember the first time I
got up to the NICU that morning was what? Six o'clock in the morning before I got up there to see them,
the staff, the nurses, I remember going to Ashley's bedside first. And they said something about it and I
said, "No, I didn't have it." And they were shocked and I'm like, "I wasn't in here to have the babies yet. I
was in here because I couldn't eat." And so, we missed the boat on that. And they did take a hit on their
lungs. That was... The lungs was something that they did take a hit on and really, the only one who really
took a hit on it was Ashley. Ashley, the bottom third of her lungs are... It's dead tissue. It never did
regenerate.
But she's okay. She's just not going to run a marathon.

You got all the issues.

Yeah, I did.

But yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, thank you for letting us come and see you.

No problem.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And a thank you for all the nice cards and pictures.
Speaker 6:
What do they say? Give them a chance to talk.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay. All right.


Do you want them to introduce themselves? Their names?

Yeah. So, you guys...

This is Ashley. This is Samantha. Matthew, and Andrea. They're in birth order. How many minutes apart?

One minute apart.

One minute apart.

1:03, 1:04, 1:05, and 1:06.

And what were the weights?

One 13.

I was the smallest at one pound nine ounces. I think they were the same.
Matt Powell, quad 3:

I don't know.

One 10.

Thanks mate.

I don't remember.

Matt was one 10.

Sure.

I don't know either, mom.

One 9 and a half.

Wow.

Nine and a half.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

It's amazing how close you were.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yep. And they... Like I said earlier, they were the size of my hand. Their foot was the size of my
thumbnail. She put...

Well, we put this ring, which was my grandfather's wedding ring but we have pictures where we put it
up their arm and let it sit up here at their shoulder just to... Because right after they were born there
was a restriction put on the NICU for RSV. And unless you were a parent, or a physician, you could not
get in. We broke a couple of rules. We got some God parents after hours when people weren't around.
We broke... They let us do that. And I think they let us do it a couple of times because I don't know that
everybody expected them to survive.

Right.

And I think they let us do it because there was a good chance that... Otherwise people weren't going to
see them. But yeah, I mean, there was... Their ears, the cartilage wasn't developed yet, so the ear was
just still flap and but I mean, it was... You couldn't touch them much because the skin would just tear
and it was startling, I remember, in there because they're covered with saran wrap, like the plastic. At
first I was like, "Well, they're going to suffocate." And then I was reminded that they were on a
ventilator and it didn't matter. But yeah, so, that was their weight. What else do you guys want to say?

Do you want more feelings with how they interact with each other? Is that what you're-
Diane:
Yes. And if there's something they feel... Like the birthday question, the opposite of the birthday
question. [crosstalk 00:31:25]


And just what it's like. I mean, people wonder about...

Well, a lot of people were like... At work, we always get the question, "Why are you so close?" And
everyone just finds it weird that we enjoy being together. We don't enjoy being apart. And people are
like, "That's just weird."

It's just multiples have a unique deep connection...

That they really don't quite understand.

Kind of crazy.

It's hard to explain.

Well, you share something that they don't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what they don't understand.

We have a couple friends that are twins and some of them get along, some are very close, and those
friends understand our bond versus our friends who are just single themselves. It's just how it is.

They all have very different personalities but they're all... I don't know how to... But in the same sense,
they share everything. We don't... What we have experienced is that we don't see what other people
see because we see it every day, it's the normal for us. So, when something like, what, yesterday? When
Matthew came home, had been away since March or whatever it was, there was a level of excitement
with the girls to see him that friends that they know, or people, coworkers, they don't understand
because they just... They just experience... They experience things that most people don't, and those
people will never experience what they have.
But like I said, it's the normal for us. We get a lot of questions about that exactly. People will ask
us, "Did you ever wish that you'd had one?" Or, "That you had them individually?" And no. Simply
because we never... We had talked about it, how different our life would have been if each had been
individual but a lot of... In the beginning, it was a lot of work, and it was tough, and it was stressful. But
now, it's so much easier. The one thing that we experienced that most parents don't get to experience is
that when you're done with a phase, you're done. Where a lot of parents have to experience...
They go through diapers three times. They might deal with six years of diapers. We dealt with it
for a couple.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And you had a lot of diapers.

