siobhan2: My journey to Georgia.....(Warning...LONG)...Dh and I married on April 17, 1993. Immediately after marrying, dh enrolled full-time in college to complete his degree. I taught during the day, waited tables at night and tutored on the weekends while dh worked at the universtiy in order to make ends meet. Needless to say, we postponed ttc'ing unitl we were comfortable with our schedules and not as exhausted from our workload. I was 23 and he 24. We were young and I thought we had plenty of time ahead of us to pursue a family. After approximately a year into his program we decided we would start trying. Months passed and nothing happened. I had no idea about temping, cm, the world of IF. I thought, naively, we would get pg the first try. In May of '95 a flood hit our area and devastated our neighborhood. We had 2-3 feet of water in our entire house. It was like being in an insect horror movie... watching the water come in. It just wouldn't stop. Everywhere you looked it was creeping, in some places, gushing in. We lost almost everything we had. It took us about a year to rebuild our lives, which involved a move across town to higher ground. Needless to say I became very depressed and started experiencing panic attacks. Ttc'ing was once again put on hold until our lives got back to normal. During this time I suffered two falls. One was on rain-slicked concrete while running to get in my car and the other on my butt down a flight of stairs when my foot came out from under me. These falls seemed innocuous at first and I payed them no mind except to berate myself for being so clumsy. After some time passed and we were more settled, we began tt'cing again. About a year went by and nothing happened. Again, I didn't worry b/c I thought we had plenty of time. I still did not know about tracking my cycles etc. To back up a bit...toward the end of 1996 I had started to experience minor back pain. As 97 rolled around, the pain started to gradually worsen...I noticed I couldn't get out of bed as quickly as I used to. Sitting was literally a pain in the butt. As the year wore on, the pain traveled down my leg and shot out my toes and I could no longer walk upright. My quality of life was rapidly approaching zero. Ttc'ing was once again put on hold while I sought treatment. After many tests it was discovered that I had slipped a disc (probably as a result of the 2 falls I experienced in 1995) and it was pressing on a nerve in my back. Physical therapy, steroids, bedrest...you name it, I did it. Finally in Dec. of 98 I made the decision to have back surgery. I was in so much pain already that I figured if the surgery wasn't a success...it couldn't be any worse than what I was already experiencing. The surgery was a success and after much rehabilitation we started ttc'ing again. This time I bought the book TCOYF and started tracking my cycles. Form Feb. of 99-Jan 00...nothing happened. From all outward signs there was no reason for us not to be conceiving. I had excellent cm, beautiful bbt charts and we b.d'ed on the correct days. So what was the deal!??! In Feb. of 2000 I got pg and was overjoyed. Then...the bad news...it turned out to be a chemical pg, which to this day, I do not completely understand. AT this point I was tired of everything. WE decided to become aggressive and seek treatment. AFter an hsg that showed nothing was physically wrong we did a post coital test. My RE said I had excellent cm, but that there was absolutely no sperm present...not even dead ones. I was devastated. Dh had a semen anaylsis and exam. He had a low sperm count, poor morphology and a varicocele. We decided to try an iui with 150mg of Clomid and hcg shot. It failed. We tried again and again it failed. WE tried again and again it failed. After this iui, my RE called and said "I have no idea why you are not getting pg...everything was perfect." I busted out crying. I felt like a failure. Finally, I scheduled myself for a lap and dh for varicocele surgery. In March of 2001 I had the lap and it was discovered that I had Stage II endo. It was covering every part of my uterine cavity including both ovaries. In April my dh had his surgery. His urologist said it would be at least 3 months before we would know if the surgery was a success. IN the meantime, I made an appt. w/ Dr. Sher of the Sher Institute after reading about him in our local newspaper. I wanted to pursue ivf at his clinic. Well, knowing that there wasn't a darn thing we could do for at least 3 months, we totally disregarded every ttcism and just had sex for sex. In June of 2001 I found out I was pg and on 2/5/02 I gave birth to a healthy 6 pound 13 ounce baby girl. The joy of my pg and subsequent birth of my daughter was tempered with sadness at losing my FIL to a brain tumor in Nov of 2001. However, he lives on through Georgia. She is my light, she is my soul and there is not a day that goes by that I don't feel incredibly lucky having her in my life. |