Although some ideas fell into place as planned, others took a bit more time than expected. I moved away to school in Utah and obtained not only my undergraduate degree but also my masters degree. Debating between Utah and California upon graduation, I chose to return home where I started my career as a social worker. I initially lived in the "Casida de Mautz" for a short period of time and later moved to an apartment in Placentia with a long time friend, Nikki. Just a few months after moving, I met the most amazing guy in our single's ward. He swept me off my feet and we were married a little over a year later.
I continued working as a social worker while Jon was finishing up his doctorate of Chiropractic Medicine and masters in Acupuncture. Nearing graduation we decided it was safe to take the next step of our lives...starting a family. I had a feeling there was a possibility of infertility problems, but with modern medicine we were sure to be pregnant in no time, right?
My PCP quickly referred us to a specialist. Dr. Blitz was a bit socially challenged but a super nice guy. I figured some of the most brilliant people lack social skills so we had found a winner! I did a whole lot of lab work and then started on the ever so popular medication, Chlomid. Each month I would take the pill and lab work as requested. It took a good 4 months before my body would even ovulate. 1 pill shy of the max dose I had finally done something!! A little inpatient Jon and I consulted with a private doctor who followed us for a month in addition to Kaiser. This doctor did another couple of tests and also gave me a trigger shot so we were able to better determine the magical time to conceive. Well, high hopes but no such luck. We returned to Kaiser where we did 4 rounds of Chlomid, trigger shots, and insemination. We were grateful for the 4th try as usually 3 is the max.
So, with poor luck we moved from one Kaiser Clinic to another. This time we got to do injections, yipee! For those who know me well, I crumble even at the sight of a needle. Doctor's appointments increased from 1-2 times a month to 2-3 times a week. My initial appointment after starting my period would result in an ultrasound first. Given there were no cysts I would get some lab work done. The doctor would direct me the amount of medication to inject and tell me to return in 3-4 days. I would return first get my labs completed and then another ultrasound. Then depending on the growth I would return between 2-3 days later and repeat the cycle. Jon would give me the trigger shot and 2 days later we were back for the insemination.
I just have to add...I told the nurse, "There is no way I will ever give myself the shot. My husband will have to do it!" Don't you fret, day 1-2 Jon was in Flordia for work. I didn't think I had it in me but 1/2 hr later, sweat rolling down my face, and a really sore tummy (you squeeze for 1/2 hr with a needle in your hand) the shot was done!
This process was a little crazy. My emotions were up, down, and all around. I thought I was losing it and I think Jon was in agreement with me. There were promising times and hopeful times but nothing seemed to pan out. I was sure going in on Christmas day would mean a Christmas miracle, right? Not so much. But we trudged on. We had a few missed cycles in there due to going out of town one month and another month having way too many eggs. The doctors only like 3-4 eggs each cycle, but some are willing to proceed with the process if the parents are willing to "reduce the pregnancies." Isn't that a nice way of putting it? Jon and I were given the chance to "reduce" if any of the 6-8 eggs exceeded 2 pregnancies. We chose to skip the cycle and to try once more within the parameters.
Well, cycle 1, 2 and 3 passed with no good news. By the 3rd failed round I had convinced myself that in-vetro and adoption were our only options. Neither was a bad choice, they both just cost a lot more than our insurance would cover and quite frankly we didn't know what we wanted at that point. Luckily, the doctor was kind enough to give us a 4th cycle. I was grateful for the last chance and basically went through the motions just to see, couldn't hurt right? I had a small hope but it wasn't going to break me (for more than one day) if it didn't work again. I followed the same pattern and finally arrived to day 16...the moment of truth. I was tired of wasting all of my money on expensive pregnancy tests so again I pulled out the handy dandy 99 cent test with a "over 99% accurate" rating...the result?
Negative! Just what I had suspected. So, I stopped the progesterone and went about my weekend. A few days passed and surprisingly I never started my period. Monday morning I decided to pull out the last grocery store bought pregnancy test, the one that was sure to tell me the truth without confusion of the results. I had previously recommended a friend use the Dollar Tree pregnancy test as it was cheap and always accurate. After all, it always showed up negative for me! When it was time to tell the truth, my cheap 99 cent test failed me. I am here to tell you, spelled out words are the way to go!!!
I did a few more blood tests and for a moment everything looked hunkie dorie. A week or so later a started to spot and got real nervous. Blood tests were not as good as hoped and I was sure I was losing what we had tried so hard to finally obtain. I met with the doctor at 6 weeks as opposed to 6 1/2 and was told to return 10 days later. Didn't the doctor know I was going to Utah over the weekend and wanted to share the news? Jon and I went to Utah as planned and the day we returned home we were able to see the baby (or something that was supposed to be a baby) and hear the heart beat. What a relief!!!
With difficulty holding in our excitement we shared the good news with the family during Sunday dinner. There was initially a lot of confusion and then some screaming and tears. Our time had FINALLY come...
I reached my goal of education, license, employment, marrying in the temple, buying a house, and now my dream of starting a family is coming true. I always had ideas of when important events should occur, but I have come to learn Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and our timing is not always the same as His. I am not saying that the road has been easy thus far, but it sure has helped me grow, mature, love and appreciate my husband more than I ever thought was possible, and rely on the Lord with all my heart. I am so very excited to FINALLY start this new journey...
Happy Mother's Day to all!!
