Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Catching up with an "old" friend....

So who is this old friend? Well in fertility world my 36 year old reproductive system.  So I thought I would take this post to catch you up on the three years prior to being told that a Gestational Carrier would be our best bet to have another baby.  After trying for a year on our own, we decided to go to see a fertility doctor.  He ran lots of tests on both Johnny and myself.  Every blood test you could think of and I also had scans and ultrasounds.  Some tests were totally fine...others were painful.  After the tests were complete I found out the following:
1.  I had a hypo thyroid
2.  I was insulin resistant (what the heck is that)
all of which could be controlled with medicine and shouldn't be a problem.  We were told that we should do clomid and insemination.  Okay.. Sounds easy enough. No shots.  Great!! I thought we would be up and running (or throwing up) in no time.

So after round three of clomid, I got the call I was waiting for!! You're VERY pregnant.  Asking the nurse, what does very pregnant mean?  Well my numbers were crazy  high.  In the thousands.  I believe around 30 you are pregnant.  So I quickly was trying to do the math.  I had visions of multiple bouncy chairs in my living room.  I thought okay..here we go.  They wanted me to come in to do more blood work in 3 days.  So when my numbers didn't rise the way they wanted, I got another call. This time from a nurse, who I  thought at the time was mean.  She said, "We need you to come in for an ultrasound. I just want to worn you that you may have an issue here".  I was thinking what? An issue, my numbers were so high obviously I  was pregnant it was just a question of how many.

I went for the ultrasound...there was NOTHING!  If that nurse hadn't had planted that seed of something not being right, I would have really been knocked off my rocker.  So now I am pregnant, but we can't see anything.  What does that mean?  Ectopic pregnancy? I was then asked many questions..Did I have bleeding, was I experiencing cramps? NO to both.  So I had a choice get a DNC and if it was in my tube it would be removed or get a shot that will stop the growth of any rapid growing cells.  I went home crying trying to figure out what to do cause obviously I didn't want my tube to burst.  I chose the shot and went back later that day.  I still had many many questions.

After meeting with my doctor, I was told that I actually got pregnant during my second cycle.  The medicines I was taking were just enough to keep the pregnancy going.  I was told how RARE this is (a statement I would be hearing often through this journey).  I was the 3rd person in 30 years that this has happened to at this facility..should I start playing the lottery?

So we ended up doing 7 rounds of insemination.  Finally I was pregnant.  It was really hard for me to admit it to myself.  I only told my closest friends and some family.  It was August 17th.  My son's 5th birthday.  I had my 12 week ultrasound scheduled.  I bought the "You are going to be a big brother" books to give to my son that night after the ultrasound.  We went for the ultrasound.  As soon as the picture came up, I knew something was wrong.  There was no heartbeat.  We were devastated.  They wanted to do the DNC that day.  I couldn't.  I was my son's birthday.  We were having family over.  I wasn't going to not be there for his birthday.  I was able to push it aside and be present for my son's birthday.  Which lead to another internal struggle.  The day I had my DNC my sister in law was giving birth to my adorable niece by the same doctor in the same hospital.  This taught me a lot about myself and deserves its own post.  More to come....

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