Where to start?? Who are we? What have we done? Why am I here?
I have a notebook of our TTC "path" so far but it's at the office so I'm going to list the full history on the separate tab on my blog. But for now...a little about us. Let's call us Sugar (me) and Spice...a couple of Midwest girls who have been together just about 9 years who decided to become a party of three (or 5 with our 2 poochies) back in December 2009. I will be the blogger and the carrier and have been a blog stalker for over a year. After many failed IUI attempts I started reading blogs because I was looking for support since we do not have any friends that are going through what we are. I had so many thoughts, questions and just plain old frustrations with not getting pregnant. Spice is a great support and I love her so much for being there when I would get the results and get one more bloodwork call that starts with "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this...." but this is so new for both us that I began reading blogs to find some strength in continuing to try and find others that had the same heartaches. We never thought we would be where we are today...IVF. We thought...maybe it will take 4-6 tries. Hmmm but instead it was 13 rounds of IUI some unmedicated, unmonitored...some monitored with Clomid that ended up with "I'm so sorrry..." I've been told the BW, U/S, follicle number, estrogen...all normal. So I get the wonderful prognosis of "unexplained infertility" with "explained bitchiness"...kidding. Of course I added the last prognosis myself. Ha!
So back in May 2011 was the last IUI that we tried. I met with my Dr after the "I'm so sorry.." and she said that next up for me is IVF. [insert panic] I thought IVF was for people who didn't ovulate naturally, that had bad levels of follicles and crazy estrogen levels...NOPE. Boy was I wrong! So I took a bunch of information from the Dr and discussed the consult with Spice and we decided...let's take the Summer off and then decide. It sure was a long summer...but there was no added stress of Clomid, peeing on sticks, U/S appts but I sure did not lose the thoughts of what the heck should we do?? Do we look at all of these unsuccessful attempts as "it wasn't meant to be"? Would we be ok with no more trying? Is loving our nieces and nephews enough to replace having one of our own? ahhhhhhh! So I again turned to blogs...women with so much strength to keep going...I needed to hear the ups and downs of going to the next level of IVF. And there is a lot of success but there is still so much heartache. I wonder which group we would end up in. Is that kind of roulette at 12k a spin crazy to consider?? So I read. Blogs have become my blood line and my heart goes out to everyone for sharing their stories and putting their hearts on their sleeves.
Welcome to blogging! I can identify with so much of what you have written here. We were in exactly the same boat (totally regular cycles and a stack of perfect test results, but 14 failed IUIs under our belts) when we ended up on IVF's doorstep, but we got lucky on our first cycle, and even decided to do it again for #2. Yes, it's an unbelievably scary gamble, but the odds are soooo much better, even for unexplained people like us. :-) I look forward to cheering you on!
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