Path to Pregnancy: 2010-12-26

The date is January 5, 2011 and we are officially on the path to pregnancy for the 3rd official time. Let me start from the beginning....

First of all it should be known that I have had ovulation problems my whole life. Still period less at 13, my mom took me to our pediatrician to be checked out to make sure I had all the working parts. I remember that as being such an embarrassing moment. Not to mention all the other crappy feelings you get along with having such a problem. Good news is, I do have all the necessary parts to ovulate properly. So what seems to be the problem then?

At that time, very little to nothing was said to me about possible hormone issues or PCOS. I still am not sure if the Dr's knew and just didn't explain my problem to me very good at all, or they would just wait it out to see if maybe I was just a "late bloomer". Whatever the case, I felt weird and different and nobody was giving me an answer. So we just waited it out. Still the period never came.

It wasn't until I was 29 that I finally learned I had PCOS. Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. It turns out that PCOS is not uncommon. If it is so common, then why did it take so long to diagnose it as such? I feel like the ball was dropped somewhere along the way. PCOS can cause all kinds of problems if left untreated. Okay, this is the health care system we pay for? I'll quit right there, that's a whole other blog!

Back to the story. At 14 I finally got a period!!! But don't get too excited, I didn't have another one until I was 16. Turning 16 brings on all kinds of feelings, so having a period seemed like the cherry on top! I was finally turning into a woman! Well, that was short lived. After a few spotting episodes, I was taken to a Gynecologist. By the way, this was my first experience opening my legs to a man...not to mention my mother was in the room. Weird! But, I was determined to see if this Dr. could make me normal. He gave me a shot of estrogen in my butt to get my period started. After that I was to take the birth control pill everyday to keep my period regular. It finally felt like my body was doing what it was supposed to do and I felt somewhat normal. But knowing that my period was being forced was always a concern of mine when it comes to wanting to have children later on in life. I wondered what happens if I want to get pregnant? I can't get pregnant if I'm on the pill and I can't ovulate unless I'm on the pill....and so the journey began.

I am not the only one with fertility issues in our coupledom. Mike had informed me that in his previous marriage, they had wanted to have a baby too and were not having any luck. He went to a urologist to have his sperm counted and checked out. He was not given a result but told to come back for a second test. Well, he never did go back for that test due to the dissolution of that marriage.

Mike and I started dating in 2001 and were married on July 10, 2004. We were living in West Burlington, Ia in a cute tiny little house with a huge backyard, a wonderful dog, great family, friends, and neighbors. We were young and in love and feeling pretty stable so we decided to try for a baby about 8 months before we got married. At that time I quit taking the pill and was incredibly uncertain as to what would happen, but tried to remain optimistic. I was terrified, but wanted a baby and knew we could make it work. So, I quit taking the pill with uncertainty as to whether or not I would ovulate. Hallelujah! I most certainly did, and for quite some time, actually. I was feeling "normal"! But after many romps around the bedroom and still no baby on the way, and us knowing of the story of Mike that I will tell you in a bit....we decided to get him checked out. So we were referred to a urologist for a sperm count. Well the result was, "you need to come back in for a second test..." What? Why are they saying that again? What the heck is the problem? Mike felt he knew that it was because he had a low sperm count. But wanted to be certain. He gave them a call and asked them to tell him why he needs to come in. They told him it is looking like he may have a low sperm count and they need to get a second result to rule out any possible related issues. So, with that being said, it pretty much scared us away. We didn't do the second test. But it was good to know that he wasn't sterile too. I think we knew we weren't really ready for a baby, and so just kind of let it be. But the questions still remained. We knew we would need to "try" when the right time came.

To make this even more interesting, there is a reason as to how Mike knew he had a low sperm count. Mike had told me all about when he was a baby and how sick he was. He was born with very bad asthma and was hospitalized for it at one point. The attending Dr. had overdosed baby Mike with too much of some drug (sorry, I don't know the name of it) and Mike was very close to death. Well, after much better doctoring, Mike came around and seemed to be okay. Since then he has grown out of his asthma and has no symptoms. So you're probably wondering what this has to do with low sperm count....well, the doctor informed Mike's mom that one possible long-term effect of the overdose could be low sperm count or even become sterile! Well, after I heard that story, I felt like we are defeated! So, as you can see, it was nice to know at least that Mike wasn't sterile. Since then, we decided that we would just have unprotected sex and see what happens.

Although life was pretty good in West Burlington, we wanted something more. So, we moved to Cedar Rapids, Ia in 2005. Hopefully to find ourselves a future and a home. This whole time, I hadn't been on the pill and was having semi-normal ovulations. Then all of a sudden they quit for quite some time. Then out of nowhere I would have another one. Then it would quit. My periods were very intermittent and came and went as they pleased. Then in summer of '08, I had a part-time job painting. While at work I started having really awful pains. They were BAD. I went to the bathroom and I was bleeding heavy. I was so scared, but remained calm and kept on painting. After we were done I went home and curled up on the couch. Needless to say,- didn't work for a couple days. There was so much blood I thought I would bleed to death. So I called the Dr. and they got me in right away. At this time she did an internal ultrasound on my uterus and ovaries. This is when I was diagnosed with PCOS- Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome. It all came to a head after many years of it being left untreated. All I needed to do was be on the pill. I wanted to scream! But how am I gonna get pregnant?????

In November 2009 we decided to try officially for the 2nd time. I was working in a job that I found stressful, and I disliked it very much. I knew that having added stress does not create an ideal condition to try and conceive. But again, I remained optimistic! At this time, we heard about a Dr. Sunny Zhang from one of our close friends whose sister got pregnant after many years of trying, with her help! Yay! A point in the right direction. So...to Dr. Zhang we went! Dr. Zhang was very straight forward, honest, and optimistic! I thought we were on our way to having a little piece of us. We were ready as we would ever be. We always thought, "let's wait until we are financially stable." Hahahahahaha!! That's funny. Nobody would have babies if we all waited until we were stable in any shape or form! Well, once we adopted that way of thinking, we really were ready. Except for the job I hated..hmmmmm...that's a problem. We forged ahead anyhow with tests, pills, shots, and all kinds of fun stuff. I will not bore you with the scientific terminology because quite honestly, it's all kind of hard to explain and I don't understand all of it myself.

That's it for now. I need to give my brain a break! I hope to see you all back to hear the rest of our story. Please share with me your thoughts and stories too!

Path to Pregnancy

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Story Up to Now

First blog day