Reminiscing

I had initially started this blog to lament about the difficulties we've encountered with getting pregnant. We've been trying for a while. It's morphed into me talking about things I love, like gardening, trying to get skinny, but still, at the heart, I want to tell our story about starting a family. In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week, I thought I'd tell you our (in)fertility story. How we've gotten to where we are today.

We've started the process with getting set up with a new RE dept in the new town we moved to two months ago. So excited to add more people to the list entitled "People Who Have Seen My Woohoo." Not really. Dr Boy? He's the only person who's ever... uh.... been down to My Lady Town. He was my first boyfriend. My first, everything. All these docs and nurses are part of quite the elite group.

I got the paperwork in the mail today to call on the first day of my next period. To set up an appt for my HSG (hysterosalpinogogram). Fancy way of saying they shoot dye into your woohoo and see where it goes. To check for blockage. And stuff. My MIL is excited because apparently she got pregnant the month after she had one. 31 years ago. So surely simply having the test will work for us. We'll see.

It occurred to me that I should get my whole TTC story together for the docs so I'm not that person who does the whole:

Ummm yeah, so, like, ummmm..... My husband and I..... well we tried to make a baby and it didn't work. Even doctors tried to help out! Oh, how, you say? Well, they like, gave us pills and stuff. Oh! And one told me I couldn't eat sugar what a bee-atch!!! So can you help? I'llbeatotallyawesomemomIswear.

It shouldn't be this hard to remember everything you've done in the last 28 months, but you know what? It's pretty hard putting together everything you've done in the last 28 months. Especially because it spanned three different doctors, three different fertility plans. Three different insurance agencies. Here's my best recollection of everything. Forgive my brain for any liberties with timing.

January 1st, 2009- CD1, after my last Nuvaring (side note- if I were ever to go on BC ever again which I'm not, I'd use Nuvaring. It was magically easy. Magic. Like little elves telling your ovaries to stand down. Not that I needed elves apparently.) I had been on some form of BCP for 9 years.

May/June 2009-ish- CD a billion. No period since January. Which is too bad because I wanted to conceive on our trip to Tahiti in April so I could name our daughter Moorea. (not really.... i promise) Dr Lady Parts gave me Provera to induce menstruation. It worked. She said to wait to months to let my period do its thing, and if it didn't come back, take another round of provera.

July/August 2009-ish- CD 60ish. No period since provera two months prior. Took second round of provera.

Late September 2009- Got my period on my own! I attribute it to elevation. I was at Lake Tahoe.

March 2010- New insurance, new doctors. Got wanded. Dr Awful said the ovaries looked fine. But apparently was too busy to even note that he wanded me on my chart. Piss-poor book keeping, hate him.

April 2010- Round of provera and chlomid (my notes say "2 pills", not sure dose). No ultrasounds during the cycle. BFN. Bloodwork showed weak indication of ovulation.

June 2010- Second round of provera and chlomid. Didn't go back to see Dr Awful because he NEVER RETURNED my FIVE phone calls. And emails. BFN.

September 2010- New insurance, new doctor. The GP who made me do the restricted sugar thing. Diagnosed with PCOS (clearly seen on transvag ultrasound), low thyroid, and a bit of insulin resistance. Started taking 75mg synthroid daily, worked up to 1500mg metformin daily.

mid-November- 2010- Got period on my OWN for the first time in 23 months! Also started acupuncture a couple days later.

Nov '10 through Feb '11- Ovulated according to the pee sticks, three BFN's. Menstruated every 7 weeks or so. GP refused to do any additional testing saying "insurance wouldn't approve" or "there's no way you'll get pregnant this fast".

late-Feb 2011- Moved. Switched insurance again. New doctors again. Vow to start "trying" again in May.

So there it all is. My sordid history. I hope you've enjoyed learning about my ordeals with difficult doctors, differing insurance plans, and broken ovaries. I'm letting my infertility out of the closet.