Daily Inspiration: Meet Dr. Allison Quirin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Allison Quirin. 

Hi Dr. Quirin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
My name is Allison Quirin. I’m known as @drqtheearringaddict on Instagram. 

I’m an eye-doctor, earring collector, wife, mom, autoimmune disease warrior, and Seattle native who has made her dream life here in Denver, Colorado. I absolutely love the Denver area, and my family would like to stay here forever. I also love kids, hence why I work for a Pediatric Optometry office in Wheatridge. Our office primarily serves the Medicaid community, and I feel honored to be able to provide services to the less fortunate members of our society. I take my career as an optometrist very seriously, as I was the University of Houston College of Optometry’s valedictorian in 2017, graduating with a 4.0 GPA in addition to multiple awards in contact lenses, pediatrics, and optics. 

In addition to my career as an optometrist, I love my new role as a mom to a 19-month-old son and a 10-month-old daughter. I became a first-time mom during the pandemic in August of 2020 when my husband and I adopted a 3-week-old newborn. We then added to our family in 2021, when I got pregnant 3 weeks after adopting our son. Our daughter was born 9 months later, and now we have two kids 9 months and 2 days apart in age, which has led to a lot of humbling exhaustion, laughter, and pure joy. Becoming a mom has been a primary goal for the last 6 years, and it was a rough journey to accomplish, involving a miscarriage, stillbirth, and my own near-death experience. 

In the beginning of 2016, my husband and I had just begun to talk about starting a family during my final year of my doctorate program in Houston, when I became pregnant with my son, Asher. We were so excited! But unfortunately, things ended in tragedy, as my water broke early, and I delivered him at home in my bathroom at 16 weeks. The doctors were beyond confused, and they couldn’t identify a reason for why this happened. They informed us that with my next pregnancy, I would be followed by a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. Lo and behold, I got pregnant again a month after the loss of Asher with my daughter Daphne. 

The pregnancy started out very strange, as I became almost immobile with severe pain in my legs at around 12 weeks that moved onto difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, and chest pain as I approached 20 weeks. I saw 4 different doctors to try and figure out the underlying cause, but none of them took my concerns seriously. I was told things like “Oh honey, it’s gas. Take a Mylanta” or “Pregnant women get unexplained chest pain all the time.” At my 20 weeks anatomy scan, I could barely lie down for the ultrasound, and when I was finally able to complete the testing, we discovered that my daughter had died. I was rushed to the hospital to be induced, and it took the hospital staff almost 12 hours to take my chest pain seriously. By the time I was officially diagnosed with Antiphospholipid syndrome which caused blood clots throughout my legs and lungs, we had already started the induction process for my daughter. Consequently, I was forced to keep an epidural in my back for 2 weeks to avoid paralysis even after she was born. I spent the next 6 weeks in the ICU, with extensive lung damage, not knowing whether I would die or if I survived whether I’d be able to live a life without being tethered to an oxygen tank, let alone graduate my doctorate program and become an optometrist. 

I worked very hard to recover, and I am truly proud of what I accomplished in just one year’s time. I owe my successes to the help of the right medical team, anticoagulants, and my propensity for scientific research. By the end of 2017, my husband and I moved to the great state of Colorado, with my doctorate degree in my hand ready to practice full-scope optometry unencumbered by an oxygen tank, still hoping to create a family. 

The path to parenthood was slow for the next 3 years as we tried surrogacy and failed, froze embryos for a potential future surrogacy, and finally joined an infant adoption waitlist. But the pandemic slowed the adoption process down to almost a screeching halt, and we were faced with a prolonged adoption placement projection from 2 years to 4 years. I was not satisfied with waiting any longer to start our family, and my mind was determined to try pregnancy again. 

With the help of Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, my autoimmune disease doctor Dr. Jill Schofield, and my functional medicine doctor Dr. Kina Khatri, we planned for a high-risk pregnancy where we would implant one of our embryos that was frozen in 2018. Well, life has a funny way of working out, as we got the adoption placement call for our son a day before my embryo transfer. I had already been taking hormones for a month in preparation for the embryo transfer, and the embryo was already starting the defrosting process. We said yes to both situations, and here we are almost two years later, as a family of four. I had an extremely successful, and easy pregnancy, and I feel so blessed to be able to finally be a mother to these two amazing kids. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a pediatric optometrist serving the low-income community in Wheatridge, Colorado. I LOVE my job because it’s always a challenge and never ceases to keep me on my toes. I always have to be creative in obtaining the data I need for little kids, and every exam becomes a fun game with lots of stickers, toys, and high-fives. 

I’m also very proud that I was awarded the excellence in Pediatrics award during my optometry school graduation in 2017 along with the award for excellence in contact lens care and optics. I also was the valedictorian of my graduating class with a 4.0 GPA despite spending a lot of my last semester in the hospital. 

I’m known for my determination, never giving up on a difficult problem. I’m also known for my giant earring collection, that serves as a great fixation target for my patients during important eye tests. My patients also love my bubbly personality and sense of humor. 

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
My autoimmune disease changed my life for the better and the worse. It is an incredibly humbling experience to almost lose your life and lose the life of your children in addition to your hopes for the traditional path to motherhood. I’m a way better listener now, and I have a lot more patience. I’m also a lot more empathetic. 

I take every concern my patient tells me seriously, as my medical team ignored my complaints for far too long, almost resulting in my death. I empower my patients, friends, and family to take control of their health and partner with their medical team. Ultimately, they know their body best, and they have so much more power than they realize in guiding their pathway to health. 

Contact Info:

• Email: thestickytruthshow@gmail.com
• Instagram: drqtheearringaddict
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thestickytruthblog