Our Journey to Addison--Part 1

Before the summer gets away and I have no spare time left, I wanted to start sharing our infertility story. It's a rather lengthy story that I will condense as much as possible, but it will take a while to share 6 years. It's also a rather personal story--so this is your warning. I'll try to be as "politically correct" as possible. But I feel it's important to share our story because it is truly a story of God's faithfulness to us--a testimony that He is with us even when it may not feel that way at the moment. Looking back on our 6 year infertility journey, I can clearly see God's hand working on our behalf throughout so many situations. I hope that in some way this story will help someone who is facing their own fertility issues or even another challenging situation in life. It amazes me when I share that it took us 6 years to reach this point, so many people say "I know someone who tried for XX years" or "I've been trying to get pregnant for XX long." Infertility is much more common than you might think. We have several friends who are facing this same struggle even now. You probably know someone too.

Wayne and I got married in August 1998 between my junior and senior year in college. He knew when we got married that I wanted to put off having children for a few years because I promised my parents I would finish my graduate degree and doing so with a baby would be very hard. Since he's 8 years older than I am, he was ready to start a family, but willing to wait if that is what I wanted. So I graduated with my masters in August 2001 and then had to complete a 9 month fellowship to complete my licensing and certification process. So, in May 2002, we started trying to get pregnant. After 6 months with no luck, I mentioned it to my OB/GYN at my annual appointment and she gave me a prescription for Clomid. This is about as common as Tic Tacs I think because it seems like many people I have talked with have taken Clomid and gotten pregnant. Well for us, it worked about as well as Tic Tacs. So in May 2003, my OB/GYN referred me to the ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) Fertility group at Brookwood Hospital. Unfortunately it took 3 months to get in for an initial appointment. The day before my appointment, the office called and said the doctor I was supposed to see had a family emergency and had to leave town. However, another doctor was going to see his patients. This was truly a blessing! The doctor we ended up seeing was Kathryn Honea, a reproductive endocronologist, who was one of the first doctors in the Southeast trained in ART. She actually trained in Australia back in the early 1980's when in-vitro fertilization (IVF) was being developed. She also worked with GE to create part of the technology that is currently used for IVF. And she was the director of the IVF program for their office. Not a big deal at the time, but it turned out to be very important. And most importantly, she is a wonderful, Christian woman.

The first appointment took about 3 hours. After meeting with the doctor and developing an initial plan, Wayne and I became human pin cushions. We were given physicals and tested for every possible infectious disease known to man. Needless to say I overcame my fear of needles very quickly (not so for Wayne although he is getting better). Any time I was doing a "medicated" cycle, I would go to the doctor at least once a week for labs. After a month of monitoring my hormone levels weekly, I was put on Clomid again. Boy was I disappointed. We had already been down that road. But this time they tested my hormones each week while on the Clomid. Through this they learned I wasn't ovulating as "strongly" as I needed to, but the Clomid went a long way in correcting this issue. So, the next month we did our first interuterine insemination (IUI) aka "artificial insemination" along with the Clomid. I was so sure that was all it would take for us to get pregnant. Unfortunately, this was just the first of many months of disappointment. I was crushed. Looking back, those first few failed attempts were definitely the hardest. I was so sure "this was the month" and I always got the phone call that my pregnancy test was negative. I was thankful to have supportive friends (especially Susan) who would pick up my pieces and help me put myself back together. After several months of Clomid and IUI, it was time for more heavy duty drugs.

About this time, Dr. Honea recommended Wayne see a urologist to make sure everything was okay with his part of this process. This was late 2004/early 2005. Of course being a guy, he put it off for a while but finally went in March 2005. That doctor's appointment would not only change our fertility plans, but would also change our lives.

Until the next time . . .
Rebecca