In June of 2004, we were ready to start trying to get pregnant again. This turned out to be easier said than done. To keep the graphic nature of this content to a minimum, let's just say that all "systems" were clearly not functioning properly. Calls in to the doctor to find out what was going on always resulted in "Just get back on birth control and it should be fine." But really? What woman who is trying to get pregnant wants to hear that type of advice? That is like the antithesis of your current goals. So, I rebelled. I did not take the meds and things only got worse.
January 2005 rolled around and things were still a mess. I had taken a two month assignment in Florida for work and about six weeks into it I sorta had a major breakdown. This was most likely a result of the 14-hour day/7 days a week work combined with the improperly functioning systems that had left me SEVERLY anemic. Thankfully Josh was there with me and we were able to get sent back home on medical leave in a very short amount of time.
Only days after arriving in California my mom and I were headed to Santa Barbara for a full workup at the Sansum Clinic. It was three days of craziness. Basically, I started at an Internal Medicine doctor and was then referred out to a specialist for any possible issue that I had going on. For me, that equaled an Endocrinologist, Neurologist, Obgyn, not to mention multiple ultrasounds, and more lab work and more blood taken than I knew was possible. You know it's bad when the same nurse in the lab recognizes you because it's the THIRD time you've seen her that day! It was totally worth it though because I was able to leave there with a plan. That's really all I wanted. To know that we were actually heading in the right direction.
When I got back to town, I was referred to a fertility doctor here in town that we shall call Dr. A. He was great! I first saw him in early May and then spent the rest of the summer undergoing various tests and procedures. Again, I will spare you the graphic details but I can tell you that they were NOT fun and some quite painful. But at summer's end, we knew we were hopefully getting close. Following a round of Clomid and Metformin combo, Dr. A told us that we had about a 20-25% chance of conceiving on our own so he recommended an IUI just so that we didn't waste our time and the good egg that we finally had. Talk about being sure of your conception date! So on August 25, 2005 "all the guests made it to the party" (the doc's words, not mine) and I figured that now we just waited the 10 days for the blood test. Yeah, right. The next words from the nurse?
"Has anyone explained to you how to do the shots yet?"
Excuse me? Shots? NO ONE mentioned shots!
And so the lesson on heparin shots began. The daily med list heading home?
-heparing shots (twice daily)
-progesterone (ahem, not in pill form, twice daily)
-prenatal vitamins
-steroids (10 day prescription to boost system before heparin kicks in but with a warning that it increases cleft palette chances to like 15%)
-Metformin (three times daily)
-iron (twice daily for anemia)
You know those women (some of you included) who get that moment of "Oh my, I'm late. I wonder if I'm pregnant. " Then comes the home test and the phone call/announcement to husband and friends and family. Yeah, not us. But that's okay. Because we were still reaching the same goal. A baby. And now we were less than two weeks away from knowing if that goal was actually happening......
3 comments:
This is a great continuation story! I can't wait for the next installment. I checked back into blog world at just the right moment! Just so you know, we love Charleigh around here and have been hoping she is enjoying the game. We can't wait to see you sometime this week!
oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh---lovin your story! this is great writing.so sorry for all you went through though!
Wow...Charleigh is a really special girl. I also had to have some "help" to get pregnant, but not to the extreme as you did. I eagerly await part 3. :)
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