A year later...

Wow, it's really been over a year since my last post. Lots to catch up on. That really expensive IUI I discussed in the previous post, didn't work. But, many entertaining stories exist due to the experience. Like, the $50 vial of meds that were shot around my kitchen on accident...oops! Or, the crying I did when Chad had to give me a shot in my butt with the largest needle ever. Had I never seen it, I would have been just fine.

After the failure of that cycle, I did a lot of soul searching. We looked into adoption, but cost wise, it's not the road we can choose at this time. Plus, doing so still ignores the fact that there is something drastically wrong with me. I need to be fixed. Which leads to our current situation.

About 6 months ago, I was reading my monthly issue of The Catholic Times, the one and only issue I have ever read. And, I believe it was not an accident that I read it. In the paper, was an article about the Creighton Method of Family Planning (CrMs) and Natural Procreative Technology (NaPro Technology). This was a natural way to conceive, and if that didn't work, the doctor actually looks for what is wrong with the couple and fixes it! While to many, this seems like a natural thing for a doctor to do, in my experience, it's not. A fertility specialist is worried about their successful pregnancy rates, not fixing your problems. According to fertility specialists, the solution for most problems is IVF. However, this just overrides the fertility issue and forces a body, that isn't healthy enough for pregnancy to get and STAY pregnant. My RE (fertility doc) told me that IVF was my only option. Well, I am still broken, and now, my wallet is broke after spending 4 1/2 YEARS in his office. So, I gladly said goodbye to him and looked up a NaPro doc. There isn't a lot of information out there, so it was very hard to come by anything helpful. So, I just set the article aside and forgot about it.

Then, months later, I bought the book, The Secret. Something in it struck me. The entire book is about being positive and seeing what you want happening to you. In one chapter, it explained that just being positive and thinking positive thoughts isn't always enough, sometimes you need to work for what you want. Immediately, I thought about the Catholic Times article. Oddly, I had saved it for over 6 months.

I searched and finally found a doctor that I loved. Dr. Parker in Gahanna. He is amazing. Our first consultation was 1 1/2 hours of questions about my fertility history. Some of the questions I had been asked before, some I had no idea how they related to fertility. I explained that my ovaries hurt insanely, every month, waiting for him to respond with, "Some women have pain with ovulation, that's normal, " as other docs had in the past. However, he was extremely concerned for my level of pain and actually said that it wasn't normal. At that moment, I knew I was going down the right path. I could have cried.

His initial impression led him to believe that I have mild PCOS, thyroid issues and my endo may be back. Wow! He wanted to do surgery ASAP to fix me. OMG, loving him! I am scheduled for surgery next week and my pre-op is tomorrow. He will also do an ultrasound to see my ovaries and order blood work for my hormone levels.

So, that should just about catch everyone up on me. I promise not to go so long without writing again!