We did have a lot. We did. I had figured that out at one time and I don't remember what it was but I
know it was something like, it was 7,000 diapers a month or something like that.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep.

Yep.

But they've also never been the type of kids... Not once did anybody ever say, "Can I have my own
birthday party?"

Right.

And we did eventually... There was some times that Matt had an individual thing for the guys, separated
from the girls. And that wasn't even-

It was all the same.

Most times. I mean, it was... They kind of had the same group of friends but there was never even any
resentment between... There was never... Nobody was ever mad that it was one big giant birthday
party. But we did... When they were younger, they each had their own cake, even though it was one
party. There was a Mickey Mouse cake, a Scooby cake, a Barbie cake, a Dora cake. Clifford cake. But
whatever the favorite thing was at the time, like they each had their own cake and that type of thing but
they never really seemed to resent anything like that.

No. I don't think they ever did.

No.

No.

No.

They never seemed to show it.

Hmm.

Oh. So, I mean, it's... I don't know. It's just always been their norm. I don't think that they ever expected
it to be any different there.

We don't know any different.

Right. Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Did you say this was your last cycle?

Of the fertility drugs, yeah. We had decided that...

If it didn't work, we were done.

We were done. At least for quite some time. Because we had tapped out financially everything that we
could. And I think emotionally we were going to need a break.

[inaudible 00:36:51] Stressed her out. She would have still been stressed out if it hadn't succeeded.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

How many cycles did you have before this?

Well, we did six insemination's.

I don't remember.

We did six months of the injection drugs with the inseminations, and before that we had done about a
year of-

I remember them giving her shots.

The pill drugs. But at the time, insurance did not cover those injection drugs. And Fertinex was new at
the time, and it was not cheap. But I didn't want to take peritoneal because of how it's harvested. So, I
opted for Fertinex and it works.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Oh, right. Obviously. Was this your first Fertinex cycle?

No, it was my sixth.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Your sixth one, okay.

Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you didn't try anything else?

No.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Except for the [inaudible 00:37:46]

Right. Yeah. And we had a lot of early miscarriages on [inaudible 00:37:51] So, that was something that I
probably would have never opted to go back to because they estimated there was about 13 of them.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Wow.

So, it was just something that was just wasn't...
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

That's a lot of miscarriages.

It was rough.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep.

It was really rough. So, yep. And that's what helped going back to with you. People have asked me a lot,
the delivery of the four kids and things like that, what helped so much in the pre-natal care and that
type of care leading up, is you were always honest with me but in a way that was not brutal. It was not...
But I knew... We had talked, I knew I was not ever leaving that hospital with a baby. I knew you were
never handing me a baby. I wasn't under any illusions as to how this was going to go that night. So, I
think that's why once you got there, and we got into that delivery room. I calmed down because then I
knew what was going to expect because we had talked about so much, how it was going to go. You had
laid it out like, "This is how this we're going to do this. This is how it's going to go."

But at that point then, I was back to where I was okay. Because then I knew, this is what's going
to happen because this is... We had talked about this. This is... Then I knew what to expect.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

That is... Communication is so important and one of the things I really always try to do is get dads
involved. And so, the two of you... Well, actually, the six of you who came in.

Well, I remember you telling me that you were very happy that I was always there with her.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

It's important. Dads are very useful in labor and delivery.

I wasn't that night. Held her hand.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I bet you changed some diapers at home.

I did.

Oh yes. Yeah. He was very hands on. He was very hands on. And he was very supportive. That night, in
the deliver room, he just sat there and held my hand and cried with me, and we'd just... I just...

Kept my focus on her.

Right. [inaudible 00:40:25] Look over the sheet.

[crosstalk 00:40:26] I'm not going to look.

