Happy Anniversary to Us

So...we just celebrated our 3 year marriage anniversary yesterday. Rather uneventful. We drove all over God's green earth trying to find me a new pair of tennis shoes, had dinner at Longhorn (fancy...I know), and then played some tennis. I lost.

We have been married for 3 years, but together for 13. We met in homeroom in the 9th grade and starting dating the summer before 11th grade. Aww...high school sweethearts. We always have a laugh when we have a conversation that goes something like this...

"Did you ever think in 9th grade that we would be doing ( fill-in-the-blank)." You can pretty much put any random thing in the blank and the answer would probably be no. So, our newest fill in the blank is...

"Did you ever think in 9th grade that 15 years from now we would be undergoing infertility treatments together?" um....no.

I usually follow that up with "Hell, if I would have known I couldn't get pregnant I probably would have given "it" up a little faster." (Sorry mom...I know you love seeing that!)

So...here we are 15 years later, ready to have a baby, but we are having a little trouble. It looks like the problem child is me...Nick checked out okay. (Again..."Did you ever think in 9th grade that 15 years from now we would be driving to the doctor with your sperm sample being kept safely warm inside my jacket pocket?") um...no.

I have been semi-diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). I don't have all of the classic symptoms. My doctor (God bless him) loves to use sayings (so do I) and he says if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...it probably is a duck. So I guess my duck is PCOS.

I began taking Letrozole (which apparently treats PCOS and breast cancer) and Glucophage/Metformin (which helps regulate your insulin production in order to induce ovulation).

Month 1...February...no luck.
Month 2...March...went to the Dr. for a consult. He fussed a little because I hadn't been taking the Metformin quite as prescribed. (oops) He said to take a pregnancy test the following Monday just to make sure. I told him I had already started my cycle, but he said test anyway. We decided that we would take an "infertility treatment time-out" until the end of the school year (I teach high school). So I left there feeling pretty good about the whole "infertility issue." But, I kept secretly saying to myself...I am not buying another damn test. (Famous last words.)

My "cycle" that I had started, mysteriously went away and in its place came the need to sleep in a sports bra. I knew something was up, but I wasn't going to buy another darn pregnancy test just for it to remind me "nope...you were right...not pregnant!" I could probably have sponsored like 25 children off of those TV commercials or saved like 100 animals from the ASPCA commercial with the amount of money I have spent on pregnancy tests. I told Nick, "Okay, if Aunt Flo doesn't visit tomorrow I'll use the one remaining test that is shoved somewhere in a drawer or cabinet." I have to admit I don't usually wake up too early while on Spring Break, but Tuesday morning I popped out of bed early and peed on that damn stick. And whaddya know...2 pink lines. Gasp. I didn't have in my contacts so I called in the reinforcements. I made Nick look at the stick I had just urinated all over. Yep...2 pink lines. We looked at each other in disbelief. I did what the typical women would do. Go to the store and buy more tests. Yep...all positive.

Call the doctor. Have bloodwork taken. Yep...beta hCg 67. Anything over 25 means preggo. Yea us! Come back 2 days later to make sure the level doubles. Next level...68. Not good.
Long story short, I ended up with an ectopic pregnancy. My levels were all over the place, but I never broke the 200 mark. I had to have an injection of methotrexate (also a cancer fighter...stops the production of rapidly dividing cells). My beta hCg test didn't go to zero until the end of May. We would have to wait until I had a negative test and a normal cycle to start treatment again. It was all very sad and frustrating. It still is.

Whew...so back to the doctor in June for another consult. My doctor says the ectopic pregnancy uncovers more clues in the infertilty mystery. In addition to the PCOS, he thinks I may have tubal disease. Disease is not a word you want to hear come out of a doctor's mouth. But, basically it just means my tubes don't work properly. He likened it to a vacuum cleaner hose (I told you he liked sayings). Even though the hose (my tubes) are open, the motor is burned out and doesn't suck (the tubes aren't sweeping the egg from the ovary into the uterus to implant). So...he thinks we might want to go straight to IVF (in-vitro fertilization). He said he feels strongly that we will have a baby (healthy egg, healthy sperm, healthy uterus) but we may need a little help to do it.

It's funny. I have kinda known since the beginning that we were going to have to do IVF. My mom says I am all "doom and gloom", but in actuality I am just a realist and sometimes reality sucks (even when your fallopian tubes don't). I have also had a dream twice (since we began infertility treatment but before we were given the IVF speech) that Nick and I are driving in our car and I turn around to look at our children in the backseat. Two car seats, two babies, two boys.

This should get interesting.