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Sunday, January 16

The begining

I figured I would focus the topic of this post to how we came to be pregnant...with twins.  It's not as romantic or mushy as you might think, so keep reading.

It all began November of 2008.  We were starting to wonder after almost a year of trying, why "nothing" was happening.  We each went to see our respective "reproductive" doctors for a once over and after blood tests, ultrasounds, and biopsies, it was determined that Craig's brain was telling the hormones to make more swimmers but there was only one guy in factory and he couldn't keep up.  Our only option of having our own children was artificial reproductive therapy, deeming us infertile.

We made an appointment with a fertility specialist as soon as we could get in.  Actually it will be 2 years tomorrow.  It was decided that Craig's testicular tissue and my eggs would be harvested on the same day and the doctor would "help" them to get together.  After a couple days of the lab watching our embryos grow, they would transfer them back inside me.  Then follows 11 days of waiting to find out if they were strong enough to take hold in my uterus.

Of course getting to point of having embryos to transfer did not come without great physical and emotional demands.  I was started on shots 30 days before harvest day.  Then 10 days before I would start a second shot, along with every other day ultra sounds monitoring my ovaries so that they didn't burst from the medications I was taking.  On harvest day, Craig and I both went "under the knife", with Craig being laid up for almost 2 weeks. After the embryos were transfered, I would take a couple days of rest to help them make a home.

Well, we did this procedure in March 2009.  But when the news came that it didn't work and we weren't pregnant, we were devastated.  I'm not sure why we were so optimistic it would work the first time; maybe that's what helped us get through it all. After dealing with the grief, we decided to wait to try again till the next year.

January 2010 arrives and we are ready to try again.  Our spirits are up and we are certain again it will work.  First we try 2 frozen embryos from last year's cycle.  It's a no go.  So we re-group and feel that maybe we just need fresh embryos.  I start going through the shots/injections routine and about week into it, our fertility doctor passes away unexpectedly. Should this have been a sign to stop, run, don't turn back? But we continued, confident that the doctor stepping in would have our previous cycle history and have all the answers he needs.

Again it is a negative pregnancy test. Our next thoughts are that this might not be our thing.  I started researching other clinics in the area, going to websites like www.sart.com, which publish success rates of almost every clinic in the US. After talking to other women having problems conceiving, online, I found that the simple act of switching doctors, clinics could be our answer.

I discovered Advanced Fertility Centers of Chicago in Gurnee, IL.  It was going to be more dedication, having to drive much further to keep up with blood tests, ultrasounds, and procedures.  But their success rates  were untouchable by other clinics close to home.  Their process was virtually the same as the other attempts, with the additions of other medications.

The rest as they say is history!  I don't know if it was the new environment, different lab, different doctor, or fate was finally on our side, but I still have the positive pregnancy test to prove our perseverance paid off!  Now how we got 2 is more simple--we transferred 2 embryos, which is standard and the most Midwest clinics will transfer at one time, and they both were strong enough to grow.

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