One thing that was really funny is because we... The whole pregnancy, we thought it was two boys and
two girls.

Yep.

So, we had the names for two boys and two girls. And then, all of a sudden you said, "There's girl
number three." And I went like-

"What?"

"Oh no. There is five."

Oh yeah. True.

Luckily, that wasn't the case. So then, they didn't get named right away because we all of a sudden had
to try to figure out what the other name was going to be because we were off on. So, yeah. But it
worked. Andrea's name got changed.

Yep.

It just went from Andrew to Andrea.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

There we go.

Yep.

In the newspapers, they said A, B, C and D for the first two days.

Yeah.

Until we got it figured out. Worked out pretty good.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yes, it did work out nicely.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, congratulations.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anything else you want to?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I can't think of anything. I mean, I could digress but we don't really need to do that.

What about you, Diane? Is there anything we're missing?
Diane:
No. It's just I just want you all to have a chance to tell your stories [crosstalk 00:41:55]

We're not used to this.

Neither are we. But I guess [crosstalk 00:42:03] A little more than you are.
Diane:
But if you don't feel like it, that's fine. But if you've got something to say, we'd love to hear it.

I mean, to be honest, I'm probably only going to be the one talks out of us four.

You are the spokesperson.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you do all have your roles. You're the caretaker, you're the spokesperson.

Yeah.

They all pretty much take care of each other.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When younger but [inaudible 00:42:30] He would more than what you would expect him to. I don't
think he really did any more than the rest of them did. It was just him being the boy, it wasn't as
expected.

Well, no. It was different with him. Like, when Ashley had to have a wrist surgery one time, and nothing
against the other two but when we called the house... I called the house to let them know that the
surgery was over, we were leaving the hospital and that type of thing. I think I was talking to...

Me, maybe?

Sam. And then I was like, "Ashley wants to talk to Matt." So, she gets on the phone with Matt and...

I don't think I was home.

You were.

Was I?

And by the time we got home, Matt had pulled out an air mattress into a spare room off of the living
room, and brought her pills and her blankets down and got everything set up. And he had arranged this

whole little room for her so that he could sit there and he could keep an eye on her and take care of her
so she didn't move her arms so that I could take a nap. And he sat there next to her and watched her
sleep for the next couple of hours. And when Sam had a very nasty oral surgery one time and did not do
well with the anesthesia, when we brought her home, he was right outside there to carry her in and he
spent the next two days donning over her.
And when I had my hysterectomy he was my caretaker. He is different. And it's nothing against
you three girls but you three girls have never been the one to take care of...

[crosstalk 00:44:12] Takes care of his mom.

Yeah. He does take care of his mom. But the three girls have never been to that extent. That's just
simply Matt. That's just what Matt's always been. And he probably always will be. It's just in his core,
what he does. But they all have... Andy's the happy carefree one. It doesn't matter how bad the
situation is, Andy's going to make everybody smile and laugh, and relax.

She's good at it too.

Sam's going to keep everybody in line. She's going to make sure everybody does what they're supposed
to do and doesn't get themselves into trouble. And Ashley's going to... Ashley is-

[crosstalk 00:44:56] Get picked on. But I take care of it.

Yeah. Ashley's going to make sure... She's the coordinator... She's the...

Yeah.

She's going to-

She's the organ...

Yeah. She's the going to [crosstalk 00:45:08]

Well, [crosstalk 00:45:08] Sam's the organized one.

We both are. But she...

Ashley's more organized.

How old's your grandparents?

Which ones?

All of them.

Your parents are what? 75, 76? And your parents are...

She's the keeper of the [crosstalk 00:45:22]

She's the date keeper.

74, 73.

She's the keeper of the information in the family.

Yeah.

And then they've always paired off a little bit even though they're all very close. Samantha and Andrea
have always been very tight. And Matt and Ashley have always been very [crosstalk 00:45:38]

We're going through out phases of tightness. Him and I were like this when we were younger but then it
was her and I when we want to college. And then when I... And then, she was away at Disney.



