What to Expect when you're NOT expecting

So my plan when this all started was to try to record everything that myself and my DH (Darling Hubby) had to go through.  This includes everything from the emotions, to the “what ifs,” and the physical and invasive procedures and testing that we would start to live through.  But of course with life, things just seemed to keep going and it all of a sudden we are already going through our first round of IVF.  With everything happening so quickly, I have decided that now that I am on some bed rest I can type up some entries with the “notes” I have jotted down along the way.  I am going to start by catching you up to where we are at now, and then continue posting while we continue our journey to our Miracle Baby.

First I will give you some background and tell you about myself, and my DH.  My name is Lindsay (27) and I will just refer to hubby as DH (30).  We got married back in 2009, which is a little over 3 years ago.  We only dated for 1 year before we got married, so as badly as we wanted to start a family together, we wanted to give ourselves about a year or so of “just us” time.  This, by the way, was a great decision we made.  As we continue to go through this journey I have fallen more and more in love with him, and am so glad we had those years of foundation to start our relationship off with.  So once we were married about a year we decided we would no longer “worry” about preventing pregnancy and let nature take its own course.  After about 6 months of this, it was still just DH and I, so we decided we would track my cycle, and track my ovulation, etc.  After about 5 months of this, still nothing.  I decided I was going to take it into my own hands, and spoke with my OB/GYN about this.  She told me I was so young (25) and to not worry about it quite yet.

It’s been about eleven or so months now and I know there’s something wrong with me, but my DH thinks it’s too soon to be worried, and is trying to calm my nerves a little bit.  My OB did not seem concerned at all, and tells me to wait a few more months and see where we are at then.  Although I am hoping she is right and there’s nothing to worry about, I definitely want a second opinion.   I chose to go see a different gynecologist in the office and take matters into my own hands.  He tells me there’s a little bit of concern considering how young we were but we will watch it for the next 3 months, and to continue to take ovulation kits, and tells me to make sure I get the test to take every day from the day after my AF (Aunt Flow) until I get a smiley face.  (Which would indicate ovulation had occurred) 

I had taken the ovulation kits already for about 5 months and nothing had happened, so when I told him this, he told me to continue the ovulation kits and track my temperature as well.  We realized that while doing the ovulation kits I was not getting a single smiley face, which indicated that I was not ovulating.  This sounds like bad news, but in the whole scheme of things, this is something that can be helped along with some assistance from a pill from Clomid.  So although it wasn’t the best news, it was not the worst.

Then they decided to do an HSG test to ensure that my tubes were not clogged.  This procedure involves you laying on a table and they put a catheter inside of you while they have a camera view for you to watch.  They take a dyed liquid and shoot it through the tubes to see if the liquid comes out the other end of the tubes.  As I was laying there (feeling like major cramps were occurring and small contraction type pains) and the liquid was inserted, we waited.  The waiting was only about 30 seconds, but it felt like forever.  The liquid finally flushed through one of the tubes, but not the other.  The doctor proceeded to ask the nurse for more liquid, and they injected some more liquid, and finally it pushed through the second tube.  They found small mucus parts in my tubes, but they were pretty easily flushed out with the procedure and we were able to move onto the next steps.  We did a lot of blood work (about 20 tubes) which verified that I do not ovulate.  So although this wasn’t the worst news, it had shaken us both a little because we thought, “this wouldn’t happen to us.”  With this blood work we found out that my levels were normal and I did in fact have healthy ovaries, but my eggs did not develop quickly enough in order to be ready when it came time to ovulation each month.

After being poked and prodded throughout these tests I decided it was time to test my DH to make sure we were had all the information needed before we proceeded.  Let me point out that this was a test that I requested.  This was not a test that either of the gynecologists recommended.  You definitely have to be your own advocate when it comes to this entire process.  Obviously checking him out was an easier task than the tests that I had gone through, but definitely JUST AS IMPORTANT!  So the doctors checked DH’s sperm count (how many), sperm motility (the speed and healthy movement), and the morphology (the shape,  and health of them).  Surprise, surprise. . Another bump in the road . . And not in my belly.  His count was very low.  I am going to try to explain this in the easiest way possible.  They grade the count/motility/morphology on a specific number scale.  (Different places grade them differently) 100-200 indicates an excellent count/motility/morphology; 50-100 indicates a good count/motility/morphology; lastly, 0-50 indicates poor count/motility/morphology.  These were his scores:  Count:  .06/Motility:  .05/Morphology:  6. Needless to say these were not the outcomes we were hoping and praying for. 

At this point we are referred to a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) which is a doctor that specializes in infertility in couples.  Be back tomorrow.

    

  Baby Dust to all,

Lindsay