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About Me

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Western North Dakota , United States
My husband, Allen, and I are high school sweet hearts. We started dating Sep.99'- I kind of followed Allen home one day, and never did leave, is Allen's story. November 02' we were engaged, and on November 22,2003 - we were married. Having been married for 6 years in 2009, marked the 5th year we had been trying to start our family. With the referral of a Fertility Specialist from a friend, our IUI attempts ended up being a complete success despite my doubts. We welcomed our sweet little girl, Hayleigh into the world on June 30,2010 at 6:28am after 37wks and 1 day of gestation. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 20 in long. We found out that we were Baby #2 on April Fool's Day- a complete surprise! Reid Allen was born 11/13/12 3:24am 9lbs 8.2oz 21", after 38wks 5 days. Our 3rd baby, Eva Jane, was born on April 19, 2015 after suffering a pregnancy loss June of 2014. We are currently anxiously awaiting baby #4 due 2 days before Eva's birthday, so we are having Irish Twins! Our family is so blessed and happy to be growing!

Friday, August 7, 2009

How we got here





Today is the start of my infertility drug treatment. This morning I received the package containing the drugs that will hopefully aide in creating the family that Allen and I have been waiting for, for some time now.

How did we get here?

Well, after Allen and I were married, we both knew that we wanted to start a family fairly soon.. we both wanted to have our family started before we turned 30. So, within a year of being married, we decided that I would go off the pill. What started as an exciting adventure, soon turned into a long journey with lots of speed bumps and road blocks. I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) last month, after finally seeing a fertility specialist, instead of my gynecologist who minored in infertility. PCOS is something that I will have to live with my whole life, it has no cure, and will have an affect over other parts of my life- not just fertility. 1 in 10 women have PCOS.

This whole experience has been frustrating for not just me, but, our family too. We have been lead on by a gynecologist that did not want to do anything but prescribe me clomid, which come to find out, I did not respond to. He offered procedures, but did not want to bill any of my insurance - for which my insurance covered. We parted ways a little over a year and a half ago with that doctor, and decided to take a break from this whole mess.

Then something special happened... Allen's dad reconnected with us, after years of road blocks. I finally got to meet my father in law for the first time, and completely feel in love with both his dad, and stepmom. With their visit, we grew closer, and the subject of grandchildren was brought up. After talking over all of complications of starting a family, I kind of got bitten with the baby bug once again.

Allen and I talked about trying for a family once again, and decided to try a different doctor. This time, I wanted better results, so I asked one of my friends, who is a phlebotomist at St. Mary's hospital, who she would recomend as a great fertility specialist. She quickly gave me the name of my new fertility doctor, Dr. William Gentry. She had high reviews for him, which in turn, gave me hope. Shortly after talking it over with Allen, I made the first appointment.

A little over a month ago, I started the process of trying to get pregnant all over again. I arranged for my best friend Mia, to go with me this time for support and company for the drive. I was amazed at how fast this new doctor worked, and at how nice his staff all was. I had a good feeling.... After that first appointment, I went back for a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) to be done the next day! A HSG is an x-ray of your fallopian tubes, uterus, and pelvis. The test will show if your fallopian tubes are open, damaged, or blocked and provide evidence of any structural problems inside your uterus (e.g. scarring, fibroids, polyps). I went to get the HSG certain that my fallopian tubes were blocked, or something was very seriously wrong.... Mia ended up being right once again. She went along with me again to get the HSG done, and was there waiting, when I came out into the waiting room beaming- everything checked out just fine! I started getting excited then, waiting for the doctors instructions on what we would be doing next.

I then got the phone call to which leads me to today. Dr. Gentry had scheduled me for an (IUI) intrauterine insemination procedure to be done, along with some testing prior to the procedure to be done. They quoted me the prices that my insurance would not cover, and ended up being half the price of the OB that I had seen previously. They told me to call back on day 1 of my cycle, and we would go from there. Day 1 finally came, I called Dr. Gentry, and they scheduled me for an ultrasound, to check my ovaries for cysts and to then prescribe my medications. My ultrasound checked out just fine, no cysts, so I was then prescribed Femera, Follistim injections, and a HCG trigger injection. I will be taking the femera, since it was found from my past experience with the last OB that I did not respond to the clomid he had prescribed.

Today, is the first day I am to start taking my meds.. femera being the first one, every day, followed by the follistim injections starting Sunday, every day for 6 days. I am then scheduled for lab work, and another ultrasound on next Saturday, the 15th, to make sure my follicles in my ovaries are not over stimulated. If my follicles are over stimulated, the IUI will not be performed, and we will have to wait a month to start the process all over again. If the doctors were to go ahead with the IUI if my follicles were over stimulated, I could end up like Jon and Kate plus Eight and be at risk for expecting a large number of muliples. If everything checks out ok next Saturday, then I will be instructed when to take my HCG trigger injection, and then return back on Monday, the 17th for the IUI to be performed. Two weeks later, I will be able to take a home pregnancy test. Even though this has been a lot of work, and hours of researching has been done via the internet- thank God we have the technology today- every minute is worth it if we get pregnant.

So, this all brings me to today... my prescriptions are all in hand today, and I will start preparing and hoping for the week to come! I know the medicine will make me an emotional basket case, and I will be in pain, but, if it all works out, and I can show my kids this someday and be happy we did it all. From now on out, I plan on keeping a day by day log of what or how I feel, along with pictures of our progress. Hopefully at the end of this yellow brick road, we will have reached our "Emerald City"... Parenthood!
My schedule for this month- when to take what drug, and appointment dates


If ANYONE is interested in seeing the same fertility specialist as I have, the weblink is below~


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