She and I got really tight. Yeah. That's just how it goes.

Yeah. But Matt and Ashley were the athletic ones. So, they were [inaudible 00:45:56] Ones that
competed against each other.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you said college. So, did you all go to the same?

No. Her and I went to the same college.

Yeah. So, we both-

[inaudible 00:46:10]

Yeah. And I'm going back in two weeks.

Yeah. They're Winona State students in education. Sam's taking a break because she's changing her
mind I think. And Matt is working in North Dakota with my brother. And Andy is probably leaning
towards cosmetology at this time.

Yeah. You have to be here for these things dude.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you're going to put on permanent makeup?

No. Not permanent. Yeah, makeup.

She likes her...

She loves makeup.

Likes makeup and hair stuff.

Yeah. It's her thing.

She spends a lot of money on it.

No, I don't.

They take care of each other. They always joked at the high school how they always walked in and out of
the building together. It didn't matter what their friends were doing or whatever, they walked in
together, they walked out together.

What were we called?

Quad Squad.

The Quad Squad.

Quad Squad. And also a couple teachers called us hoodlums or something because we were always
walking [crosstalk 00:47:21]

In a line.


We walked down the halls.


We did.

[inaudible 00:47:27] We were all a gang.

Yeah.

Because we were.

That would make a good game.

Yep. So, yep. They're an interesting group that's for sure. So, that's that.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, thank you again.

No problem.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And I really have enjoyed all the cards and letters. And actually, I have a picture... The last picture you
sent still in my office.

Is that? Our first senior photo. That's probably the one with the water in the background.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

It is the water.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:


That's her favorite one.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I've always wondered whether that was real water or [crosstalk 00:48:11]

It is.

The park is right right a block and a half behind us. That's Riverside Park where we took all those senior
photos. It was right back there.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Those are beautiful.

Yeah. Yeah, that's our senior photo. That was that last time. We haven't taken a group photo since then.

No, we haven't.

I mean, we took one yesterday.

The two.

Yeah.

But I don't know. Is there anything else you want to?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

No, I can't think of anything. Like I said, I could digress but that will just subtract from what you have to
say and I don't want to do that. So, thank you.

Well, I mean... No, I just wanted to make sure you got whatever you needed.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

This is very good. I think that there's going to be a lot of people who will be seeing what we're doing
here today.

Well, and I hope... I mean, I don't know exactly what you're trying to do but I hope that it helps because
I've told Doug many times I was very fortunate to end up with you because I always... And it might seem
like small stupid things to the rest of the world but like for example, something as minor as a pre-natal
[inaudible 00:49:22] I was already taking a multi-vitamin and instead of putting me on one that was
probably going to make sick, I just brought the bottle in and then you looked at it, and it had what I
needed. SO, since it wasn't making me get sick every morning, you just let me take that. I remember
times where you said, "Well, other doctors would probably put you in the hospital now but that's for
sick people and I can't risk you getting sick. So, we're just going to keep you at home."
You let me do what my body said I could do until I had to slow it down, or take it easy, and that
type of thing. I don't know. I think I made it as long as I did because of how we did it. I wanted you to
know that because I mean, it really mattered a lot to me.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

One of the things that's so important with pre-natal care is the point you brought up, is comfort.


Dr. Alan Lindemann:

That is so important. I think that sets a stage for the rest of your lives.

Yep.

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

You go home that way, and you manage that.

Right.

Yep.

Yep. I agree.

Well, and knowing that your physician cares. I remember one of my first visits with you after the kids
were born, and I'd joke about how I was going through withdrawals because I was used to seeing you at
minimum every week. And I think there was a couple weeks where we were in there a couple times a
week. And then, all of a sudden, I have the kids and I don't need to come and count heart beats every
week and what do I do? I'm not seeing Dr. Lindemann every week. But I remember one time going in,
and we had moved into the larger three bedroom apartment and we had it set up for the kids. And you
were very interested in how that apartment was set up, and how we were getting ready for the kids.
And I remember we sat down, and we drew a diagram of the apartment and where we were
having the cribs, and how we were going to do this. And that is just another thing that has always stuck
with me because not many doctors really would have cared. But you... It was a ways out before the kids
came home but you were still interested. You cared about how we were going to do that when we got
them home. That's not your job, you don't have to care about that but you did. It will always stick with
me.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

That was the fun part of it.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And the magic.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And the magic.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a good time.

