A History

So here's the scoop so far in this journey called infertility. Jeff and I have been married for almost 5 years. April 30th, 2002 was the wedding date. Our first year and a half was spent in Training College in Toronto. When we arrived in High River, AB on January 13th, 2004 we began discussing having children. By February we had stopped any kind of Birth Control and began trying to conceive (or TTC). The TTC process was very hard in the beginning. Every month that went by without a positive pregnancy test was devastating. I believe those first few months were some of the hardest actually. It was all I thought about, every day and every night. But the months soon turned into years and as of this February it will have been 3 years.

3 Years is a long time to ride an emotional roller coaster. Some months I am fine, others I feel like I am going crazy. Some months I cry, others I scream. There is rarely a month that there is not a huge let down. But I believe for the most part I've been good about it. We have been so super busy here in High River with our jobs that a child wouldn't have been good anyways. We have had Financial disaster, floods, and fires. None of which would have been very easy with a baby to care for. So for the first 2 years we were kind of happy (KIND of) to be childless. We saw it as a blessing from God that we hadn't yet been pregnant when we remember everything that we have had to do.

But now we are feeling that it is definitely past due. So we are now looking into treatment. Something we have both dreaded. We both wanted so badly to have a child the "normal" way. Especially when the people around us were having babies so effortlessly it seemed.

So.... we have been to the doctor and had our health checked. We are both quite healthy. Jeff has had a sperm analysis, which did come back a little low... but it could be a false reading. Being sick, or having stress or anything like that in the 3 months before the test can produce false readings. It takes 3 months for sperm to regenerate into healthy sperm. This has been hard with so many flu's and colds floating around out here.

So it is now onto me. I have been to the fertility specialist here in town. She is a great doctor, but testing has been slow. This month I went and had a "day 3" blood test. This test is taken on day 3 of your cycle and tells you whether or not your estrogen levels are okay. On day 21 (which is on Monday) I have the "day 21" blood test that will tell me whether or not I ovulated. It looks at your progesterone levels. Next month I then meet with my Doctor and discuss the results while I have a HSG dye test. (any men who do not want to have the details can stop reading now!) This test involves having an ultrasound while the doctor injects dye into your uterus. If the dye spills out of your fallopian tubes then it means there are no blockages. If it just stays in the uterus then there is a problem.

So that is next months task... but I am focusing this month on the very easy, not embarrassing, blood test! I hate exams as it is... having dye pumped into you... not my idea of fun. Give me a needle and draw my blood any day. But it will be good to finally get some answers.

So that is the journey so far. I know that this post is super long and I apologise. I just thought that I would get it all out there from the beginning.

Thanks for reading. Please pray that the blood tests this month show normal levels of estrogen and progesterone.

Shannon