Three years ago in the month of August, Darryl and I decided that it was time to become parents. Our plan has always been to get pregnant a few years after we got married and to have at least one child, maybe two, by the time we were thirty. God made different plans. Right before actually trying to get pregnant, I found a weird bump in my belly button.
Cool part is....if you actually google purple bump in belly button, my picture pops up, bad part is that after 3 different visits to 3 different doctors we found out through a biopsy that it was endometriosis.
What is endometriosis?
Your uterus is lined with tissue called the endometrium. When this tissue grows outside the uterus, usually in the reproductive organs (ovaries, fallopian tubes), intestines, rectum, or bladder, it creates a condition called endometriosis.
Your endometrial tissue is the part of your uterine lining that bleeds during menstruation. Normally you expel the lining during your monthly period, but if it flows backward into your abdominal cavity and implants there, it can lead to endometriosis. You'll develop cysts, lesions, and scar tissue that will cause the surrounding area to thicken. Some women have little or no discomfort from endometriosis, but others are in great pain before and/or during their menstrual cycle.
Doctors evaluate endometriosis using a point system based on the number and size of growths found during a laparoscopy (a minor surgical procedure used to view your internal organs). There are four classifications: minimal (1-5 points), mild (6-15 points), moderate (16-40 points), and severe (more than 40 points).
So now that you all know what endometriosis is, I can tell you that mine is minimal. However after 2 and a half years of trying to get pregnant, 2 surgeries with a gynecologist who we don't think knew what the heck she was doing, and no luck, we looked into fertility doctors. We began with a doctor in Garden Grove who pretty much looked at me like I was crazy when I told her that I had umbilical endometriosis. We had a bad vibe from her from the very beginning. At the time, we also had some very good friends who went through infertility as well but became pregnant with beautiful twin girls with the help of their doctor, Dr. Werlin from Coastal Fertility in Irvine.
Darryl and I decided to go to their free monthly seminar and discovered Dr. Werlin's partner, Dr. Minoos Hosseinzadeh. After the seminar, I approached Dr. H (as we call her) to explain my situation just to see if she would give me the same crazy look. As I told her my story, she nodded along and explained that she specialized with patients who had endometriosis and even worked with a young women who had it growing in her lungs. Dr. H began to explain how endometriosis works and how it can keep you from getting pregnant. We LOVED her! And we signed up for our first appointment.
We decided after a few appointments that IUI treatments would be the best for Darryl and me. Basically, IUI or Intrauterine Insemination, is when I take some pills (Chlomid) to make me produce 2-4 eggs instead of 1, the doctor does ultrasounds on me around the time of ovulation, Darryl produces a sperm sample, and the doctor shoots up into my uterus with a catheter, and hopefully I will become pregnant. Darryl and I went through 3 rounds of this....plus one more surgery to remove a polyp on my uterus. Still no baby.
Dr. H explained that since I was not pregnant after 3 IUI's that IVF is the next step. She said that endometriosis can cause toxins that attack Darryl's sperm while in the fallopian tubes. This affects some patients and not others but in my case she believed that it was definitely the endo causing the problems. For those of you that don't know, IVF (invitro-fertilization) is basically when I get put on lots of medications to produce 10-15 eggs instead of 1, I have another surgery to have the eggs taken out of me, they take the healthiest looking eggs and inject them with Darryl's sperm, put them in a petri dish to grow for a few days, take 2 of the embryos and then put them back into my uterus, I lay in bed on my back for 5 days only getting up to go to the restroom, and hopefully....I will be pregnant! There's a little more to it but I wanted you to be able to get the gist.
Sooooooo here's where we are now. Darryl and I have our first IVF appointment on Monday. We will be doing a trial transfer where Dr. H does an ultrasound and then pretty much pretends to be transferring the embryos into my uterus so that she can take measurements and get a "map of my uterus". The only shocker to us was that most of the money will be due on Monday morning. Darryl and I are looking into different types of loans and are hoping that we will be confident in our decision by Monday.
I am going to be honest and let you all know that I've been an emotional wreck these past few months. I feel like right when Darryl and I think we are ok and life is great, something comes along and knocks us down again. I know it's God's way of saying, "trust me..." but it's hard when you are a natural worrier (like me) and when you don't know what the outcome will be. Our church has been doing a study on "Hoping for a miracle". Our pastor said that there are 6 steps before witnessing a miracle, 1. Dream 2. Decide 3. Delay 4. Difficulty 5. Dead End (we feel like we have hit this mark a few times) 6. DELIVERANCE!
Prayer Requests: Please pray that 1. our doctor appointment will go really well on Monday and that we will leave confident that we have made the right decision 2. that we will be able to finance this without worry 3. that we will continue to trust God and know that he is in control 4. that we will be able to add a healthy baby or babies to our family within the next year
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