When we... When this all happened, it was during that... I guess craze probably isn't the right word but
there were so many multiple births at that time.

Yeah because-

There was another family up in Grand Forks that delivered quadruplets a week or two after these guys.

No. They're a couple months younger than these guys, yeah.


[crosstalk 00:52:23] Couple months.

Yeah.

And then the sextuplets.

The McCoy sextuplets?

The McCoys.

Yeah. That was a national one.

It's really funny, strange, I don't know. You don't hear about it anymore.

Oh, the world's gotten used to it.

Was it just people lost interest?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I think there's been a lot of pressure against it.

Yeah.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

And I think there may be a big concern about putting in eight embryos, or six embryos.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yep.

Is it the right thing to do? Yep.

In the eyes of the fertility clinic, this was a mistake.

Yep.

I mean, they monitor better than this, is how they look at it. And I get that. I get that but we made a
decision and this is the way it's going to be. And then, I understand the human body's not made to carry
a litter. And we agreed to that when we tried do it. And I would always tell everybody, "It's not
something that you should probably put your body through." I mean, I didn't necessarily fair real well in
it. I mean, there's a lot of things that come into place in that type of thing. So, I can't mute that thing. I
don't know who's calling my office today.

Pick it up and hang up.

That's the only thing you can do. Do it. It's okay. Yeah. I can't shut the ringer off on that one. I don't
know who's calling me today. But yeah, so, it's... Yeah, I mean, it's not easy. I wouldn't tell anybody to,
"If you can carry quadruplets, it's a great idea, your body will do well. Do it." No. But at the same time, I
would also not do it any other way than I did it.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep. Well, like I said, you did a good job.

Thanks. So did you.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yep. Yes, I did. You all did a good job.

So, cool, cool.

Anything else?
Diane:
No. I can't think of anything else. You, doc?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay. No, thank you.

No problem. You're welcome.

No problem at all.

Happy to do it. Glad you could come down.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Oh. Well, maybe we can do this in 20 years, huh?

Yeah.

There you go.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I'll be 91.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I'm not going to take the same route. We got the GPS routed us at 694 down through St. Paul, passed
Ramsey-

Down 35?
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Yeah.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

The 252. I mean, that's the way we caught 52. But I think it would have probably made more sense to go
494.

If traffic isn't too bad, that is the best way to go. But it is the quickest.

You know, he's a professional truck driver.

Oh, yeah.

He's been on those roads many a times.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Well, that would be tough. That would be a tough way to make a living sometimes.

Well, he's not over the road though.

Not anymore.

He hasn't been over the road for years.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay.

Only did it for...

Two, three.

Two years. But not consecutively.

Yeah. He just drives locally now.

Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

So, you get home at night?

No. During the day.

He's been driving overnights for the last eight years but he actually starts a daytime job on Tuesday.

Yep.

He's switching jobs right now.

Yep. I was [inaudible 00:56:01] For FedEX, then go to St. Paul and back every night.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I followed a FedEX truck last night, or yesterday. I think it was going about 78 miles an hour. So, I'm
thinking, "How can you do that with FedEX? Don't you get picked up?"

FedEX is 65. So, it must have been... Yeah, they must not have had the governor on.

Must not have had a governor on it.

Yep.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Anyway, it was good to be behind it.

Yep. Cool.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Okay. Thank you for this.

Thank you, Matt.
Speaker 6:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Dr. Alan Lindemann:

I think it'll be fun to...


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Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

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Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

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Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

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Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

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Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

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Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

Doug Powell, father of quads:

Dr. Alan Lindemann:

Sandy Powell, mother of quads:

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